Another white voice actor has stepped down from voicing a character of color.
via NYP:
According to The Wrap, Harry Shearer, who is white, will no longer voice the black character Dr. Hibbert. He’ll be replaced by Kevin Michael Richardson (“Bless the Harts”) in next Sunday’s episode, “Wad Goals.”
Shearer has voiced Springfield’s most skilled doctor — in contrast to Hank Azaria’s incompetent Dr. Nick — since 1990. He also voices Ned Flanders and Principal Skinner, among other characters, and Fox confirmed to The Post that he will continue voicing the other roles.
He joins Azaria, who last year announced that he’d no longer voice the Indian character Apu — in part after a 2017 documentary, “The Problem with Apu,” brought attention to the subject. Azaria still voices a wide range of characters on the show, such as Moe and Chief Wiggum.
“The Simpsons” is far from the only animated series to address this topic in recent months.
After the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement over the summer of 2020 following the killing of George Floyd, “Family Guy” actor Mike Henry, who is white, announced that he was stepping down from voicing the black character Cleveland. Arif Zahir has since taken over that role.
On Netflix’s “Big Mouth,” Jenny Slate stepped down from voicing Missy — Ayo Edebiri has since taken over the role — and Apple TV+ series “Central Park” re-cast bi-racial character Molly, who was originally voiced by Kristen Bell and is now done by “Umbrella Academy” star Emmy Raver-Lampman.
‘The Simpsons’ is currently in Season 32, airing Sundays at 8 p.m. on Fox.
