This actually reminds me of a similar discussion I had about race. Nalo Hopkinson give a speech on race in SF&F at the Williamson Lectureship. She first pointed out the absence of minorities in most SF&F, and then criticized the few minority characters as being token gestures, essentially just white characters with dark skin.

During the reception, I asked her, "If white authors can't write minority characters accurately, but failing to include them is even worse… then what SHOULD we do?"

"Nothing," she replied. "You're screwed."

I laughed at that, refreshed by her honesty and willingness to acknowledge the catch-22. Then she gave me a more serious answer. The trick, she explained, is to do your research. Get to know a minority people and culture, perhaps even run your rough drafts past a minority friend for cultural inacuracies and biases you overlooked. As long as you make the effort to get it right and do it respectfully, she claimed, minority readers will appreciate it and cut you some slack when you get some details wrong.

She then gave an an example the mystery writer Tony Hillerman, who accurately portrayed people and life on a Navajo reservation, even though he was an Anglo.

Made sense to me.