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Notes -
I don't think that link shows that we gravitate towards people who are similar to us in terms of race, particularly in the realm of watching fictional characters on screen. You can't make the leap from the broad tendency of interpersonal attraction towards similar people (from the meta-study that was the 1st link in that Psychology Today post) to there, not without going through many steps that each require empirical support.
what you're saying only makes sense if people do not believe that another person's race makes them like them. And people gravitating to those of the same race of them is a pretty strong corollary from people gravitating to those who are like them. To suggest that race would not make someone gravitate to someone else is to say that race is an insignificant part of people's identities, which I'm not sure how you can maintain in 2022.
Also, this was found based on a very quick google. I'm not sure why you don't think someone has looked into this before, especially given how prominent DEI is. I mean anti-racism is an entire academic field. I can, in the abstract, appreciate the approach of your convictions only going as far as the research, but you can only maintain a counterpoint on those grounds if you've done the research and found that the link has not been found to exist. Not if you just haven't looked into it, especially given that this is a fairly obvious point that is a very strong corollary from a pretty obvious point that has been proven.
Whether you're using "identity" to mean self-conception or social-conception, this is actually highly variable. There are some people whose race is very relevant either internally or socially, and others where it's next to completely irrelevant.
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I'll admit that I'm not an academic in the field, but I have done the research within the role of activist and found that anti-racism isn't an entire academic field - it's an entire pseudo-academic field, and I also found the prominence of DEI has basically no root in someone looking into this and finding that it's actually the case (aside: it was largely because I did this research that I'm no longer in that role of activist). It's only because I'm not an academic in the field that I leave open the possibility that I missed something despite my having done the research to the best of my abilities already, which is why I ask if the research exists.
And the point you keep seeming to ignore is the context of fictional characters on screen. The leap from "interpersonal attraction to people similar to oneself" to "can't identify with [fictional depictions of] people who have other skin colors than themselves" is one that needs actual empirical support, not just "fairly obvious point that is a very strong corollary." That's simply not how science works, especially in the realm of something "soft" like sociology/psychology.
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