Looking From the Inside: Aaron McGruder’s "The Boondocks"

Aaron McGruder’s The Boondocks is an iconic comic strip series that started on February 8, 1998, and ended on March 26, 2006. The series was also adapted to an animated TV show that ran from 2005 to 2014. The comic and show have been both criticized and praised for their depictions of African American culture, White American culture, and the American government. Even though the show was considered radical for its time, there are many flaws within The Boondocks dealing with the depictions of marginalized people within the African American community. 

Before going into an analysis of the show, one must understand the personality and symbolism of the three main characters: Huey Freeman, Riley Freeman, and Robert “Grandad” Freeman. Huey Freeman is named after one of the co-founders of the Black Panther Party, Huey P. Newton. As the name already applies, Huey is a black nationalist who is constantly criticizing and analyzing the United States and African American culture. Huey’s little brother, Riley, is the complete opposite of him. Riley has been absorbed into hip-hop culture and is infatuated with gangsta/thug life. Unlike his brother who is very knowledgeable, Riley is ignorant and often represents what his brother hates. Robert, who is referred to as Grandad throughout the series, is a former Civil Rights Movement activist who is trying to live a nice retired life but doesn’t always understand the struggles and trending topics of the younger generation (Terry). The two episodes that will be examined are “The Story of Gangstalicious(S2)” and “The Attack of the Killer Kung-Fu Wolf Bitch.”

One of the topics that The Boondocks discusses well is homophobia towards black gay men by using the character Gangstalicious and his influence. Gangstalicious is a successful rapper who modern society would label as a “DL” gay man. In this context,  “DL” is an acronym for “down-low”, which refers to someone who is secretive about their sexuality. In the black community, DL men represent “the threat of disease, depravity, and the destruction of the black family .” This concept is an ironic observation because, in hip-hop culture, it is common to choose your “friends”(men) over “hoes”(women), which is the logic Gangstalisous uses in “The Story of Gangstalicious” but in a romantic sense instead of a platonic one (Fubara-Manuel 78). In this episode, Gangstalicious comes out with a new fashion line that is obviously effeminate but puts out propaganda to his fans explaining that it is masculine and cool. Riley, who is one of Gangstalicious’ biggest fans but thinks everything uncool is “gay”, even falls for Gangstalious’ plan and quickly begins wearing skirts and crop tops. Towards the end of the episode, when Gangstalious is outed and Riley wants him to confirm it, Gangstalious decides to stay in the closet and not come clean about his sexuality. It is implied that Gangstalious lied because he didn’t want to ruin his “thug” image, especially being a big star in the hip-hop industry. From Grandad’s homophobic reaction to Huey’s silence, this episode is a great example of how homophobia functions in the black community. Even though The Boondocks does well at discussing issues like this, it still has many flaws.

The Boondocks’s representation of black women does not have a good track record. In both the comic strip and the animated series, there are no recurring black women characters. In Sheena Howard’s chapter in Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation, she writes “The Boondocks creates a world in which the Black female voice is not needed or represented”(Howard 162). Throughout the entire series, the only time black women are represented is when they are dating Grandad, and they are usually portrayed as mentally unstable people. In the episode “The Attack of the Killer Kung-Fu Wolf Bitch,” Grandad finds an attractive woman named Luna to date, but the family soon finds out that she is a mentally unstable killer that is constantly given bad advice by her “best friend” over the phone. At the end of the episode, when Luna is ready to change a new leaf, her friend motivates her to commit suicide. From the tone of the characters and music played in the background, Luna’s death is assumed to be comedic and not sad. In Howard’s chapter, she introduces the term “symbolic annihilation”, which is when a piece of media erases a certain group of people and sends a message to the audience(Howard 165). Since Luna, one of the only black women featured in the series, kills herself, it is sending a message to the audience that the lives of black women are trivial and not valued unless they are connected to a man.

Aaron McGruder’s The Boondocks is a great and much-needed series. However, there is much to be improved on. There cannot be one point of view for a whole community of people. The narrative needs to be as diverse as possible so that everyone can feel included instead of offended. There will never be a series exactly like The Boondocks, but there will hopefully be black creators that will create a series that is far better with threatening their community with care.

Works Cited

Fubara-Manuel, Irene. “Revolting Animation: The Hierarchy of Masculinities in the Representation of Race and Male Same-Sex Desire in Adult Cartoons.” Networking Knowledge, no. 10(3), pp. 70-82. 

This is an article from a journal discussing different forms of masculinity in adult cartoons. This source will help me analyze how The Boondocks discusses DL culture.

Howard, Sheena C., and Ronald L. Jackson II. Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation. Bloomsbury, 2013. 

This is a book from multiple authors analyzing popular black comics. This source will help me look at the representation of black women in The Boondocks.

Tanksly, Carol B. “Afrocentricity by Molefi Kete Asante.”GALILEO.Salem Press Encyclopedia of Literature, 2019, p.2.

This is an article produced by GALILEO to give the reader a basic understanding of Molefi Kete Asante’s concept of Afrocentricity. In its most basic form, Afrocentricity is looking at the world through the perspective of African-descent people. There are many factors, or nommo,that have to be checked in order for something to be considered Afrocentric. This source will help me analyze Tia C.M. Tyree’s source.

Tyree, Tia C.M., Krishnasamy, Adrian. “Bringing Afrocentricity to the Funnies: An Analysis of Afrocentricity Within Aaron McGruder’s The Boondocks.” Journal of Black Studies, no. 42, 2011, pp. 23-42. 

This article is from the Journal of Black Studies and analyzes Aaron McGruder’s The Boondocks comic series to see if it is truly an Afrocentric piece of literature. This source will help me analyze the personalities of the main characters.