Wednesday, July 04, 2007

In honor of the 4th of July...

...I wanted to share a Boondocks comic strip with you all.

But I couldn't find it. Anywhere. And I've been searching online for quite a while.

So here is the next best thing: a synopsis.
Huey Freeman is the older brother of the family, a quick-witted, elementary school socialist. His younger brother Riley is a self-styled gangster rapper, and the two are being raised by their traditionalist grandfather.

Huey and his family deal with yuppie neighbors, a classmate who thinks that all African Americans are either rappers or basketball players and a school principal whose idea of racial sensitivity training involves having teachers watch 1970s blaxploitation films.

The strip is frank and honest in dealing with political issues. In one installment, Riley complains about having missed the neighborhood Fourth of July barbecue. "I can’t believe Independence Day came and went and nobody told me," he says. Huey responds: "I bet millions of African slaves said the same thing a couple hundred years ago."

The visuals help, but you get the point, right?

2 comments:

Hahni said...

I love Boondocks. I always say that it fucks with my white liberal sensibilities, which is a very good thing indeed. Plus my daughter looks like Jasmine, which I think is cool.

Plain(s)feminist said...

That *is* cool!

I fell in love with the comic early on, but there was one strip that cinched it for me. Jazmine had washed and combed her hair, and it was hanging straight down. She put it in a ponytail, and then walked outside. She noted that it was humid, and immediately, her hair poofed into a giant "afro puff." Since I grew up feeling like the only one whose hair did that (and getting made fun of for it), I felt like I had found a soulmate.