Op-Ed: Why The Terms “BlackFace”,”Whitewashing”,&”Racial Miscasting” Do Not Apply In Animation

Try this at home. Take a piece of paper. Draw a circle. Then give that circle two eyes,a nose, and a mouth. You’ve just illustrated a character. Now, above the character, draw a “speech bubble” (ever wonder how we named our company?), then write in the bubble, “Hello World!”. You’ve just written a script. Now, read what you just wrote out loud. Congratulations, you are a voice actor. Now, one thing’s for certain. No matter what color your piece of paper is, or whatever colored pencil you used, or whatever unique characteristics you gave that character you just illustrated, note that THAT character is yours, and it’s up to you to decide what to do with it. Nobody else.

Now, before I get to the point of this matter, here are a few things you should know about me. I very much believe in the #blacklivesmatter movement, I think it’s important, but like any movement I do see some plot holes. Like, find it a bit unnerving that more attention has been brought to find blackface episodes featured in live-action TV shows and remove them versus any attention brought to the fact that we still have mandatory sentences at the federal level for non-violent drug offenders. Or how about the fact that the same NBA players screaming about human rights here in America were completely silent when Rockets-owner Daryl Morey spoke out in support of the Hong Kong protests in China. I’m equally fascinated by people who look for reparations for descendants of slaves in America, all the while using their Chinese-manufactured phones to spout hashtags.

Late last month, several prominent figures in the voice acting community had decided to step-down from their jobs, in this case, white actors portraying black characters. Following Hank Azaria’s recent stepping down as “Apu”, producers of The Simpsons have announced that PoC characters will no longer be portrayed by white actors. Likewise, Mike Henry stepped down as “Cleveland” on Family Guy, Kristen Bell as “Molly” on Central Park, and Jenny Slate as “Missy” on Big Mouth. The most common reason given, and I’m paraphrasing here, “only black actors should play black characters”. In the world of animation, nothing could be further from the truth.

First thing’s first, let’s address the social issue why it’s perfectly fine for anyone to voice anyone in animation…the fact that this IS animation. Art is a reflection of society, not a depiction. As a result, animation, by definition, is not meant to follow the rules or adhere to paradigms as it pertains to any facet of production. People can voice animals, women can voice men, adults can voice children, and yes, in the world of animation, race/creed/ethnicity have no bearing on who can voice who. In fact, the usual reason why casting choices are made has no bearing on race at all and is usually based upon one thing and one thing only…budget. In the example of Hank Azaria’s Emmy-winning role of “Apu”, Hank got a job on The Simpsons because he could do a hundred voices. Cartoons thrive on actors like this because it helps keep the costs of television production down and increases the chances of renewals and series orders. Actors like Cree Summer, Phil LaMarr, and Kevin Michael Richardson get TONS of work, mainly because they can voice hundreds of characters regardless of race or ethnicity. Phil can voice characters that are Jamaican (Futurama) or Japanese (Samurai Jack), Kevin has voiced at LEAST a dozen white Santas, and Cree is a living legend in this business who has voiced everything and anything in between. It doesn’t matter, who voices what, it’s animation. A voice actor’s purpose is to come in as affordable as possible so that production can get under budget. The term “blackface” is irrelevant here.

Most social outrage doesn’t make sense. For example, if you are someone who refers to a group of people by their continent, one could see that as racism. Nobody is born in “Africa” or in “Asia”, they are born in Nigeria, China, and Japan. Recall all of the social outrage with Tilda Swinton being cast in the role of “The Ancient One” in the live-action Doctor Strange film. Most thought, “The Ancient One” was simply Asian and, as such, it should be an Asian actor that plays that role. In actuality, the choice was a financial one. In the comics, “The Ancient One” was actually Tibetan. China does not recognize Tibet, nor the sovereignty of it’s people. If Marvel Studios had featured a Tibetan-born actor to play that role, China, and the $110 million haul that Doctor Strange had made, would not have happened. The other irony, nobody mentions the fact that the titular straight male character was portrayed by a gay man. For my money, Benedict Cumberbatch was perfectly cast, but if Halle Berry wants to portray a trans-character in a movie, that’s a problem? Trans actors shouldn’t just have to play trans roles, just as gay actors shouldn’t have to portray only gay characters, the challenge of acting is putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and just ‘playing’.

The term “blackface” doesn’t apply. Just like the term “whiteface” doesn’t apply when Keegan-Michael Key voices both white and black characters in SuperMansion or when Jordan Peele voices a Middle Eastern character in Big Mouth by the name of “Freddie Mercury”, it’s not racism, it’s acting. Legends of Chamberlain Heights, remember that show? Show creator Josiah Johnson (black) voiced black and white characters, as did his co-creator Quinn Hawking (white). It doesn’t matter, IT’S ACTING!

I know racism when I see it. It’s ugly. I have met producers for The Simpsons and for Family Guy and for just about every one of the animated series we’ve mentioned thus far. I’ve never not once though I have met a racist person. The aforementioned shows are comedy, which brings me to my next major point…intent.

