That’s the premise for “The Boondocks,” a sly, satirical comic strip created by 25-year-old Aaron McGruder. It made its April debut in 160 papers, a bigger launch than “Calvin and Hobbes.” But it’s already stirring up as much controversy as a Spike Lee movie. Some black readers have accused it of perpetuating stereotypes, white naysayers thought that it bashed them and others charged McGruder with ridiculing interracial marriage in his portrayal of Jazmine, the biracial daughter of a liberal white woman and a bourgie black man. Three papers have canceled the strip after a barrage of complaints–“When are you going to drop this racist garbage?” one (white) reader wrote in–and a couple of others, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, decided to move “The Boondocks” from the comics page to the opinion or editorial pages. McGruder makes no apologies to anyone he may have offended. “The focus of the strip is race,” he says. “Just like the focus of ‘Dilbert’ is cubicles.”
McGruder’s been living in “The Boondocks” for some time; he created it in 1996 for a Web site while majoring in Afro-American studies at the University of Maryland. The edgy comic strip quickly moved to the student paper, and even had a brief run in The Source, a national hip-hop magazine. After numerous syndicates turned it down, Universal Press Syndicate signed McGruder to a five-year deal last December. The cartoonist, who still lives with his parents in suburban Maryland, is considering a move to L.A. to oversee an animated version for TV.
Though McGruder has offended some people, his take-no-prisoners humor has also won him many fans of all stripes. A black teenager praised him for capturing “the cultural balancing act of the black male.” And as John Schwalm, a white systems analyst in Maryland, says, “It addresses things that everybody has an opinion on, but nobody wants to discuss.” “The Boondocks’’ works because McGruder lets lots of opinions and agendas fly; he’s not on any soapbox rant. “I wanted to explore the dynamics between Afrocentricity and a ‘we’re all just human’ approach,’’ he says. “Or the militant vs. the hoodlum.” Best of all, he lets you decide who’s right and who’s wrong–assuming you’re not too busy laughing.
