Aaron McGruder on the state of the black man
AAS (a new MMW guest contributor!)
The July 2006 issue of Esquire has a number of articles on “The State of the American Man” one of which was written by Aaron McGruder, creator of The Boondocks comic strip. McGruder’s take on the state of the American black man (their lower case) was a”survey ” with questions and multiple choice answers.
Now I think McGruder has been able to use satire effectively in his comic strip in the past, but it seems his current use of satire does less of conveying the political message than it does of promoting stereotypes. Here are a couple of the questions on the survey:
5. Whose fault is it you don’t have a job?
A) The white man.
B) Nobody’s hiring.
C) I got a felony.
D)’ Cause that job was some ol’ bullshit anyway…10a. Do you date outside your race?
A)Yes
B) No10b. If no, do you know what you’re missing?
A) Yes
B) No
C) I’m not sure 10c.If yes, what is her ethnicity?
A) Asian.
Did I mention that the article was brought to my attention by one of my “I’m not a racist but why do black/Asian/Latino people (insert racist question here)” acquaintances?
brad wrote:
It’s all about context. Had this article ran in Vibe, the Source, XXL, etc. it would be okay. However, most of the readers of the magazine won’t get the joke. In fact, if a white writer had written this, someone might lose job after the public bruhaha.
Posted 13 Jul 2006 at 9:08 am ¶
Merq wrote:
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. McGruder’s going to Black Hell.
And no, Brad. It’s not “all about context.” That piece would’ve been offensive in Vibe too.
Posted 13 Jul 2006 at 9:19 am ¶
Gandalph Mantooth wrote:
werd. Context doesn’t have much to do with it. I removed McGruder’s “Spokesman for the Race” badge a long time ago.
Posted 13 Jul 2006 at 9:31 am ¶
mtevc wrote:
can i ask a serious question here…why in the heck does esquire go to macgruder anyway…couldn’t they find someone who is black and a respected writer???
Posted 13 Jul 2006 at 9:48 am ¶
bertie wrote:
Yeah–McGruder just seems increasingly bitter in tone. But maybe its a reflection of what he’s being exposed to now that he is part of the black celibriocity. He’s going off on Bill Cosby style rants without Bill’s history of trying to do good for folks. At least with Cosby, Bill is actually a grumpy ol’ man–I feel he’s surived, thrived, and done enough positive for black folks-especially for providing positive portrayals on tv—that earned (somewhat) the right to talk shit about us in his old age.
Posted 13 Jul 2006 at 9:49 am ¶
site admin wrote:
mtevc: well it’s either Aaron McGruder or Stanley Crouch, right?
I guess Stanley was unavailable. –CVK
Posted 13 Jul 2006 at 9:54 am ¶
eric daniels wrote:
Who cares what Aaron Mcgruder, Bill Cosby, Stanley Crouch, Ludacris or any other Black person does? Black people spend too much time thinking…
1.what white people think about them
2. are we proromting even more negative sterotypes
3. Black people feeling samed and guilted - tripped
Frankly whites and other groups never get compared to their worst actors I don’t see Jackie Chan going around having ‘call out tours’ to criticize Asian - American gangs
Where is George Bush criticizing poor whites for them destroying the white family through crystal meth adiction and their devil - worshipping music via Slayer, Marilyn Manson.
Where’s Robert De Niro going on his tour criticizing “The Sorpanos”
When is James Edward Olmos and Rita Moreno saying I am tired of seeing Spanish T.V. showing latina women as ’sex objects’or is that charming to latins
When is a Rabbi going to say that Jewish Record and movie executives are spreading violence throughout popular culture and are just as bad as the criminal who pulls the trigger?
You know why these groups never have so- called ‘tours’ because they know that it is a minority of their race acting stupid and you have Black Folks who are thinking “everybody’s watching them” (which is true) so whenever some rapper acts sexist, racist, or homopobic It’s 18 million black males , or when some Black Female chooses to strip in a video it’s 20 million black females give me a break.
If this is the case and Black Americans are going to be jugded differently from other so- called Americans, then we are a separate nation and need to consider a great migration to land in this country because we are not Americans and these people (along with Cosby and Mc Gruder) don’t think we can be individuals so that speech Dr. King said was a lie, If we can’t be ourselves and have to make what Nelly does part ofthe whole ‘race problem’ then Dr. King’s “four little children” cannot be judged by ‘content of their character’ but their race.
Posted 13 Jul 2006 at 12:03 pm ¶
Gandalf Mantooth wrote:
Bush doesn’t do it because his minions are out there doing it for him. DeNiro doesn’t do it because he’s made half a career out of those portrayals. Meanwhile, there are a few groups of Italian Americans in NYC who complain about the mafioso stereotype all the time, including protesting The Sopranos.
Jackie Chan isn’t Asian American.
Posted 13 Jul 2006 at 12:22 pm ¶
eric daniels wrote:
And black folks aren’t criticizing other blacks, for the last 20 years I have heard…
1. Prince ins’t a proper role model for black kids
2. Poor blacks need to quit ‘blaming’ the white man
Other groups get the benefit of of doubt and I don’r read Newspaper articles saying “Where are the white leaders’ criticizing white on white crime at high schools or Lucy Liu saying Asian - American Yakazua and Tong and Vietnamnesse gangs must stop. I only se this diease amongst black americans so It seems to be that some of you feel ashamed when a famous black star …
1. beats up his wife
2. gets arrested for DIU
3. Some Black Female writes a book about sucking off rappers
When those groups start their ‘call out tours ” give me a call.
