Another white “Simpsons” voice actor stopped lending his flute to a colored character.
According to The Wrap, Harry Shearer, who is white, will no longer give voice to the black character Dr. Hibbert. He will be replaced by Kevin Michael Richardson (“Bless the Harts”) in next Sunday’s episode, “Wad Goals”.
Shearer has given voice to Springfield’s most skilled doctor – in contrast to incompetent Dr. Nick from Hank Azaria – since 1990. He has also voiced Ned Flanders and Principal Skinner, among other characters, and Fox confirmed to The Post that he will continue to give a voice. other roles.
He joins Azaria, who last year announced that he would no longer give voice to the Indian character Apu – partly after a 2017 documentary, “The Problem with Apu”, brought attention to the matter. 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 issue in recent months.
After the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in the summer of 2020, following the assassination of George Floyd, “Family Guy” actor Mike Henry, who is white, announced that he was giving up the black character Cleveland. Arif Zahir has since assumed that role.
At Netflix’s “Big Mouth”, Jenny Slate stopped giving Missy a voice – Ayo Edebiri has since taken over – and the Apple TV + series “Central Park” reworked the biracial character Molly, who was originally voiced by Kristen Bell and is now made by “Umbrella Academy” star Emmy Raver-Lampman.
“The Simpsons” is currently in season 32, airing on Sundays at 8 pm on Fox.