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I've noticed there's now a concern going on Twitter (no surprise there) that white voice actors are now stepping away from voicing non-white characters. One example is Cleveland Brown's voice actor MIke Henry, who says that "persons of color should play characters of color"

My take on this: I get the sentiment and I get it gives more PoC voice actors more work, but…why? No one seemed offended by Cleveland being voiced by a white guy or Samurai Jack being voiced by a black guy, so why is this exactly a problem? I mean it is their call if they wanna step down, but wouldn't saying stuff like "black characters should only be voiced by black actors" also sound racist because at this point you're only basing it off of the outside rather than the inside.

I doubt you'll find anyone here who support the decision.

It's bullshit like this that makes me genuinely afraid for my country's future. The gutless cowards of corporate America are so affraid of winding up on the wrong side of the mob that they will give into any idiotic demand. It's like a contest to see who can sanitize their company most effectively. What kind of hyper-sensitive culture are we creating?

Legit talented people will be affected if this becomes a thing. Next they're gonna bitch that only gay/lesbian people can voice gay/lesbian characters

Or complain about adults voicing child characters or younger adults voicing old people?

My sentiment is the same as OP. I can see more POC actors deserving more work to let themselves grow and the like in the field of voice acting. Thing is though that this all seems like the answer should be "we shouldn't let a white guy voice a non-white guy" which is funny since voice acting means you'll be voicing a character that can go well beyond ones own skin color and ethnicity, considering Phil LaMarr voicing a white Romanian guy whose nanomachines made him come off like a vampire. Then again, I can see this whole thing coming off as "virtue signalling" since I seen some memes respond to it with "okay but what about police reform" such as this one posted on KYM.

Ultimately, I'm feeling that maybe to let POC voice actors grow and have more notice, rather than just letting them be the only ones to voice a character related to their actual skin color and ethnicity, they should be given more opportunities and the like to show off their voice acting abilities and how it can apply to any character and not just a character from the ethnicity.

Now for the double standard to kick in so its ok for a person of color to voice a white character but not the other way around.

I feel the “POC should only voice POC characters” to come off as sort of racist. Since I think some will feel that it will make blacks seem ghetto and that they will all talk in ebonics plus it will lead to a doubly standard as described above.

I do support more POC getting more work in voice acting though

so what about human characters voicing non human ones, is that bad now? I can understand where folks are coming from when it comes out this sort of it especially if it comes off as a digital version of black face but i also believe that voice acting should have no bearing on what the person is.

Denying people job positions based on race and ethnicity?

Sounds like segregation to me.

The Cleveland Brown situation makes me upset. Mike Henry's signature voice cannot be replaced. You can't replace the talent with someone else just because they match the character's skin-tone.

And besides, look at this