The Boondocks

The Boondocks cartoon show flirts between the lines of comedy and degradation of the black community. The Boondocks has drawn a large audience, in only its second season, making it one of the most popular cartoons on adult swim. Targeting a diverse audience, it has drawn both negative and positive attention, including the Reverend Al Sharpton. Aaron McGruder, the creator, started the comic strip series initially trying to create a humor he felt was lacking in modern society. His “black political satire” created just that. His series has been taken by the black audience as just mere humor. They fail to realize that they are not supposed to accept this behavior of ignorance. The satire is designed to change this behavior of ignorance. The Boondocks makes fun of the black culture and what I see around me are black people laughing at it in emptiness, unaware of the satire that mimics and mocks their culture. The initial aim of this popular comic series did not receive the response intended by those groups McGruder means to aim for.

With topics such as the R. Kelly incident or the MLK episode, these controversial issues tend to raise eyebrows. Different groups have taken this show to offense, calling it “racist” and over exaggerated. Satirically, McGruder purposely embellishes on the antics black people as a whole engage in, so he can show them how much of a fool they make out of themselves. In the MLK episode Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wakes up from a comma stunned and some what upset at the fact that all he had worked for had been for naught. Dr. King comes to realize that all he preached and promoted during the civil rights era has been disregarded in this new age. The streets that are named after him seemed to be the unsafe areas in neighborhoods and bettering the black culture seemed to be last on everyone’s list. At the end of the episode there is a new rendition of the “I have a Dream” speech, were Dr. King complains that he received all those “ass whopping” for nothing. Instead of being “freed from the thirst of oppression” he discovers that all his findings turned out to be “a bunch of triffinling…good for nothing niggas”. He tries to express to everyone that you should not want to be a ‘nigga’ because ‘nigga’ is a “living contradiction, filled with unfulfilled ambitions, niggas love to hear themselves talk but hate to complain, niggas love to be another mans judge in jury, niggas love to procrastinate until its time to worry, niggas love to be late, niggas hate to hurry…”. It ends with Dr. King walking out and fleeing to Canada, and all the ‘niggas’ surprisingly revolt and a wave of change sweeps the black race. Then on November 8, 2020 Oprah Winfrey is elected president.

This episode was the most educationally filled. The segregation amongst blacks is prevelant; it is as though they cannot see what is being hidden. The problems we had four decades ago might not be as visible as the past but they are still here. The issue of calling other blacks ‘niggas’ or the betterment of black culture was something McGruder focused on in this episode, calling it ignorance. He tries to show the black culture a reflection on what they have become. They have become fools who choose not to improve. Not the entire black race has become this but the majority that the media and others out side of the culture focus on is the groups that show this ‘ignorance’. The show is genius and I can only hope it stays that way as the popularity for the show grows, a reality check is needed for this generation of uninspired youth. What better way to get through to them than through truth in cartoons.

Mondays 10:30pm Cartoon Network Adult Swim