Jenny Slate trended on social media this week after she announced she would no longer voice the character of Missy Foreman-Greenwald, a mixed-race girl on Netflix’s animated comedy “Big Mouth.”
Slate, 38, voiced Missy since the show first aired on Netflix in 2017. But the current state of racial tension in America caused Slate to rethink her role.
She announced she was quitting the show in an open letter on Instagram post on Wednesday:
“At the start of the show, I reasoned with myself that it was permissible for me to play ‘Missy’ because her mom is Jewish and White — as am I. But ‘Missy’ is also Black, and Black characters on an animated show should be played by Black people.”
In the open letter, Slate, who is Caucasian, said after some self-reflecting she realized her decision to accept the role of a mixed-race girl was “flawed” and “an example of white privilege.”
She said continuing to voice the character was “engaging in an act of erasure of Black people.”
Slate acknowledged that, while she “can’t change the past,” it was her duty to engage in “meaningful anti-racist action.”
Slate concluded her open letter by vowing to be more “thoughtful about the messages in my work” and apologized to those she had hurt. am so very sorry. Black voices must be heard. Black Lives Matter,” she added.
