Mike Henry to stop voicing Black character on ‘Family Guy’

“Family Guy” voice actor Mike Henry said Friday he is stepping down from the role of Cleveland Brown on the Fox animated series.

Henry wrote on Twitter that he will stop playing the show’s main African American character because “persons of color should play characters of color.” The 54-year-old voice actor, who is a white man, has voiced the character since the series’ debut in 1999.

Henry had also voiced the Latin maid named Consuela on the series.

His decision comes after voice actors Jenny Slate and Kristen Bell – who are white – pulled out of their roles to recast their biracial characters with someone of color. Slate played the mixed-raced Missy on Netflix’s “Big Mouth” and Bell was voiced as Molly on Apple TV Plus’s “Central Park.”

Slate said she initially reasoned that she could play her character, because Molly’s mother is Jewish and white, just like her mom. But now, she understands that her initial thoughts were wrong.

“I acknowledge how my original reasoning was flawed,” Slate said. “That it existed as an example of white privilege and unjust allowances made within a system of societal white supremacy, and that in me playing Missy, I was engaging in an act of erasure of Black people.”

Ex-Van Halen frontman Roth changes name

David Lee Roth has changed his name.

The former Van Halen frontman now wants to be called “David L. Roth” or “El Roth.”

The change was inspired by the current movement in the music industry to disown words having to do with the slavery that existed in the South — which comes in response to the Black Lives Matter protests that rose up after the death of George Floyd.

Roth made the announcement via social media, posting a piece of artwork he’d created, showing a giant frog by a tiny human, with the following text about the name change:

“David ‘Lee’ Roth changes name! Diamond Dave, following Lady Antebellum’s (now ‘Lady A’) example, will be dropping the ‘Lee’ from now on. He wants us all to call him ‘David L. Roth’ or simply ‘El Roth.’”

And he ends the message, for some reason, with: “Bannana (sic) fana-fo-fana.”

“El Roth” did not go into details as to why he’d decided to strike the “Lee” from his name. But some have hypothesized that it might be because of its link to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Many are assuming it’s meant to be a joke.

Lady Antebellum changed its name to Lady A on June 11, with Roth making the announcement that he was dropping the “Lee” last week.