For weeks, Aaron McGruder’s been promoting clips of an upcoming “Hunger Strike” episode of his animated series, The Boondocks, and it looks like more of the same acerbic derision of Black culture that viewers have come to expect. Whether he’s poking fun at “lazy,” “loafing” New Orleans residents displaced by Katrina, the suits and the talent over at BET (including current programming chief Reginald Hudlin–a former collaborator with McGruder on The Boondocks show, recently enough that his name’s still listed as Executive Producer. You may also remember him as one half of the Hudlin Bros. who brought you House Party and Bebe’s Kids.), overweight Black women (a highly favored target), Bill Cosby, Oprah, Black cinema, civic leaders, the Civil Rights movement, or the effectiveness of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, McGruder seems to hold equal contempt for all his subject matter.
His frequent (or, as some detractors argue, “excessive”) use of “The N Word” and relentless disses of… everything are starting to remind us of another angry entertainment industry brother’s polarizing stand-up routine circa 1996.
Who could forget Chris Rock’s infamous “I love black people, but niggas have got to go!” schtick during HBO’s Bring the Pain? Sure, it was twelve years ago, but the debates (and the sentiment) remain. Is it hilarious? Is it “funny ’cause it’s true?” Is it an example of “airing ‘our’ business in front of company?” Or is it, to quote one of my illustrious co-bloggers, “wild divisive, yo!”?
Shows like The Boondocks keep this conversation fresh. If storylines where Katrina victims are depicted as loafing, manipulative scam artists are any indication, McGruder is definitely drawing a line in the sand between himself… and the rest of y’all.
But to what end? Say there actually were a such thing as a talented tenth. Shouldn’t the point of that be to help alleviate the tensions, struggles, and challenges of the other ninety percent? Wouldn’t the ability to observe behavioral disparities from the vantage point of a middle-class home obligate you to do more than point, laugh, and widen the gap between yourself and “niggas?”
Apparently not. The Boondocks has thrived as the result of its willingness to publicly flog what McGruder perceives as the failings the African American community… with the suits at Adult Swim and their predominately White viewership as a captive, impressionable audience. Some would argue that the characters and storylines are only presented as scathing indictments for the sake of social satire. Others say McGruder may be trying to evoke widespread cultural change by “putting on blast” all the things he thinks are wrong with our attitudes and behavior. Whether or not the latter is the case, The Boondocks has spent much of its second season shying away from the nuance that allowed it to tread that questionable line of intent by flat-out making fun for making fun’s sake. It’s much less clear whether even McGruder knows why he’s lashing out.
The tentative flecks of compassion viewers saw last season–in Riley when he spray-painted his parents on Granddad’s house instead of Scarface in “Riley Wuz Here”; in Huey when he consoled Granddad in “Guess Ho’s Coming to Dinner”; and in McGruder himself when he wrote the last few moments of “The Itis” to demonstrate how far a White man will go to steal land, so we wouldn’t walk away thinking, “Man, that brother sure hates Soul Food… and soul food!”–are noticeably absent this year. In fact, Huey–the lone voice of resistance, affirmative, and hope (even if tempered with cynicism and huffy resignation) and the previous “moral center” of the comic strip and season one of the show–has had significantly less screen time this year so far.
Early on, readers of The Boondocks strip believed that Huey was something of an alter ego/talking head/sounding board for his creator. But as the character takes more of a backseat to Riley, Granddad, and Uncle Ruckus, those who look to Huey’s level-headed and compassionate, if sharp-edged chiding as reassurance that McGruder hasn’t dived headfirst into the font of self-hate that produced the “blacks vs. niggas” schtick are growing increasingly uneasy.
According to the Adult Swim website, January 28 is the current airdate for “Hunger Strike.” If the circulating clips* are an indication, the episode seems to place Huey back at the forefront of the action–but let’s see how the plot plays out before we argue that the series (and its creator) aren’t already off their rails.
* If you’re looking for the BET-bashing clips online, good luck. Sony’s being pretty vigilant about sweeping YouTube and having them deleted for infringement. But if you Google aggressively enough, you’re sure to turn up something.
