The Simpsons star Hank Azaria has issued an apology for voicing the Indian Kwik-E-Mart owner Apu for 30 years on the long-running show, reported Variety.
Talking about the character that he started voicing in 1990 on Dax Shepherd’s Armchair Expert podcast, Azaria said, “I apologize for my part in creating that and participating in that.”
Azaria voicing the Indian Apu generated considerable controversy in recent years for stereotyping Indians and the fact that Azaria himself is white. The backlash culminated in him stepping down from the role in January 2020, 30 years later.
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“Part of me feels I need to go round to every single Indian person in this country and apologize,” added Azaria. “I really didn’t know any better. I didn’t think about it. I was unaware of how much relative advantage I had received in this country as a white kid from Queens.”
The voice actor maintained that the character was created with good intentions but that he understood and realized the negative implications of it.
Azaria also shared that since giving up the role of Apu, he has “read and spoke to people who knew a lot about racism, spoke to lots of Indian people, and went to seminars,” and has also realized that Apu was the only major representation of Indians in US pop culture for 20 years.
“If that were the only representation of my people in American pop culture, I don’t think I would’ve been crazy about that,” he said.
The negative stereotypes perpetuated by the character of Apu on Simpsons were first fully outlined by Indian comic Hari Kondabolu in the 2017 documentary The Problem With Apu. The film featured different Indian people working in Hollywood who relayed their personal stories of how people used Apu’s characteristics to bully them.
Apu’s signature dialogue, “Thank You, come again,” was brought up by many as being a punchline for racists.
The controversy was then addressed by Simpsons creators in the episode No Good Read Goes Unpunished in which Lisa says, “Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do?”
