every form of media ever, and every portrayal of history from any era ever in geological time, gets crammed with white faces in order to sate them and take their cash
everyone else who watches said media after-the-fact doesn't realize they just watched propaganda
happened to westerns, happened to anime, happened to jazz/rocknroll/etc et al
It's because Western fiction in the 50s was so obscenely popular and so obscenely whitewashed that the perception of what a cowboy was got so fucked.
happened to westerns, happened to anime, happened to jazz/rocknroll/etc et al