Hank Azaria, the white actor who voiced The Simpsons‘ long-running Indian character, Apu, has been invited to meet with the Hindu American Foundation over his guilt for having voiced the cartoon character.
Hindu American Foundation representative Shereen Bhalla told TMZ that Azaria is invited to meet with the organization and that the staff would love to sit down with him to discuss Indian people’s lived experiences, and his guilt over being the voice actor for Apu.
Bhalla believes that the actor meeting with the organization will help the actor with the learning he seems to want at this point.
In a recent interview on the Armchair Expert podcast with hosts Dax Shepard and Monica Padman, Azaria said that he believes Apu is “practically a slur at this point,” and he feels the need “to go to every single Indian person in this country and personally apologize” for his “participation in racism.”
According to TMZ, the Hindu American Foundation expressed that it does not believe Azaria — who is worried about “cancel culture” — should be punished for his so-called participation in “racism.”
The group feels that and the actor is genuinely sorry, and willing to educate himself on the issue — and the Hindu American Foundation would love to help.
Therefore, the organization is offering Azaria a third-party facilitated dialogue with Indians across the country, adding that it is up to him whether or not he would like to be on or off the record.
The Hindu American Foundation also has a podcast called “That’s So Hindu” and desires to have the actor on as a guest.
Azaria had stepped down from voicing Apu last year, more than two years after accusations of racism marred the long-running animated series.
But while the actor frets about his past participation on The Simpsons, the show’s creator Matt Groening said he doesn’t really care about the “chasm of criticism” that his praise for the Indian character might bring, and that despite the woke whiplash, producers still have “ambitious” plans for more stories featuring Apu.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, on Parler @alana, and on Instagram.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.