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I'm so tired. So many people looking at the Jenny Slate recasting going "race shouldn't matter in the VO industry! This is the one acting profession where anyone can play anyone!" You're right, it shouldn't. But it does. And everyone IN the industry knows it.
We deal with it on every casting call we don't see, and every black or POC character handed to us without audition. I've been luck enough to not only be cast as POC characters in my career, but that doesn't mean there isn't a problem.
10 specific examples of POC actors playing Non-POC roles don't negate the hundreds of POC VAs out there who only get relegated the token roles. Who always play the gangster, or the criminal, or the rapper.
I shouldn't only be reading for POC casting calls, but often I will go for stretches of several months where the only auditions I get are for POC characters. Meanwhile, my NON-POC colleagues read for anime I've never heard of, and never even read for.
This is not a made up problem, and pulling up examples from 20 years ago doesn't excuse it either. If you're not in the industry, please don't assume you know how it works.
