How are you not represented on TV?
This isn't the point of the question but to answer the question.
Your assumption that just being white and straight means that any white straight character on TV could represent me, you, Rick or anyone else on this forum that isn't white and straight is stupid.
I'm slightly over weight with anxiety problems, weird hair and so much more than being white and straight.
You act like I couldn't have a role model if the person who I was looking up to was black. Well sorry my hero growing up (or one of them) was Uhura from Star Trek, I have nothing in common with her as a character, the actress or any of the other people I looked up to (heck I looked up to Owen Hart who is totally the wrong sex anyway for me!)
Why was she a hero of mine?
Because she was smart, she wasn't a sex object, she was on the Enterprise because she's the best at what she did, she kept the men at check and was helpful. Uhura as a character was flawed but strong.
I didn't look at her and think "I can't understand that character though because I'm white" and to act like black people or gay people or transgendered people or whatever should look at that character and think something on the lines ("I only look up to her because of the color of her skin", "I can't because she likes men and I don't" or whatever) is silly.
A role model should be a role model because they do something worth believing in them. I don't think ANYONE should look at a fictional character to be their role model unless you mean it in the general "they are my role model because I want to be brave and do whats right". A role model for a confused teenager should be a adult (or teenager) that has been through what they've been through, understand them and can help them de-confuse themselves.
A generic "hero" could be anyone, it doesn't have to be someone who is completely like you. I idolize Terry Pratchett but he has much more to him then being a white, straight man. His imagination and strong values should be something anyone and everyone should look up to. The same with the Doctor, or Captain Kirk or whoever.
The point I originally (and I agree badly) was trying to make was that fictional characters are just that. Some random person is writing those characters, giving them strengths and weaknesses and to look to one as a role model isn't healthy.
Take wrestling, many of their personalities are "made up" to suit their part of the whole show. A wrestler can be a face or a heel and switch sides easily, all the John Cena fans who look up to him could one day be really let down after he does something really evil. When I was a kid I loved certain wrestlers, they were heroes not role models, and when they went against their character it was a OMG moment for me. The wrestlers and the guys in charge can rewrite that character over time, it isn't the real them (well some of it is....)
A role model for me should be someone in the community mainly because at the end of the day their morals and whatever makes them them isn't going to change on a whim. A fictional character can. Even then the lessons and the making of that hero comes from someone else not the actual character as it is someone else telling the story.
I'm all for having heroes or looking up to celebs who do great things.
I don't agree with a few things.
1/Trying to make fictional characters Role Models (I don't mind heroes etc, different thing.)
2/Holding celebs up to stupidly high standards because you want them to be perfect
3/Feeling that anyone whether it is celebs or fictional characters should be whatever you want so you can have a "hero" and ignoring the fact that being a hero doesn't matter about the colour of your skin etc
I think you have a grim view on the world that you can only ever look up to someone if they are the mirror image of you, after all no one is exactly like anyone and being white and straight doesn't mean a thing in general, you can feel under represented in TV for a number of reasons no matter who you are.