"Kill your darlings" only applies if you're holding onto something that actually hurts your story. But jerks sometimes use "kill your darlings" as a weapon to try to break you. Don't wantonly kill what you love the most about your story. That's why you're writing it. Make it work.
This particularly applies if you're writing from your perspective as a member of an underrepresented community. Your "darlings" might be the fact that your characters are of your background. Don't let jerks make you change that for their comfort.