The Boondocks: Offensive Show or Stinging Reality?

Sunday nights on Cartoon Network has become fertile ground for some of the most side-spitting, razor-sharp humor this side of a cable box. The show concepts that constitute the "Adult Swim" block of programming on CN has drawn it's fair share of rave reviews and harsh criticism from anybody willing to offer an opinion. For Afro-American viewers, no show represents that aforementioned razor's edge quite like Aaron McGruder's comic strip creation, "The Boondocks". The first season of the weekly series found every way possible to poke humor at many of the events, individuals, and situations we see around ourselves on a daily basis. In some cases, the biting satire that's become this shows trademark may have opened up some 'wounds' that some folk in and among Black America would prefer to have left sticthed up. From the would-be Revolutionary Huey, to the saggy pants wearing, "thugged" out Riley, to the blatantly Uncle Tom-like Uncle Ruckus, the characters (and situations) are cleverly designed to force us to look at ourselves through a very revealing lens.No person, topic, or issue has been too 'taboo' to examine within the show, which has drawn the ire of some of the more 'prominent' faces within the African-American community. Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Oprah Winfrey, and Bill Cosby have been among the more outspoken detractors of the show, harping on the use of the dreaded "N" word among other things. The second season of the show may prove to be just as funny (and potentially inflammatory) as the previous one. The scrutiny has been pretty intense, drawing criticism from multiple sources in the black community, as well as some pretty severe rebukes from the aforementioned likes of Sharpton and Jackson..

In fact, the pointed criticism that has come from these sources Are we not supposed to talk about such things? Are we supposed to ignore some of the more embarrassing fads and unhealthy stereotypes that have come with this generation black folk?

Huey Freeman....Elementary Student/Black Revolutionary.

Credit: Cartoon Network (http://www.adultswim.com)

Copyright: Cartoon Network