The Boondocks (2)
I began July by taking A Right To Be Hostile: The Boondocks Treasury (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2003) out of the library. (How I envy that title!) This collection repeats some of the strips published in The Boondocks: Because I Know You Don’t Read the Newspapers, but I did not mind having my memory refreshed, and most of the material is different. I laughed my ass off again. I also found, after much contemplation, how much my attitude overlaps with McGruder’s, in spite of different situation and focus. I don’t keep up with pop culture, so some stuff I would not pay attention to, and while maybe in a half dozen strips I have doubts about McGruder’s focus, he’s on target nearly all the time. Also, the character closest to McGruder—Huey, I presume—comes in for some ribbing, suggesting that McGruder is aware of the corners this society will box you into if you’re not careful. But strangely, as absurd as Huey’s behavior in his new suburban home is—Klanwatch, harrassing teachers, etc.—it reminds me of my own instinctive hostility to the ‘burbs, which may also be unrealistic, albeit from a different vantage point. I don’t deal with people with questionable attitudes, but I encounter such a discrepancy in experience and frame of reference from my own, I’ve been copping an attitude myself of late.
This compilation has a foreword by filmmaker Michael Moore. Moore notes the taboo on confronting race and racial disparity in the USA, on attempts to censor the comic strip, on its expansion and popularity even in areas where black people are scarce, and on the significance of social class. I disagree only with Moore’s overestimation of gangsta wannabe Riley. McGruder’s own introduction provides a summary evaluation of the strip. Were it not for the terrorist attacks of 9-11-01, the strip would probably have burned out long ago. McGruder’s priorities changed and the strip went into political overdrive. This turn brought McGruder both increased hostility and success. He expresses self-criticism about the strip’s quality before and after this political turn.
Part 1 of the book is called “The Classics.” The first strip in this collection that captured my attention includes this bit of dialogue (40):
HUEY: Grunting, barking rappers on MTV, a vitual “Aunt Jemima” on BET, buffoons on UPN . . . I think I now officially hate everything . . . I’m sick of women singing about broke men, sick of men singing about loose women, sick of award shows, sick of name-brand clothes . . . From this moment forth I stand as the antithesis of black popular culture!! I am the Anti-Cool!! I hereby declare myself . . . a nerd!!
Whereupon Riley mocks this supposedly startling revelation.
McGruder takes aim at his usual targets, including political figures and B.E.T, but also some new targets, such as the NRA and Napster. A new black kid moves into the neighborhood, Michael Caesar from Brooklyn. Huey starts a newspaper, the Free Huey World Report. Tom gets angry at Huey for endorsing Nader for president.
Part 2, “The Story Continues . . . “, begins with Huey’s frustrations with the Free Huey World Report. Tom DuBois, a Gore supporter, attacks his wife Sarah for supporting Nader. She throwsTom out of the house and he moves in temporarily with the Freemans. Tom calls Miss Cleo for advice. She tells him his wife is carrying Nader’s baby (91).
Huey insists on celebrating Kwanzaa, and he’s taking it seriously (97). Then when Tom and Michael effectively debunk this pseudo-holiday, Huey reluctantly accept the criticism (92).
Huey then shows concern about following through on the previous New Year’s resolution: “To organize a socialist revolution and dismantle the global systems of capitalism and white supremacy.” I wonder whether McGruder took his audience into account; to wit, how many would be able to relate to this line and then recognize the contradiction with the ideology behind Kwanzaa. Let’s hope that McGruder was not as confused at this stage of his life as his character Huey.
Huey hilariously serves as medioator and provocateur to get Tom and Sarah back together and Tom out of his house, and finally succeeds.
McGruder takes on Napster, Bush, Puffy, Will Smith, Mario Van Peebles, bad black movies, B.E.T., Eddie Griffin, Vivica A. Fox. Huey suspects the total worthlessness of black media entertainment is a conspiracy to degrade black people (161).
The events of 9-11 change everything. Huey calls up the Terrorism Hot Line to give the government tips on supporters of terrorism, naming Reagan, the CIA, and Bush. McGruder sends up Ashcroft, terror alerts, targeting of Arabs and Muslims. Then the strip is ostensibly replaced by a more patriotic offering, “The Adventures of Flagee and Ribbon” (an American flag and ribbon in dialogue). McGruder’s barbs continue.
A new headline appears in the news: a Newsweek poll shows that blacks are only the third most hated group in America, thanks to 9-11, relinquishing the number one spot for the first time since World War II. Michael reads the results aloud, noting, inter alia:
MICHAEL: The poll showed that Black Americans went from first to third most-hated among white Americans this month—the biggest jump in history. However . . . Black American remained the number one most-hated group among Black Americans.” (173)
The government expands its anti-terrorism investigation to include Miss Cleo, Huey works on his Hate Book, and Christmas is coming up again. More jabs at Kwanzaa (183). McGruder strikes at several of his familiar targets, including rappers. Huey continues calling up the Terrorism Hot Line (and gets hung up on several times), snitching on Henry Kissinger among others.
Huey suggests that the NAACP Image Awards include two new categories: “Most Embarrassing Black Entertainer” and “Most Ignorant Black Entertainer.” Julian Bond rejects his proposal. When Condoleeza Rice wins an NAACP award, Huey concludes that his suggestion was accepted after all. (202-203) Huey speculates that NAACP President Kweisi Mfume was replaced by an evil clone. (204) Huey decides to issue his own “Most Embarrassing Black People Awards.”
Huey is preoccupied with a number of serious issues. Riley is upset because his C-plus grade is ruining his thug image. After vowing to boycott the Star Wars movie “Attack of the Clones”, Huey gives in and sees it, and finds it politically relevant. Huey targets Bush’s pre-emptive war policy, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, Trent Lott, and the impending invasion of Iraq. Also black audiences who applaud white politicians who visit their churches no matter what is said, and Black History Month. The “Most Embarrassing Black People of the Year Award” is won by the Beltway Snipers. And to round out this volume, the Homeland Security duct tape scenario.
An earlier Boondocks anthology is McGruder’s Fresh for ’01—You Suckas!: A Boondocks Collection (Kansas City, MO: Andrews McMeel Pub., 2001). I’m guessing that A Right To Be Hostile: The Boondocks Treasury reprints some of this material. I will check it out and report back. But I really need to read the latest volume, All the Rage: The Boondocks Past and Present (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2007), which reportedly contains interviews and other material ancillary to the strips.
The next step is to review The Boondocks television program, beginning with the incredible "Return of the King," in which Martin Luther King, Jr. returns after a 40-year absence to a society that perplexes him and screams out the "n-" word when he can’t take no’ mo’.