Posted 13 Jul 2006 at 1:48 pm ¶
eric wrote:
whoa, stanley crouch and aaron macgruder in the same sentence?!
Aaron is nowhere near as bad as Stanley IMO, the only reason (IMO) that Aaron has become so reviled these days is that people THOUGHT he was on their side, and feels like he’s “turned”. I’d actually submit that he’s always been this way, but as his exposure has grown, so has his comfortability with speaking his mind.
Aarons comedy/humor/satire/bad taste, whatever you wanna call it, is pretty much poking fun at the same inane things that most of us point out about the black community from within the black community. I still think Uncle Ruckus is modeled after Stanley Crouch.
Aaron cracks on BET, “Gansta” rappers, idiotic black movies, white guys who wanna be black, etc, etc, but I’ve never heard him really dig into the positive aspects of blackness, or pro-black agendas, which is where him and Stanley Crouch WILDLY differ.
Stanley Crouch, while giving a speech at my school (Tufts U) actually said that Coltrane was the man until he “fell off the boat” in ‘64!!! (ie, his post-A Love Supreme era).
Stanleys fatal flaw is he’s trying to write black history from a black perspective, which is OK, but he’s pandering to whites to do so. Meaning, he KNOWS that bebop and the blues are taught in all educational systems across the world, he knows that white people accept that bebop is on par with any classical music that exists, and that if he can push those styles of music as the “defacto” styles of jazz, he can ensure that jazz will be regarded in that same pantheon as classical music and be “the greatest American art form”.
He also knows that these same people do not regard free/avant-garde/new black classical music in the same vein, and therefore is trying to hide these vital forms of black expression in order to keep his argument as strong as possible.
There is a major difference there imo, while they both are against the idiocy of certain aspects of black culture, Stanley is also against positive aspects of black culture, if he feels these aspects do not play well, or will not be respected in the white arena.
I’m sure you (CVK) weren’t insinuating all this by your post, but I had to get it off my chest anyway :))))
-Eric
Posted 13 Jul 2006 at 3:08 pm ¶
Gandalf Mantooth wrote:
Eric, I don’t hold Aaron’s humor against him. I’ve heard him speak a couple of times, before Boondocks became the t-shirt seller it has become. He said things I agreed with, however he said some things that made me think, well, he should just stick to cartooning. I think plenty of people still think he’s on their side, mainly because he says things that are common sensical and black community memes, but because of the cult of celebrity he’s become a “spokesman.”
Here’s the thing about this excerpt specifically, the BM/WF unions are looked on with suspicion, curiosity, typing, anger, etc. Still, they tend to be taken seriously whether people are “fer” or “agin.” Why are BM/AF AM/BF relationships seen as inherently funny? Think about most of the representations in movies and TV. Up until the doctor shows, color blind marvels that they are, a bm/af couple was thought of as some kind of joke. The couples are rarely shown enough, so there are few examples (Night Court, the sitcom sticks out), however I only need offer two words to support my hypo: “Bruce Leroy.”
Posted 13 Jul 2006 at 3:24 pm ¶
eric wrote:
“I’ve heard him speak a couple of times, before Boondocks became the t-shirt seller it has become. He said things I agreed with, however he said some things that made me think, well, he should just stick to cartooning.”
Whats wrong with that tho? Why can’t he have opinions that the black masses don’t agree with. Last I checked he wasn’t self-appointing himself the spokesman of the new black milennium. Also, I can’t fault him for not speaking when asked a question, there are too few precious black voices in the mainstream media as it is.
Regarding the survey, I agree its crap, but then again, its also Esquire
I’d suggest anyone whos reading that crap should do themselves a favor and devote that time to News and Notes with Ed Gordon, or Tavis’s radio/tv shows. Or go watch some black theatre, or theatre in general 
It just irks me how quickly Dave Chappelle and Aaron MacGruder have become reviled figures, just for having a strong opinion that isn’t shared by all blacks. The same crap happened with Spike Lee when Bamboozled came out, black actors left and right were speaking out against him, yet the reality is that none of them have done any piece of work 1/10th as beautiful/positive/important as 4 Little Girls, or Get on the Bus.
Posted 13 Jul 2006 at 3:38 pm ¶
eric wrote:
however, my main point was not really to defend aaron, but more to say that putting stanley and aaron in the same sentence is insane. They’ve got totally different agendas.
Posted 13 Jul 2006 at 3:51 pm ¶
Gandalf Mantooth wrote:
No Eric, I think we’re all more sophisticated than that It isn’t just that he has opinions that a majority of blacks don’t agree with. I wouldn’t even argue that he does have those opinions. I would certainly not say that either he or Chapelle are “reveiled” by any stretch. And you seem to be misunderstanding what I said. To paraphrase, I said that McGruder says things that many black people probably already believe, however because he was Aaron McGruder of the Boondocks and not Old Man Joe people thought a lot of what he had to say.
Posted 13 Jul 2006 at 4:15 pm ¶
eric wrote:
gandalf,
sorry I misunderstood. I agree with your point. I get riled up about this topic, and sometimes lose focus
Posted 13 Jul 2006 at 4:32 pm ¶