I never thought of "visitor as translator for alien culture" as a POC-need-a-white-hero before... I guess that means C.J.Cherryh's Foreigner books are the same, although the guy IS literally the translator and not the Powers That Be. However they need his interpreting to survive the challenges put, so I guess it's a Aliens-need-human-hero after all.

Well I enjoy them anyway. She also addresses the problem of neutral interpretation and manipulation quite a lot in theh books.