In a world where castles can fly and a necromancer can raise fossilized dragons from the dead, why can't our hero be a black man, or our love interest a plucky Taiwanese lady? That's the general, oversimplified, gist of the movement behind multicultural fantasy.
It's a budding sub-genre; a young sapling finding its roots, and as such still has a long way to go. Back in the days, before we had human migration and advanced transportation as we do nowadays, the world was still relatively homogenous. And so it made sense that our fantasy books were dominated by white men writing about and for fellow white men. With the invention of mass printing beds in the Western World and their occupation of foreign lands, their influence – and stories – were quick to spread. But, as Galadriel says in the opening to our beloved-but-sadly-undiverse-LotR-movie, the world is changed. More women have entered the field. We've seen a rise in female not only writers but also main casts and characters.
Likewise, there are also more "mainstream" books that are culturally diverse today than there were a decade ago – though still nowhere near enough to represent the diverse population of the country. It was people like Octavia E Butler who paved the way. A black woman writing SF/F back in the midst of racial segregation, her works went on to become among the classics of Science Fiction and Fantasy despite the challenges she faced. But why is it important? you ask. Maybe it's not directly important to you, but for many people out there, growing up not only around but also reading stories about people who share neither their physical looks nor cultural identity can make you feel invisible. Like your story doesn't matter. People don't want to know about you; you're not interesting enough. Fantasy books aren't for people like you, anyway. You're just an outsider, looking in.
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All bleakness aside, let's face it. Having a bit of diversity in our books can make it more interesting – when done right. There's literally a whole world of inspiration out there we can learn from. Just look at A Song of Ice and Fire. While a predominant part of its setting is, arguably, Eurocentric (for lack of a better term), it also incorporates several different cultures – from the peninsula of Dorne to the nomadic Dothraki in the plains of Essos. And this cultural diversity only adds more colour and spark to GRR Martin's world. Multicultural fantasy is ultimately about diverse worlds and characters.
