[ SECRET POST #4143 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4143 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.



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02.
[Hank Azaria, The Simpsons]


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03.
[Paul Hollywood, Great British Bake Off]


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04.
[All for One]


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05.
[Plato, philosophy(slash?)]


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06.
[Fear the Walking Dead]


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07.
[The Nanny]












Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 32 secrets from Secret Submission Post #593.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

So like... what about all of the other white people who voice POC?

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know, but all of a sudden I feel like digging up that asshole, Mel Blanc!

[(Anonymous)]

Are they doing it in a way that resembles a racist stock character

[rivia]

frankly, yeah, it'd be nice if there was a change in that direction.

[(Anonymous)]

oh my god it's voice acting. race doesn't matter when you're just doing a voice. Then you have to drag in dubbing, characters of unspecified ethnicity, replacing roles, and so on.

[(Anonymous)]

Not to mention character from fantasy worlds where the races don't match RL races on-one-on.

[(Anonymous)]

I agree. It's not something I feel as strongly about as I do for regular acting roles but like you said, it'd be nice. Weird (and very telling) that you got some pushback for saying something so innocuous.

[(Anonymous)]

"Other"? Isn't he Arabic?

[(Anonymous)]

Sephardic Jew

So, one of those complicated ones

[(Anonymous)]

Leave Funimation alone! I need my anime dubs. :(

[(Anonymous)]

What's wrong with people voicing characters not of their own race..? Are voices inherently [race] sounding? Isn't that thinking kind of racist?

There are non-white voice actors who voice white characters too.

[(Anonymous)]

There's nothing inherently wrong about it, but any kind of impression/mimicry of one group of people by a member of another group of people can veer into mockery (caricature), especially if it plays up or exaggerates stereotypes, and especially if the entertainment in question is done by a hegemonic/powerful group and intended to be consumed by other members of that hegemonic group. Caricature/mockery can happen with actors (for example, this is what blackface was, and why it's still such a touchy thing to do today -- because it was used by white people to mock a marginalized group and play up their stereotypical characteristics to entertain other white people). That goes for voice-acting too, as well as comedians' accent impressions. Also, interestingly, caricature is a really big part of cartooning/comics, and is why they can be so funny and also so offensive. When you punch up (by caricaturing a politician, for example), you probably won't encounter much controversy, but when you punch down (by caricaturing black people with monkey-like features, or Jews with big noses, etc. etc.) you're likely to run into pushback. Mockery/caricature, in addition to being hurtful and mean-spirited, also serves to reinforce power structures by putting minorities "in their place" and portraying them as unpleasant, gross, criminal, untrustworthy, culturally other/unintelligible/barbaric, or any number of negative attributes that justify discrimination, violence, or disqualification from positions of power.

So yeah, I don't think framing the issue as "can people not portray people of other races??" is the right way to think about it. Instead, think about it like, "Is this mockery? Is this mockery that reinforces existing power structures and marginalization?" Apu may not be that, but certainly veers into that territory.