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A character named Apu appeared in episode 8 of season 1, aired in 1990.
The Simpsons American animated series will no longer use white actors to voice characters of a different race, its creators said.
They were repeatedly criticized for the fact that white actor Hank Azariah voiced a minor character named Apu, an American Indian who owns a minimarket.
“Further in [сериале] “The Simpsons” white actors will not voice non-white characters, “the statement said.
Since late May, protests have been held around the world under the slogan Black Lives Matter in connection with the tragic death of African American George Floyd at the hands of police officers.
The show business industry has recently come under fire for the fact that representatives of ethnic minorities are not adequately represented on the screen.
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Meanwhile, Hank Azariah, who voices a number of characters in the series, said back in January 2020 that he would stop voicing Apu.
“We came to this decision together … We all agree with him. We all believe that it will be better,” he said then.
The creators of the animated series, in particular, were criticized for how they portrayed Apu and his pronounced Indian accent.
Azaria then said that “in personal and professional terms, he is very offended that someone because of Apu felt like an outcast.”
Some other white actors, in particular, Mike Henry and Kristen Bell, made similar statements about refusing to voice the roles of characters with a different skin color.
Henry for 20 years voiced the black Cleveland Brown, one of the characters in the animated series “Family Guy”.
“I love this hero, but people with a different skin color should be depicted by people with a different skin color,” the actor wrote on Twitter.
Kristen Bell, who voiced the role of animated mulatto girl Molly from the series Central Park, admitted that this was a sign of a “lack of knowledge and awareness.”
“The choice of a mixed-race character as a white actress discredits the characteristics of interracial marriage and black America,” Bell said.
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