Is the Representation of Apu racist by default?

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Is the Representation of Apu racist by default?

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There have been claims that the Representation of Apu in the famous cartoon series "The Simpsons" is Racist.
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There have cries for his character to be removed for being offensive to minorities.
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Although I consider myself an anti-racist Liberal, I am not sure how I feel about this,
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On the one hand, racial stereotypes are not a good thing,
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On the other hand, you don't want a lack of racial representation (ie whitewashing).
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We are only very lately getting a decent amount of racial diversity in our Super Heros!
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Is merely the use of Any accent in Any characterisation an act of racism?
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Most people of any background do have an accent of some sort.
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I am not sure how you can adequately represent any character without one.
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Are we then saying that professional actors can only play characters close enough to who they are in real life?
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Should not Actors be allowed to access any role within their talent spectrum
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We don't want a situation where Gay characters can only be played by Gay actors.
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(Or the Straight character can only be played by straight Actors)
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Should not the same ethics be applied to racially different roles?
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(Especially in "Voice" work?)
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It can at times be hard to find the balance in humour between celebrating differences and outright racism.
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When is a Lampooning Caricature Archetype a Racist Stereotype? Or are they indivisible?
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I do not say that I have any of these answers,
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I do wonder and worry if people are asking the correct questions in the first place though.
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One of those questions could be,
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Are we giving the Far-Right propaganda ammo by making ourselves, (Fellow liberals) look a bit "silly"?? !!

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