THE SIMPSONS Announces That It Will No Longer Have White Actors Voicing Non-White Characters

THE SIMPSONS Announces That It Will No Longer Have White Actors Voicing Non-White Characters

In the wake of a number of big series announcing plans to recast voice roles with race-appropriate actors, the biggest animated series of all-time, The Simpsons, has declared its intent to do the same...

By RohanPatel - Jun 27, 2020 06:06 AM EST
Filed Under: The Simpsons

It looks like The Simpsons has finally decided to do the right thing.

In an official statement, the Disney-owned FOX announced yesterday, “Moving forward, The Simpsons will no longer have white actors voice non-white characters.

Their decision comes in the wake of the recent #BlackLivesMatter protests and the subsequent call to action, which has seen countless organizations, including film and television productions, across the globe attempt to do better when it comes to racial sensitivity and inclusion. 

While Hank Azaria already decided to part with the role of Apu Nahasapeemapetilon in January, he will now also leave the role of Carl, Dr. Nick, Lou, Julio, and Bumblebee Man. behind. Harry Shearer will step down from voicing Dr. Hibbert, while Tress MacNeille will now longer provide the voices of Bernice, Manjula, and Cookie Kwan. 

Azaria, Shearer, and MacNeille will remain series regulars and will continue to voice their other popular characters.

The Simpsons is the latest - and easily most prominent - animated series to announce the decision to recast key non-white voice roles with actors of color, following Mike Henry stepping down as the voice of Cleveland Brown on fellow FOX series Family Guy, Jenny Slate deciding to no longer voice Missy on Netflix's Big Mouth, and Kristen Bell leaving the role of Molly on Apple TV+'s Central Park.

The showrunners behind several prominent NBC series have also decided to remove and/or edit a number of past episodes for depictions of blackface. Three episodes of Scrubs (“My Fifteen Seconds;” “My Jiggly Ball;” “My Chopped Liver.”) were removed from Hulu at the request of series creator Bill Lawrence, four episodes of 30 Rock (“Believe in the Stars;” “Christmas Attack Zone;” “Live Show - East Coast”; “Live From Studio H”) were removed from streaming services and syndication at the request of series creator Tina Fey, and one episode of Community ("Advanced Dungeons & Dragons") was removed from Netflix.

The Office also removed a blackface scene from the season nine episode "Dwight Christmas" at the request of series creator Greg Daniels, but left the rest of the episode intact.

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SuperManes
SuperManes - 6/27/2020, 6:06 AM
This shit has gotten beyond ridiculous
dracula
dracula - 6/27/2020, 10:27 AM
@SuperManes - ridiculous, its voice acting. The benefit is that you can cast anyone who sounds right. Better not be getting poc to play white roles then. If they are going to be stupid, at least dont be hypocrites
mastakilla39
mastakilla39 - 6/27/2020, 6:47 PM
@SuperManes - Yeah next thing you know, they won't let actors go into space because they aren't real astronauts...
Darkknight2149
Darkknight2149 - 6/27/2020, 10:18 PM
@SuperManes -
Pointless platitudes and symbolism like this are always the first thing you see when a societal issue arises (in this case, police brutality and racial profiling). Because without the symbolic BS, what's the alternative? Actual change? Ha!

They're hoping that the protesters and movements will see them taking down statues and changing syrup logos, and then think "Yes, we did it!", so that everything can go back to the way it was before.
Scarilian
Scarilian - 6/28/2020, 11:26 AM
@SuperManes -
Agreed. This shit needs to stop.

None of this is fixing the problem, all it is doing is putting actors out of work and hiring people now specifically based on race.
marvel72
marvel72 - 6/28/2020, 11:26 AM
@Darkknight2149 - That shit about syrup logo, if the KKK back in the day asked for it to be changed it would have been classed as racist.
Darkknight2149
Darkknight2149 - 6/28/2020, 12:10 PM
@marvel72 -
The irony is that I didn't even realise it was part of a "mammy" stereotype until they decided to change it. I'm still not sure why Uncle Ben's rice is considered racist, other than the rice company pre-emptively changing it to avoid being called that.

Really, whether you're black, white, asian, latina, etc, I highly doubt most people pay attention to syrup logos anyway. Everyone's immediate thought when they see syrup is to check the freezer for pancakes. If this leads to any societal improvement, it will be incredibly minuscule.
Fckdcfanboys
Fckdcfanboys - 6/27/2020, 6:07 AM
So no white people voicing anyone then?
Kman
Kman - 6/27/2020, 6:08 AM
Out of sheer curiosity... Are there black voice actors who voice a lot of white characters?
MrCamw1
MrCamw1 - 6/27/2020, 6:10 AM
@Kman - phil lamar comes to mind.
GhostDog
GhostDog - 6/27/2020, 6:24 AM
@Kman - Phil Lamar the GOAT does
Origame
Origame - 6/27/2020, 6:25 AM
@Kman - just say an animated character and youd be most likely to guess someone voiced by phil lamar. He even did samurai jack.
Chaos200
Chaos200 - 6/27/2020, 6:14 AM
I'm black

This is [frick]ing dumb! How do you justify this and at the same time argue that voice actors like Phil Lamar and Cree Summers continue playing white characters or characters of other races? Or are you saying anyone can voice any character except white people which I shouldn't even have to explain how wrong that is.

Imagine James Earl Jones wasn't allowed to voice Darth Vader because Anikan Skywalker is a white man?

And how does this make sense, it's okay to change the race of established characters in live action as "it doesn't matter" but somehow it matters what race voices a character? What the hell kind've world am I living in.

WHITE PEOPLE, MORE SPECIFICALLY WHITE LIBERALS..STOP BEING [frick]ING DUMB, PLEASE!
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