"Sidelights"

Cartoonist and writer Aaron McGruder is the creator of the popular, often controversial newspaper comic strip "The Boondocks." The strip follows the lives of Huey Freeman and his younger brother Riley, two African American preteens newly transplanted from the predominantly urban black neighborhoods of Chicago's south side to the largely white neighborhoods of the city's suburbs. There, the politically observant and sardonic Huey (named in honor of famed Black Panther leader Huey Newton) and wannabe-gangster Riley live comfortably, if sometimes bemusedly, with their grandfather, a stolid old man with more traditional leanings than his active, and activist, grandsons. Life in "the boondocks"--hip-hop slang for the surburbs--becomes a daily search for the meaning of new racial dynamics, political developments, and cultural adjustment. The humorous strip presents "a satirical description of the complexity of interaction among American blacks and whites and the various subcultures prevalent within America's races," commented a contributor to Contemporary Black Biography.

The strip started in 1996 on the Hotlist Web site. While a student at the University of Maryland, McGruder became a staff member at the university's independent newspaper, the Diamondback, and "The Boondocks" appeared for several months in print there under the editorship of Jayson Blair, who later became famous for providing fabricated stories to the New York Times. The strip then appeared in the national hip-hop magazine the Source for some months in 1997. Launched to syndication in December 1998 to more than 160 newspapers (a record at the time), the strip's circulation grew to more than 300 papers around the country within five years.

In its almost decade-long run in national syndication, "The Boondocks" has tackled subjects ranging from its core concept of race relations to consumer culture, juvenile delinquency, urban decay, biracial identity, interracial marriage, and the perceived shortcomings of the administration of President George W. Bush. McGruder "has taken to task America's only black billionaire, BET [Black Entertainment Television] founder Bob Johnson, speculated on Condoleezza Rice's negritude, cast aspersions on the thespian abilities of Vivica A. Fox and repeatedly poked fun at rappers in general and P. Diddy (whom he still calls Puff) in particular," observed reviewer Karen Grigsby Bates in the Black Issues Book Review. "McGruder is able to make pungent observations about race, class, consumer culture, and, of course, politics," Bates noted.

On occasion, its subject matter has prompted editors to pull the strip. Some papers refused to run a post-September 11 strip that questioned the country's "blind, unquestioning faith in our almost-elected leaders," according to Hillary Atkin in the Hollywood Reporter. In other cases, the strip has been moved from the comics page to the editorial page. "Lots of readers find the strip racist and the furthest thing from funny," observed William Powers in the National Journal. "Lots of others think it's wise and hilarious. Both sorts have been writing passionate letters and emails to newspapers all over the country, debating the merits of the strip." Remarked Michael Moore in...