Mrebo said:

I don't see Lando as "kill the black guy" as much as "kill a lead character", to the point originally made - to establish some level of sacrifice for the good guys, for the sake of creating an element of danger for the characters, and risk for the audience that someone we have grown to care about, regardless of skin pigmentation, might die on screen.

Nonetheless, the only prominent black person in the OT would have been quickly killed, as has happened in so many other sci fi works. And ultimately it simply isn't any kind of flaw to not kill the main characters. I think conveying the sense of risk is always done before a character does or does not die.

I think it was in an interview with author Matthew Stover that he said, (and I paraphrase) if you can't make dramatic tension without killing the main characters, you're a crummy writer.