HOSTILE, HIP, 'THE BOONDOCKS' ALWAYS GETS EXTRA SCRUTINY

• Orignally published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania) September 21, 2004 

Copyright 2004 P.G. Publishing Co.  

By: Tony Norman

"The Boondocks" makes black people uncomfortable and white newspaper editors nervous. It is not a comic strip a reader can ignore like "Beetle Bailey" or "Sally Forth." It was born hostile. If it came with a soundtrack, it would alternate between heavy percussion, ragged bass lines and the sound of breaking glass. The characters in "The Boondocks" scowl just like black people in real life.

In the five years Aaron McGruder's daily strip has been censored, misunderstood and "hated on," its principal characters -- adolescent suburban transplants Huey and Riley Freeman -- have never smiled. This would be unimaginable for white characters on the same funnies page.

Though BD wasn't exactly smiling when his leg got blown off in Iraq earlier this year, it was up to the other characters in "Doonesbury" to keep the laughs coming. Even Cathy, who is always on the verge of a nervous breakdown, will crack a smile by the last panel. A muumuu-wearing Zippy can speak in complete non sequiturs and never worry about being rousted by newspaper editors as long as he doesn't forget to wink.

So why is it that when it comes to "The Boondocks," the culturally sensitive antennas of newspaper editors are always up? McGruder has never made a secret of his politics or his obsession with the odd minutiae of black popular culture. More than any comic strip in history, McGruder has held African-American shibboleths up to much deserved ridicule.

When rapper C-Murder was arrested for murder, when Bill Cosby announced plans for a Fat Albert movie and when black Americans became the "third most hated ethnic group" in the country after Sept. 11, "The Boondocks" was first in line with a congratulatory garland of scorn.

Everyone from Johnnie Cochran and Ralph Nader to Condoleezza Rice and BET's Robert Johnson have been roundly pimp-slapped in the strip. The annual "Most Embarrassing Black Person of the Year Award" that Huey and his friend Caesar hand out are understandably feared by those blacks with even a hint of inflated celebrity.

But for all the strip's hip cachet, McGruder is more than capable of stooping to a cheap laugh whether there's a larger point worth making or not. And sometimes the crush of deadline can result in a humorless didacticism (the recent George Bush stem cell research strips come to mind).

Still, "The Boondocks" generally upholds a "burn, baby, burn" aesthetic that makes it essential reading in every newspaper smart enough to carry it, including the Post-Gazette. With this overall philosophy in mind, this week's batch isn't particularly remarkable, though the PG is publishing a sanitized version so that those inclined to misunderstand McGruder's use of the "N-word" won't have a reason to picket outside our office.

The premise is clever enough: Imagine a reality show modeled on Donald Trump's "The Apprentice" but featuring five indolent African Americans. The show is hosted by hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons and is called "Can a [N-word] Get a Job?"

Just like Trump, Simmons sets up a series of tests to determine which of the contestants has enough hustle and discipline to run one of his companies. But first, the young people have to overcome self-defeating habits like smoking dope, fighting and sleeping in past 9 a.m.

An embarrassed Huey warns his impressionable brother that the show is a catalogue of hoary stereotypes. Riley says he appreciates it for that very reason. Grandad's reaction to the show is even more ambivalent, mirroring society's fascination with reality shows that are just as bad. These contradictions and more fuel the gag. Not many cartoonists can produce strips that benefit from tension on so many levels.

The strip doesn't lose much from being sanitized except the added measure of authenticity the artist intended.

Cleaning it up isn't a decision I would've made, but I understand why the editors felt they had to. Racial humor, if handled incorrectly, has the same kick as a stick of dynamite. Still, it may be time to stop second-guessing a guy who juggles dynamite for a living.

NOTES:
Second in a series on popular culture. Tony Norman can be reached at tnorman@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1631