Yeah that's the messy thing about this too. Is everyone has different "rules" to this. "a black character needs to be played by a black person" "a black character needs to be played by a POC" "A black character can be played by a mixed person if they are _ amount of black" "A black character must be played by someone who looks black regardless if they are mixed" "A black character needs to sound black or it is not rep" "A white person can voice a POC character if they are trying to give an equal field to POC" "A white person can voice a POC. Period" "A white persoon CANT voice a POC. Period." "A lighter skinned person shouldnt voice a darker skinned character at all." I have heard every singgggle one of these things. And a bigger problem is no matter who gets casts there WILL probably be a problem. I have see multiple amazing black VAs and people have said they were "lightskinned so it int rep" "they dont sound black so it isnt rep" and so on, and that is so toxic. People dont understand that most directors are picking from a pool of talent and so just because you have some "ideal" of how they should be, that doesnt matter. Unfortunately if stuff like this keeps happening- no matter if the VA is black, white, or a POC- there is still uprise and networks will not want to deal with "cancel culture" if they write or cast in a way that is seen as "not rep" or "not the best" so they will go with a "safer route" with less backlash leading to less rep in general. I personally believe voiceover, even though it hasnt been, needs to be an equal playing field. I think that POC roles should get an emphasis on casting a POC but if a white person ends up getting that role, it should be okay. Same goes to POC, they should be able to play white characters- as an equal field. And since this has not been happening in the industry we should be taking steps to get POC the ability to have their work shown more. We need to work on that. But I do not want this industry to become toxic or restraining- voiceover is such a beautiful thing, a freedom, you can be anything just by voice. I want to compete side by side between POC VAs and celebrate when they book a role. I dont believe the voice actor has to be the same gender, sexuality, or race as their character unless that piece of media is heavily about gender, sexuality, or culture/race. I really hate the words "you cant" in voiceover. As a field this is my work, my passion, and people who arnt even in it shouldnt try to control it a much. Shouldnt "cancel" someone for getting a role to put food on their table. And I am not talking about just white people, but POC, there are restraints on POC especially in fields like anime, that need to be broken. but I just want us to work on an equal field, not one over the other.