You may not find a full consensus on how to appropriately represent POC. Everyone has their own idea on how they want their culture and ethnicity represented. For instance, me being black, I kinda get annoyed with stereotypes, like the criminal or drug dealer of the movie always seems to be an African American (at least from ones I’ve seen). Or a black man being a deadbeat father. Are their African Americans out there who are like that? Of course. But there was a time in Hollywood when black actors could only find those types of roles or slavery films that pushed that stereotype (that’s a rant for another day).
Basically, just don’t have your POC be walking stereotypes that plague that culture today would be my advice. Sorry for the mini rant
Though I agree with @ShanniiWrites You’ll have to balance the use of stereotypes thats good for your story. Not sure if anyone mentioned this but it depends on the environment your characters are in as well. A low class black kid who grew up in Compton where it was high crime and heavily policed may have a different opinion on the world and racism than a privileged white school kid who grew up in Beverly Hills.
Interestingly, I would say don’t represent communities; represent people. Why do I think that? This amazing video about black characters in cartoons.
It is VERY difficult to accurately portray the struggles and feelings of a community you’re not part of (but not impossible). It is really easy to just portray them as people, though. Include loads of diverse characters. Do some research, but I wouldn’t delve too much into their experiences as a member of that community. POC all have other problems. Our whole lives don’t revolve around our skin colours, so show us having problems you can relate to better.
