THE SIMPSONS to Only Cast Actors of Color as Non-White Characters Moving Forward

America is in the midst of making some changes to some major injustices that have been plaguing our country for too long. Some changes are big, some are small, but all are steps in the right direction. One change is being made by the creators of the longest running animated TV show of all time, The Simpsons, who has said in a statement, “Moving forward, The Simpsons will no longer have white actors voice non-white characters.”

The policy comes on the heels of an announcement by Family Guy actor Mike Henry, who announced that he will no longer voice the black character Cleveland Brown on Fox’s long-running animated series, as well as Jenny Slate of Netflix’s animated series Big Mouth, and Kristen Bell of Central Park on Apple TV+, who said that they will stop voicing the mixed-race characters in those shows. Back in January, Hank Azaria announced that he will no longer voice Indian character Apu, or black character Carlton Carlson on The Simpsons.

We reported last week that the shows 30 Rock and Scrubs have taken the steps to remove the episodes of their shows in which actors used blackface makeup. And HBO Max has now added a disclaimer to the beginning of the film Gone With the Wind to clarify that the owning of slaves and treatment of people of color in the film were representative of the times in the story the film portrays, but is not representative of the views of HBO.

These are small steps taken toward a positive change in our country, and will hopefully lead to more equality, more opportunity, and more understanding overall.

via: Deadline