So I decided on a whim to start watching The Boondocks, and I’m three episodes in and already thinking “Holy shit this is the most insanely racist thing I have ever seen on TV”. Like, holy shit that’s racist. The whole scene with the portrayal of the R. Kelley trial essentially paints black people every brand of race-baited, offensive stereotype; even Huey, the moral center of the show thus far, is quite convinced that white people are at fault for just about everything… Basically every character seems to be a crude stereotype save for the defense attourney and maybe Huey and Grandpa.
Am I missing something? Is the satire too subtle for me to get the hang of it? I’m gonna keep watching, but I just feel bad. Like, if this wasn’t based off of a (far less racist) comic strip or was by a non-black author, I can’t imagine that this would have made it past the storyboard-writing phrase. I don’t think I should be looking at this and feeling uneasy about racism, but… well, I am.
Isn’t Boondocks created, written, produced and directed primarily by African Americans? I’m thinking you can laugh without feeling the need to apologize.
Well, I got that far, but being about racist doesn’t give a show carte blanche to be extremely racist. I mean, maybe it’s satire… But what’s it mocking? What’s it exaggerating to make seem ludicrous? I mean, if the goal is to mock general pop-culture representation of African-Americans, isn’t becoming that problematic?
That was my impression also. It was about racism, how racism effects people, how those people can be racist also, and how incredibly dumb the whole cycle of racism can be. It wasn’t simply “white people being racist is bad” it was also about how “black people being racist is bad” and how the problems with racism can easily overwhelm common sense and reason.
By the by, R. Kelly is a reprehensible human being who deserves an eternity of punishment of the most vile kind, and the jury the acquitted him should hang their heads in shame for the rest of their stupid, pathetic lives.
It’s mocking the acceptance in certain parts of “the black community”, of anything as long as there is a race card played or it has the appearance of uplifting the black community.
I think it’s much more than just mocking pop culture representations, it’s much worse. It’s mocking certain segments of “the black community”, which is where it is controversial.
In the R. Kelly episode (from memory, it’s been awhile, so forgive me if I miss something), the show clearly has intelligent people defending the victim of the crime, and the D.A. is clearly against R. Kelly, so there are people standing up for what is right. But it also is clearly skewering the not-so-smart segments of the community that put aside reason and intelligence in favor of pop culture celebrity and accepting the playing of the race card.
It’s not subtle, and it certainly takes shots at part of “the black community”, but I don’t think it’s racist at all. The attack isn’t on the people simply because of their race, it’s because of their willingness to accept evil if it plays the race card and makes music.
And, again, R. Kelly should be strung up by his ankles, skinned alive, covered in honey, and lowered into a colony of the most aggressive Argentianian ants ever. And the jury that acquitted him should go next.
Yes, but the OP acknowledged that. They’re commenting on black culture and the black experience and other academic-sounding things, not making fun of black people. Could a white writer get away with making those kinds of distinctions and saying those kinds of things? Well, it’s easy and understandable to say no, but it’s worth pointing out that the co-creator/writer of Chappelle’s Show was Neal Brennan (white guy) and Mel Brooks says the white writers of Blazing Saddles were the ones who came up with most of the jokes about the black characters (while Richard Pryor came up with the Jewish jokes). So the truth might be a little more complicated. Anyway I haven’t seen the entirety of the series, but it can be incendiary and shockingly brilliant. Watch “A Date with the Health Inspector,” which for my money is the best Iraq War satire ever made by anybody.
The goal is belligerence. The thesis is hostility toward these terrible people. Making fun of black people isn’t racism by virtue of being directed at black people, especially not when the primary vehicle for the ridicule is a black kid created by a black writer, both of whom are proud of being black to the point of overt aggression which is also simultaneously being directed at white people. It’s like listening to a Public Enemy album and thinking geez, this is uncomfortable… if it weren’t by a black guy they’d never get away with it!
Your discomfort is your own, obviously, but I think you’re gonna need to look in, not out, to figure out what it’s about.
I don’t understand how the Boondocks could be considered racist. Some of the black characters are portrayed in a poor light, but every reoccurring character that isn’t black is either an idiot, evil or insane. I can’t think of one character I’d want to be that isn’t black.
Ok, maybe I’d want to be Riley’s art teacher. He was nuts, but he had a certain purity to him. Plus, competence. Other than that, I’d want to be Huey or Grandpa. Everyone else is some nexus of foolish/ignorant/malicious/insane that I’d rather not emulate.
Really, no culture survives being examined by the show without it being found hollow. Only individuals make it through their stories as being worthwhile. That’s probably why it’s so good.
He acknowledged that the comic was written by a black author, but seemed to imply that someone else was running with his idea and making the show racist. His OP really doesn’t make any sense otherwise. I was just pointing out that the show appears to be almost entirely the product of African Americans.
I didn’t read it that way, but maybe you’re right. In which case the OP should know that Aaron McGruder, who created and wrote the comic strip, also ran and co-executive produced the show and wrote or co-wrote every episode in the first three seasons. He is not involved with the four and final season, though.
Yeah, all right. This makes sense. I guess it’s just my modern PC sensibilities. I’m gonna keep watching it (jeez, episode 4 has some nasty things to say about black people, doesn’t it), because it’s quite funny. I guess I just had to get over that issue first.
I’m Black and I find that the show skewers everybody involved from Huey ( ideally the show’s conscience) to Uncle Ruckus (who is unfortunately as self-hating as many Black Americans are) to Tom and his wife (a stereotypical interracial couple) tonThe Wuncler’s and Gin Rummy ( as stereotypical White Americans either as wealthy out-of-touch plutocrats or wannabe’s pretending to the Black “gangsters” who they idolize).
Everybody gets hit in The Boondocks and that what doesn’t make it racist.
You want racist?
Listen to a Jeff Dunham routine and you’ll hear shit that is thinly-veiled bigotry from an unfunny and exploitative comedian who panders to his almost entirely White audiences and fan base. Dunham NEVER skewers Whites and consistently disparages other races for cheap laughs.
I just ascribe it as a “you can’t say it, but they can” rule of life.
I do wonder if blacks and whites laugh at different things in a Boondocks episode. Kind of like the way the English laughed at Norman Bates’s line about how he liked to stuff birds in Psycho.
I haven’t watched it in years, but to my recollection, the show never has anything nasty to say about black people. In it, some characters say nasty things about black people, and the show has criticisms to offer to many black people, but at no point did I take the show to be saying nasty things about black people. What, specifically, do you have in mind?