Looking out:' . . . www.booondocks.com'
By Brandon Astor Jones
"Boon-docks (boon' doks') pl.n. Slang. 1. Wild and dense brush; jungle. 2. Rural country; backwoods." — The American Heritage Dictionary
The United States should be grateful for "The Boondocks". Aaron McGruder, the 23-year old African-American cartoonist who created this radical new comic strip, is wise beyond his years. Among other things, he broaches the subjects of race and racism with a courage that is uncommon in the US. Blacks and whites at once love and hate his candor.
McGruder produces the strip from his bedroom, at his parents' Maryland home. The leading characters are two adolescent brothers and their grandfather, all of whom have recently moved out of the city into a middle-class suburban community. The boys seem to be the only black males at their new school. The older of the two is extremely political. Both are keenly aware of US racism, and they fight it as best they can.
For a while, the controversy over the overtly racial content of the strip angered more than a few — McGruder offended as many African-Americans as Caucasians. Some of the daily newspapers that carried the syndicated strip discontinued it because of reader outrage. McGruder does not cater to social comfort zones. He causes the honest reader to think. There is not a lot of that going around these days.
It should be noted, too, that the strip's focus is not exclusively race and bigotry. For example, in the October 10, 1999, issue of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, McGruder took a serious but refreshing swipe at the absurdity of US consumerism. In the strip, the boys' granddad tries to make a fashion statement. He is clad in "gansta" duds, with a baseball cap resting sideways on his head and an extremely baggy shirt, both of which are embellished with the expensive "Fubu" logo. The cartoon reads:
Granddad: "Now, boys. Don't be mad just because I'm 'Ziggy'."
Older Grandson: "Uh ... that's 'Jiggy', Granddad."
Granddad: "Whatever. The guy at the store said this was a Black-owned company, so I thought, why not get with the times."
Older Grandson: "Black-owned or not, gratuitous logo fashions are just ... tacky. You look like a reject from Source Magazine."
Younger Grandson: "Man, I never realised how goofy these clothes looked until just now ..."
Granddad: "But the guy said these clothes make a statement."
Older Grandson: "Yeah. Like 'I'm a walking gump'. That's it — no more shopping trips for granddad."
Younger Grandson: "Remind me to burn all my Fubu stuff."
For a young African-American male to denounce the current vogue in so-called "hip hop" clothing (especially those being marketed by a "black-owned company") requires courage and deserves praise. I salute McGruder and his work. You can find him at www.boondocks.com.
[The writer is a prisoner on death row in the United States. He welcomes letters commenting on his columns (include your name and full return address on the envelope, or prison authorities may refuse to deliver it). He can be written to at: Brandon Astor Jones, EF-122216, G3-63, Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison, PO Box 3877, Jackson, GA 30233, USA.]