Aint't you heard?

Whitey is The King of All Things!

LOL

But seriously................

Tarzan may not have been all that he was cracked up to be.

"No...Tarzan does NOT know 'where Tarzan go!'"

SS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXr1_sxY24o

I believe the answer to be very simple and it's this. It's just a matter of viewpoints. Without even knowing, I'll bet the creator/inventor of the Tarzan story was a white person. If it were an African, he would have made Tarzan African (black). If a Chinese created the story of Tarzan, he would have been a Chinese Tarzan. If it were an Arab creation, he would have made the character an Arab. So, quite simply, the reason why all these fictional characters in many movies, stories, etc, are white leads, is simply because it's being told and spoken from the viewpoint of the western/white male perspective. If there are more non-white content creators around the world, then I think we'd see a lot more non-white content characters in diverse roles and settings. But let's be honest, for the most part, the majority of the western mainstream media (which still dominates the international media, although other regions are rising quickly and taking a bigger piece of the pie), that's the reason why so many movies and stories that are popularize in mainstream media are still majority white-led.

If you go into a black part of America, areas that are predominantly black, or hispanic, what do you get in those areas? Predominantly black shows, actors, characters, culture etc.....and in the hispanic areas? Predominantly hispanic actors, characters, culture, etc.....

We create characters in our own image. Take a look at JC, that righteous dead dude who walked on water; he has European features with blond hair, blue eyes and white complextion. He came from the Mid East, so he would naturally have dark complextion, dark hair and brown eyes, not as he is commonly portrayed in Europe and the West.

If I remember correctly Tarzan was actually the son of a British lord, after his family was marooned on the coast of Africa his parents died. As he was originally a British citizen of some nobility, it wouldn't be odd that he's white.

In terms of why the author chose him to be a white man? Who knows. Maybe he thought it would be an interesting story that a little lord became King of the Jungle. It's an interesting idea with many a movie based on it. Most authors write what they are comfortable with. Rudyard Kipling, born and lived a good portion of his life in India, wrote about a feral Indian boy who grew up with the animals around him. It's really more a point of which culture the author grew up with or is familiar with.