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Why Is YouTuber ProZD Receiving Backlash For His Opinions On Race-Based Voice Acting? The Controversy Explained
YouTube and Vine star ProZD has been making skits and content about video games and comic books for well over a decade, gathering a following for his particularly impressive voice-acting skills. But the creator's recent comments regarding his personal job hunts in the voice-acting field have garnered criticism from some of his followers for what they believe is shortsighted hypocrisy.
After ProZD, whose real name is SungWon Cho, made a series of tweets lamenting about how his agent was unable to bag him auditions for non-Asian characters, internet users dug up the creator's history of advocating for race-based casting. Here's a recap of the ProZD Race-Based Casting Controversy.
What Did ProZD Tweet About Race And Voice Acting?
In late October 2023, ProZD made a series of posts on X / Twitter in which he recounted a recent experience he had with his agent. Cho described how he was only given the opportunity to audition for an Asian voice acting role, despite his wish to try out for other non-Asian roles in the project as well.
Later that day, ProZD commented on another controversy in the voice-acting community regarding the messy voice-casting situation involving the Bleach character Yuroichi.
Afro-Latina voice actor Anairis Quiñones had announced that she would be playing Yoruichi early in October 2023, only to backpedal and say that the studio had decided to retain the role's original voice actor, Wendee Lee, instead.
ProZD commented on Wendee Lee's peculiar and defensive reaction to people expressing support for Quiñones, but many took ProZD's stance to mean that the voice actor continued to support his belief in race-based voice acting.
Internet users found his wish to audition for "white" characters to be at odds with his belief in race-cased casting, resulting in him drawing the ire of numerous anime and video game fans alike.
How Did People React To ProZD's Statements About Race-Based Voice Acting?
Initial online reactions criticized ProZd's stance by pointing to instances where voice actors of different races had managed to perform well in their roles.
Some examples given were Black VA Phil Lamarr as Samurai Jack and white VA Greg Baldwin who took over the role of Uncle Iroh in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Other internet users created graphics that illustrated what they believed was hypocrisy on behalf of ProZD, going so far as to call his stance on racially appropriate casting "Race-Based Discrimination."
Criticism against ProZD continued to mount across platforms, with YouTubers Rev says desu and Hypnotic posting videos calling ProZD "Woke" and saying "You Reap What You Sow."
As of October 26th, 2023, Cho has not directly responded to the criticism levied against him.
For the full history of the ProZD Race-Based Casting Controversy, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.