To quote one of the great comedic minds of all-time, Patrice O’Neal, whether or not a joke is good or bad, the point of a joke is to make you laugh, not harm. Some of the great comedians of all-time have had to suffer for what, at it’s time, was deemed “not appropriate”. Lenny Bruce would be arrested after walking off a comedy stage, Howard Stern was fined millions of dollars by the government, and Dave Chappelle’s brand of comedy constantly gets referred to somewhere in the spectrum as either (insert social tag)-phobic and Grammy winning genius. At the end of the day, whatever you think is funny, is purely subjective. Whatever you think is racist, is also subjective. There are no books, there are no manuals, and you certainly don’t get the right to “co-produce” someone else’s work. Everyone and everything in comedy is fair game. Equal rights for all means everybody gets an equal chance to be offended. It’s not the end of the world. Chances are if someone hits you with a joke that actually hurts your feelings, that joke may actually be true. But, because someone makes a demonstration or a gag that is “distasteful”, it certainly doesn’t give just cause for someone to be “canceled”. And if you are going to claim for someone to be canceled, at least be consistent. For example, why is it that Louis C.K. and Aziz Ansari are both alleged to have committed “sexual misconduct“, but Aziz gets to do a new special for Netflix and Louis gets crucified for trying out new material? For all this talk about racism, it’s certainly not paying to be white in the #MeToo movement.

Of all of the shows mentioned, Family Guy and The Simpsons are definitely guilty of mocking racial stereotypes…but not with “Apu” and “Cleveland”. By far and away there’s no stereotype mocked more in the history of entertainment than the fat white guy. So when I hear Hari Kondabolu complaining about getting “Apu” one-liners, I say, “Dude, join the club”. When I was growing up, I got Homer Simpsons, the Pillsbury Dough Boy, I was Peter Griffin for Halloween, you name it, and I got it tenfold. Did I run off and do a not well-produced documentary about it? No! I got into my fair share of scruffs when I was a kid for a variety of reasons, not once did I blame entertainment. There’s a common trope that I often have to deal with when it comes to my favorite forms of entertainment. When the Columbine Massacre happened when I was in junior high, everyone blamed the fact that the perpetrators listened to Marilyn Manson music. When 9/11 happened while I was in a New Jersey High School, radio’s first response was removing bands like Rage Against the Machine, Slayer, and System of a Down from radio. Entertainment has never been the root cause of violence or bullying. Typically, I point more towards parental responsibilities and the lack thereof. As for me, despite being a child of a very ugly, nasty, and abusive divorce, I have to hand it to my mother for bringing me up right so that if/when kids did tease me, I was confident enough in myself to withstand the stresses of adolescence and become the man I am today. Am I perfect? No. But, I don’t have to be, and that’s OK. Irregardless, these are anecdotal cases. In a complete contrast to Hari’s ridiculous claims of racism against South Asians, Lilly Singh guest-starred on a recent episode of The Simpsons, saying it was a dream come true to be on this show. 

If producers are worried about behind-the-scenes affirmative action, which studies have shown countless times never works and really just leads to companies keeping “quotas”, then here’s a solution. Don’t worry about it. Because the REAL answer in getting more voices in animation is less about hiring for “inclusivity” in existing intellectual property, rather it’s more about continuing the healthy growth of adult animation with more series orders, more movies, and just more, more, more. THAT’S how you get representation from every background. And guess what, it’s coming! Last year, women dominated our “Best Of” lists. Half-way through 2020, it’s a bit closer, but we’ve got a bunch of new intellectual property on the way that is going to make things very competitive and it’s coming from every which way . It’s an exciting time to get into the animation industry, and there really is no excuse. Look, not everybody gets into show biz. Sometimes it’s the hardest thing in the world to tell someone who thinks they are talented that their product/skill-set just isn’t up to par. It’snot personal, it’s just business.

So, what will the future hold? Well, the people who made their decisions as for their future careers, that’s up to them. Is it cowardice? Yes. Animated comedy is about boundless possibilities, and those that don’t understand that, are likely to be middle-of-the-road in terms of their future career prospects. For those like Hank Azaria and Mike Henry, who still work on their respective shows, I think they should be terminated of their employment. You’re either in, or you’re not in, we have no time for virtue signalers. Personally, the better move isn’t to replace the white voice actors’ existing characters with black voice actors, because that never works. The more fun option would be to create a legion of new characters for both The Simpsons and Family Guy that would do a more than worthy job of carrying on. The publications that crucify comedy producers, regardless of output, should batten down the hatches because their best days are behind them anyway as they’ve been covering animation wrong for decades (to this day they all refer to adult animation as a genre which doesn’t make sense).

 

This industry will move past this storm. If we didn’t believe so, Bubbleblabber wouldn’t be in business. Instead, we’re doing awesome and we’re continuing to do awesome. Producers and voices shouldn’t have to worry about what the rest of the press thinks, because we are the press of this industry. And we’re proud of it.

We got this.