The Dave Chappelle Show was just as frank, but there’s always something about the assumed innocence of animation that catches people off guard. From films like Heavy Metal and the unending list of anime that’s been released in the past 50 years, when the dark, shameless side of humanity manifests itself in the eyes of an animated character, the whole world tends to look on it differently.
The Boondocks dealt with issues that were as mundane as they were revolutionary. Following the narrative of Huey, the show’s main protagonist, we’re able to explore the ins and outs of race relations, self-hatred, and just plain foolishness. It’s one of the most true-to-form representations of the Black community that I’ve ever seen. And because of its honesty, because of its intrinsic vulgarity, many people found the show offensive –not surprisingly, the biggest noise came from the community for which the show was geared.
I think in the back of his mind McGruder had to know that he was treading on dangerous ground. He had to know that somewhere along the line there were going to be people who wanted him silenced. Mainly, the NAACP found the show unforgiveable in its portrayal of the everyday Black person — including the penchant of Blacks to blatantly use the “N word” regarding their fellow man. Though the show wasn’t the catalyst for such an occurrence, it probably had a sizeable influence on the decision of all the modern leaders of the NAACP to ceremoniously “bury” the “N word”. The hilarity of the matter is that no one can bury a word alive and assume that that’s the end of the conversation. It’s preposterous to think so.
