Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 reads:
"It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer—(1) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin"
However, there is an exception made for BFOQs (Bona Fide Occupational Qualifications). Specifically the law states
"It shall not be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to hire and employ employees . . . on the basis of his religion, sex, or national origin in those certain instances where religion, sex, or national origin is a bona fide occupational qualification reasonably necessary to the normal operation of that particular business or enterprise."
Race and color are included in the first section, making it illegal to refuse to hire someone on those basis; However, the BFOQ exception does not apply to race or color. Thus it would appear there is never a situation where one can choose an individual based off of their race.
So consider a situation where I'm casting for some play or movie and I've already picked the a black man and women for the main married couple. I'm now trying to pick a child to play the biological son of these characters. This would seem a clear case of a BFOQ if race were included in the exception, The audience is clearly going to notice if the child and parents were a different race and that is going to lead to either confusion or expectation that the child was adopted that could mess with the narrative, so the race of the child seems relevant.
However, as I said, BFOQ exception doesn't appear to apply to race or color. Does that mean that it would be illegal in the USA to refuse to hire a white child in this situation?
Assuming that it would be how does the TV and Movie industry manage to keep race of family members consistent without constantly having to pay out settlements to people who were excluded due to their race?