Hmmm... I see no one wants to touch this question. I will try to answer it with as educated of a response I can, unfortunately I will have to touch on race as this is what the question is dealing with. First off let me say I am a mostly German American with a bit of Polish and a 'wee' bit of Irish in my blood (imagine that, a person of Polish and German descent in Wisconsin lol). I have friends of almost all races (don't know any Indian folks from that region of the world). I also have my education in Business (admin, marketing, etc) and my job gives me the opportunity to work with folks from every race, creed, etc, (letting you know to give a baseline that I am unbiased, however some answers will be on statistics which may appear biased but they are just statistics from the US Gov't).
From a business standpoint, a smart, successful company should target (emphasis on target) it's product for a specific market. Most game store customers that I see in Wisconsin, Chicago, Minneapolis and at miscellaneous gaming conventions around the USA are populated by European Americans (of course this may vary slightly by demographics). The miniature war gaming community is populated by a majority of European Americans when speaking directly about the US gaming market. This is taken from what I can see from multiple online forums (dakka, CMON, B&C, Warseer, BGG, etc) and personal experience/business dealings.
Everyone wants heroes in miniature form or in movies that are similar to them so they can relate easier... I get that. By marketing to the majority of customers (folks of European descent) companies have a better chance of selling their games. If a company markets to a small minority population, they will probably not become successful (more folks = more money, etc). Many game designers are also of European descent (like the creators of zombicide, I believe they are French?) and made heroes that they could personally relate to; this is not racist, it is just human nature. So if a majority of the population and game designers are of European descent, you will probably see heroes in their games of European descent. Remember though that if the majority of your customers are a certain descent, you would be wise to cater to them, which they have so far.
Then we need to look at US Census statistics to find answers for diversity (you can look this up too if you want to see facts). I will be averaging everything and not using specific numbers to make this easy and cease arguments before they start. Let me start by saying that diversity is far more than skin tone, and though the media stresses skin tone, diversity incudes skin tone, religious beliefs, gender, etc. In regards to skin tone, the majority of the USA is European American ("white"), followed by a large population of Hispanics (well over 26%). Folks of Asian descent are around 10-14% of the population. Folks of African descent make up approximately 10-13% of the US population. The smallest most forgotten about folks are American Indians which are way under 10% (they are also the most victimized group throughout history according to crime statistics).
Within the population statistics we have to look at ***WHO is playing games*** (gender, age, socio-economic status, etc). Games are a luxury/commodity that is not "needed" and a majority of the population does not play them. A majority of board games are 'consumed' or purchased by middle class to upper middle class families. Most persons that purchase board or miniature games are 17-36, single white or asian male, or married in a household with kids. There is actually a bell curve on this, you can find these from surveys taken on sites like BGG and Dakka. The US Census should show also statistics for race in relation to marriage, and socio-economic status, However I will not delve into that.
Then the two most important things to remember are:
#1. The game was created by Guillotine Games which is NOT an American company, they are European.
#2. The minis are aprimarily parody characters which were taken from CMON staff's and GG staff's favorite movies and tv shows. Both companies are great at community feedback and have put many parody characters into the game based on overall community feedback (such as the Walter White parody mini that was requested by the community). The race of minis was probably not even a thought in their heads... no evil intent, they just wanted to make a great game!
As for zombicide, I have found that it is one of the most diverse games out there! For gender diversity, there are 74 males, 39 females, and 1 dog (unknown gender). Race is hard to tell by art (esp. the ethnic background... many could be British, Spanish, Irish, Italian, Puerto Rican, etc, but it is hard to tell). Counting without looking deep into the artist's meanings, there is one Indian character, 5 Hispanic characters, 5 or 6 Asian characters (was hard to tell on one of them), and 7 African characters. As you can see they have included more African characters than Hispanic characters, which does not echo population statistics. I am assuming some of this was done to quell racial comments about the game in the past. The rest are some sort of European decent. This means that approximately 6% of the characters are of African descent, and I know over half of the African American population is not playing this game. If they create more African characters, would they not be doing the opposite to the majority as what you are concerned about?
All this aside, remember that parody characters were taken from the creator's favorite movies and shows as well as the communities' votes. Most movies have European Americans or Europeans as actors. Die Hard would not be the same without Bruce Willis, and including him in zombicide is not racially biased lol. There are few major blockbusters or cult classics with African characters (Denzel Washington would be sweet though). Most influential African Americans are involved in sports, government (yuck, keep that out of our games), or music (Hell no, I am not letting my kids use rap stars as characters... they are not positive role models whatsoever). This may be sad but it is just what it is.
If it makes you feel better I tried hard in Seasons 2 and 3 to get Vin Diesel into the game. I would also love to see a Dwane Johnson (please CMON and GG give us a Vin Diesel!). My advice, get your friends together, get them to buy zombicide, and all pledge and voice your favorite movie/tv show character votes during season 4!
I hope that answered your question in a positive manner. As you can see there is no evil intent from CMON/GG
