From today's
Philadelphia Inquirer:
We need 'Boondocks' and its bite every day
By Annette John-Hall
Inquirer Columnist
Being the old-head radical I am, The Boondocks is my version of a clenched fist. Aaron McGruder's biting comic strip provides a truth-to-power commentary that makes white people flinch, black folks think (and flinch), and all of us exceedingly more enlightened.
But word is that the funny, in-your-face observations offered up by Huey, Riley and Granddad may be biting the dust. McGruder is said to be burned out by the grind of daily deadlines and wants to focus more on his year-old animated series of the same name on the Cartoon Network.
It's all good, as they say. McGruder, 32, is of a generation that's about getting its cash on. In McGruder's world, six years doing one thing amounts to a lifetime, especially if he was stuck in a creative void.
But what about us? What about the void the departure of The Boondocks will leave in more than 300 newspapers nationwide, including this one? In the narrow sphere of African American social commentary? Heck, in a progressive person's mind?
Aside from Chappelle's Show (now defunct), the occasional Chris Rock HBO special, and the news and analysis provided by black radio, there aren't a whole lot of public spaces for social criticism from an African American perspective.
McGruder is our Jon Stewart, only more effective because he has three different characters through which to speak: Huey, the 10-year-old black nationalist; little brother Riley, the gangsta wannabe, and Granddad, the holdover from the civil rights movement.
His work has won him NAACP Image Awards and has prompted suggestions that he run for political office, or at the very least, hit the lecture circuit. He has resisted most of it, preferring to do his thing outside the fray. That's why The Boondocks works, because McGruder is not beholden to anything except the syndicate that makes his strip available (and, apparently, he's not even answering to that anymore).
In a 2004 interview with the New Yorker, he said, "I'm not trying to be that guy, the political voice of young black America, because then you have to sort of be a responsible grown-up... . And it's like - you know, Flip Wilson said... 'I reserve the right to be a black person.' And I absolutely do, at all times."
McGruder's post-9/11 work was brilliant. The Boondocks fearlessly attacked the country's "bandwagon war mentality" and its blind, unquestioning faith in "almost elected leaders," and it poked fun at national xenophobia run amok with the "Turban Surveillance Act," which would "allow the FBI to plant listening devices in the headgear of suspected terrorists." He also took on Condoleezza Rice and her relationship with President Bush ("snoogumcakes") after she inadvertently called him her husband.
But it was when McGruder turned the mirror inward that he was at his best. When it comes to self-criticism, African Americans (like many ethnic and racial groups) have a "mama" mind-set, meaning we can talk about our mamas but no one else can. McGruder used his blackness as license to blast the excesses and lawlessness that stained the very hip-hop culture in which he came of age.
The rump-shaking video vixens of BET, its owner Robert Johnson, R. Kelly, 50 Cent, Kobe Bryant, Whitney and Bobby all provided McGruder with fodder for the "Embarrassing Black People Awards."
I couldn't wait to see how The Boondocks responded after Bill Cosby called out black youth as "dirty laundry" and caused a huge controversy a couple of years ago. I took offense at the tone of Cos' comments, and I was sure McGruder would come down on the side of Huey and Riley, droopy-pants hooligans that they are.
What resulted was a week's worth of some of the most provocative social satire in a comic strip. There was Granddad, wearing sunglasses a la Cosby, referring to Huey and Riley as "dirty drawz" and "dirty bed sheets." Soon Huey was telling Granddad that yeah, Cosby may be old, cantankerous, and a little out of touch, but in the end, he believes "black people drove Bill Cosby crazy."
In the introduction to Public Enemy #2, his latest compilation ofBoondocksstrips, McGruder wrote: "Let this book be a reminder that you're not the only one still pissed off about what is happening in the world, and that as long as Huey is on the page, you will never be."
Now, I guess, we're resigned to having to watch The Boondocks on television, but it's not the same. The 30-minute show is just not as sharply critical as the strip. There's something about getting a daily dose of conscience with your coffee that is energizing.
Hey, when's Dave Chappelle coming to town?
Check out Annette John-Hall's blog at
go.philly.com/freeflow
