This is 100% understandable. Comics have to cater to their greater audience, and that normally means white males in an age range where, they're going to remember and prefer the characters they grew up with. It has more to do with nostalgia than racial preferences.
As far as I'm concerned they're more than justified in their decision to bring back the classic characters. And killing off these characters to pass the torch to minorities is a huge mistake. The problem with diversity happened over time, because the comic book creators didn't think to add heroes with different ethnicities. People write what they know, and it's easier to write someone like yourself.
The solution is to look at each opportunity to make a Brand New Character and take race into consideration before it's said and done. Every new hero or villain shouldn't be a minority, but that characteristic should be considered as a possible and valid path. We don't need black Heimdall, or James Bond or Deadshot (no offense Will Smith) we need the problem to be dealt with like it was created: Slowly, over time.
Just my humble opinion.
It definitely has more to do with nostalgia than any kind of sinister racism, but the problem is that these legacy characters are
always going to feel more important both in and out of universe than brand new characters.
There's also the question of
whose nostalgia? The majority audience for comic books now didn't grow up with Barry Allen and Hal Jordan, we grew up with Wally West and Kyle Rayner. Barry and Hal were brought back because
Geoff Johns is nostalgic for them, not because readers are.
I agree that the answer is new creations, because original characters tend to return. But I think Marvel's accomplishing this much better than DC, and in the case of Kamala Khan for example it was with a very clever legacy switcheroo (promoting Ms. Marvel to Captain, vacating the Ms. position).
