Another white “Simpsons” voice actor has stepped down from lending his pipes to a character of color.
According to The Wrap, Harry Shearer, who is white, will no longer be the black character Dr. Speak Hibbert. He will be replaced by Kevin Michael Richardson (“Bless the Harts”) in next Sunday’s episode “Wad Goals”.
Shearer has voiced Springfield’s most skilled physician since 1990 – as opposed to the incompetent Dr. Nick van Hank Azaria – since 1990. His roles include Ned Flanders and Principal Skinner, and Fox confirmed to The Post that he will continue to play the other roles.
He joins Azaria, who announced last year that he would no longer be voicing the Indian character Apu – in part after a 2017 documentary, “The Problem with Apu,” drew attention to the topic. Azaria still portrays a wide variety of characters on the show, such as Moe and Chief Wiggum.
“The Simpsons” is far from the only animated series that has dealt with this topic in recent months.
Following the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in the summer of 2020 following the murder of George Floyd, “Family Guy” actor Mike Henry, who is white, announced he would stop voicing the black character Cleveland. Arif Zahir has since taken over that role.
In Netflix’s ‘Big Mouth’, Jenny Slate quit voicing Missy – Ayo Edebiri has since taken over the role – and Apple TV + series ‘Central Park’ rearranged the bi-racial character Molly, originally voiced by Kristen Bell and has now been done by “Umbrella Academy” star Emmy Raver-Lampman.
“The Simpsons” is currently in Season 32 and airs Sundays at 8pm on Fox.