From Al Jolson’s blackface from “The Jazz Singer” to Mickey Rooney’s yellowface in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” to the more recent Scarlet Johansson’s whitewashed role in “Ghost in the Shell,” the systemic racism and cultural appropriation seems to be highly ingrained into American media. But while the visual representation and casting of minority actors and actresses have steadily improved over the years, what about in the cases where the audience cannot see the talents behind the media they are consuming?

An example of this can be found in Disney’s animated film, “Brother Bear”. There is one moment in the film where the main character, a young Inuit man named Kenai, transforms into a bear. A grand musical score plays throughout this sequence but what many may not have noticed is that the music is sung by a Bulgarian women’s choir. So while the lyrics themselves are in fact Iñupiat, it is a little odd that the music piece is sung by people who are not from the Inuit culture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAxModPGqqE

What could the reason for this be? Was it because the predominantly white executive and producers loved Bulgarian music and figured no one would be able to tell the difference? After all, it all sounds vaguely “ethinic”, doesn’t it? This type of bias of what some believe a certain culture or people to “sound like” perpetuates into areas such as voice acting.

When people think of voice acting, many may think of animated films, especially from the likes of Disney and Pixar. But just like live action media, animated characters are not safe from a white washed cast. Just to name a few, Apu from “The Simpsons”, along with other characters like Khan Souphanousinphone from “King of the Hill”and Diane Nguyen from “Bojack Horseman'' were all voiced by white actors (Indiewire). While people like Bob-Waksberg, creator of “Bojack Horseman,” have realized their mistakes in casting - such in the case of Vietnamese-American character, Diane Nguyen - the implicit biases within voice casting continue to persist.

“The intention behind the character is I wanted to write AWAY from stereotypes and create an Asian American character who wasn’t defined solely by her race. But I went too far in the other direction. We are all defined SOMEWHAT by our race! Of course we are! It is part of us!”

-- Bob-Waksberg (Michallon)

It is not uncommon for casting directors to choose voice actors whom they have previous experiences with and skip the audition process altogether. Clifford Chapin, a voice actor and ADR director at Funimation Studios, made a statement concerning their voice casting practices when it came to dubbing japanese animated shows. “My Hero Academia [a popular animated show] is one of the very rare instances of us actually holding auditions for a simuldub. Typically we do not. We the directors kinda just gun for it, and are like, ‘these are the people that will do the job and do a good job’ and we have these time constraints and we just go for it” (Cipher). In other words, it is many times an act of convenience to utilize known names - sometimes even celebrities - to speed along a predictable production plan. However, this is a damaging system for many BIPOC voice actors trying to make it into an already competitive industry.

In one particular podcast episode posted by VO School, Tiffany Copland and Mara Junot - both African-American voice actors - discuss how ethnicity plays a role in the industry and the barriers of entry people of color face.

“...casting process can perpetuate cultural stereotypes,

how talent who impersonate other races can exacerbate this problem,

how representation (agents and managers) and casting directors can play a role

in encouraging authentic casting, and how disparities in the wider culture mean that already marginalized groups have a much harder time breaking through”

- VO School

During the podcast, Mara goes on to explain the various instances in which they have been asked by white casting directors to “sound more black” or even “less black”, even though they are already as “black” as they can be.

“What gets us the gig is bringing enough of ourselves to

bring that authenticity. So when somebody is coming back

and saying, “yeah, that wasn’t authentic enough,” it hurts!”

- Mara Junot

Tiffany would later go on to add, “That’s the problem! We are literally being asked to play the role of the very stereotype we have spent generations trying to combat! ... Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and so many others did not fight the good fight for us to be in 2019 described as ‘ghetto’ or ‘thugs’ or ‘street characters’.”

“It goes beyond just our “feelings”... It’s about the literal damage

to the perception of our community … stealing from a limited

financial pot and we are not at equal playing fields.”

- Tiffany Copland

In a society where the wage gap between minorities and their white counterparts is already disproportionate, it does the people of color no service when white directors and producers act as gatekeepers to new job opportunities and keep the industry from obtaining untapped talent.

Jessica Gao, a writer for the “Rick and Morty” show, has stated, “They’re cartoon characters, they’re drawn, you can make them look however you want, so it feels like it’s arbitrary, who the voice is behind it. And I think that none of this would really be an issue at all if there were more actors of color who get work. But because in every aspect of acting, white actors dominate and there are so few roles for actors of color, that’s why it’s an issue. It wouldn’t be an issue if there were plenty of roles for everyone. But there aren’t” ( Schneider). Bob-Waksberg would add to her statement he states that part of the issue comes from the fact that “anybody can play anything”, but is automatically betrayed if the main cast is all made up of white people. The only real way to remedy this issue in an ever growing industry is to have “show runners and others in power to elevate writers of color to more decision-making levels” ( Schneider).

So as frustrating as the history and current voice acting industry practices may be, we are already seeing efforts being made. Cartoon shows such as “Craig of the Creek” on Cartoon Network and “Kipo and the Age of the Wonder Beasts” on Netflix are a few examples of how far the industry has come since the days of Apu from “The Simpsons” in their diverse casting. For these POC characters do not only exist in fiction, but in our reality.