One problem with Hollywood inserting diversity into film without regard for historical fact is this: I just watched a fine show, set in LA in 1932. A character, formerly white in all prior incarnations, was now African-American. As was to be sadly expected, esp given his job,, he experienced discrimination, a glass ceiling, and occasionally outright bigotry. I thought the character was actually handled pretty well; he isn't my complaint.
The issue is that while he was handled honestly enough, AT THE SAME TIME the producers inserted African-American extras into every church gathering, every public event, and every street scene. Apparently, American life was fully and serenely racially integrated by 1932. Even the bigots that harassed the beforementioned character seemed nonplussed at sharing a table with a black man, or with white woman spending time alone with an African American man.
So what does that make the character? Is he a victim of racial discrimination - after all, it seems largely confined to only him - or is it just one of those people that inspires dislike in everyone he meets? How do the producers reconcile the conflicting treatment? Aren't they watering down and confusing their message, when 80% of the time a causal, ignorant viewer is seeing racial harmony IN 1932!!?
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