Is The Boondocks Unfair To Black Women?

May 22nd, 2012 - By Charing Ball

Uncle Ruckus other pearls of wisdom includes “Black women don’t want to be happy” and  “A black woman’s body is the temple of doom” and finally “Black women don’t jog. That way they don’t sweat out all them industrial strength toxic avenger chemicals they use to straighten out their hair.”

Eventually Freeman meets Ebony, the perfect Black woman – and by perfect I mean a Black woman who exercises regularly, doesn’t have any children, educated yet submissive and not materialistic. She is so “perfect” that even Uncle Ruckus abandons his anti-Black women rhetoric and falls in love with her too. Finally finding his match, Freeman then proceeds to sabotage his relationship with his own insecurities. And eventually he scares the perfect Black woman away.  Here we the viewers are supposed to learn just how much of fault Freeman is for his failure to have a healthy and stable relationship with a Black woman. However, what is more obvious is that Ebony has to be the “perfect” representation in order to be appreciated. This plays into the whole idea that Black women with children, that are overweight (even as 71 percent of Black men too are statistically overweight, a point that I will keep reinforcing every time a Black man mentions weight and Black women in the same sentence – even if it is a cartoon character), or have any other “flaws” are undesirable, and it plays right into the whole meme that these so-called attributes are the reason why Black women, by far and large, are undesirable or unworthy of affection.

Maybe I’m making a lot more of this than I should. I still love The Boondocks but I just can’t help but to feel uncomfortable at the apparent sexism in the show. In fact the only regularly featured “black” female character is Jazmine Dubois, the naïve, cherub faced biracial sweetheart, who constantly struggles with her multiracial identity.  While her character is probably one of the better representations of women in the series, she also fits into certain favorable and agreeable personality archetype about lighter skin toned women in the Black community.

 

Charing Ball is the author of the blog People, Places & Things.

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  • Daveb

    I believe there is some truth in stereotypes of both black men along with black women and Boondocks points it out. We can choose to learn from the mistakes other black people have mad and avoid them or just you could ignore it and without realizing it repeat cycle. Also you fail to realize how Aaron points out black men’s double standard when it comes to black women. You see Grand dad is a half bald fat old man but he expects his women to be perfect.

  • Pj_jackson13

    Good article, Im a black woman and I love the show. Uncle Ruckus’s comments are typical of the many self hating Negros of today, so im not offended by it. Its hilarious. Ummm yea theyre kinda hard on us though. Nothing new, society’s always been hard on us. I still have it on DVD and watch it regularly.

  • Rayna Fields

    The Boondocks is the smartest and funniest show (I know, it’s a cartoon) since Chappelle’s Show and In Living Color.  We need the return of this show and badly.

  • Rose Red

    The Boondocks is totally unbalanced and it’s clear that the creator shares views similar as white supremists.

    If a BW creator made a cartoon where BM were show in unflattering views -like, all the time -BM and the mule BW would jump to protest. WHY do BW excuse the clear cut hate that Aaron has for BW?

    BW get a clue. It’s like Dave Chapelle when he chose to walk away from being a 50 million dollar buffoon. But this time they are laughing at US. This is quite beyond being satirical comedy. He has an agenda an it includes the constant hate of BW.

    Any Black woman who supports this show is a blind fool. She is the same sort of simp who supports Lil Wayne, Young Berg and the rest of the BW hating “artists”

    Just another name on my personal boycott list.

  • http://twitter.com/AngieAng6 AngieAng

    I personally like the Boondocks and I can understand where the discontent stems from. We as black women constantly feel like we have to defend ourselves against the media, if it’s not because we’re overweight it’s because we’re being told that we’re ugly and undesirable. You have black men on youtube asserting this thought. Society makes us aware of ourselves in the worst ways, and I don’t see it getting better but I will say I LOVE MY SISTAHS AND I’M PROUD TO BE ONE!

  • Nope

    (Black) women are their own worst enemies, with or without the Boondocks. Stop blaming (Black) men for all of your problems.

  • Empress123

    YES and i am glad someone finally pointed it out. Aaron Mcgruder just MIGHT have some issues with the sisters. No matter how you slice it (oh he makes fun of everybody) at the end of the day he has a recurring positive role for a black man, white woman, biracial little girl and black little boy. RECURRING, get it? I have watched his cartoon and noticed that most times the black female characters in his cartoon are ratchet in some way and the white females are just slightly naive. The sad thing is that we want to support our brothers in their endeavors even when they are representing us in a negative way. I know I have kept watching just because I had faith that eventually he would show us in a good light regularly. Hey maybe that will happen this season but somehow I doubt it…Brothers we march, petition and protest for you whenever there is a need, how about returning the favor sometimes….

  • Jamar Montez

    First of all, this is a satirical show.  Secondly, I think we need to ask ourselves a simple question: “Who are the positive Black males on this show, outside of Huey?”  I think we have to appreciate this show for what it is, and that’s SATIRE.  It’s not the job or the m.o. of a satirical show to highlight the many positive attributes of Black women.  

    What would be nice, is a regularly occurring role for a Black woman on the show to add more nuance and depth to portrayals of Black women?  I also want to say that I LOVED the way the show went after Tyler Perry.  Tyler Perry movies are the minstrel shows of the 21st century, so he gets NO IMMUNITY.

  • Ms_Sunshine9898

     I love the Boondocks, but I was a little offended by the episode of the woman looking for love in all the wrong places, and it ended with Huey telling her to take responsibility for her abusive relationships that ended with her killing herself. . .

    • Dcarter910

      You look gorgeous! Do you like in the DMV area?

      • Ms_Sunshine9898

        no not anymore. . . 

    • http://www.facebook.com/RosarioRed Rosario Stefania Scarsci

      Wow, was this really an episode? Oh my goodness that is not cool. Another reason for me to avoid this program completely. 

  • Tshgregson

    everyone always loves to blame something or someone, when will people take responsiblities for themselves? It’s like come on now, if you don’t like a show don’t watch it… It’s literally that simple. I dont like rock, so my radio is never on the rock station, I dont like the kardashians so I rarely am on the E channel. IT’S THAT SIMPLE.

  • ElvisWasAHero2Most

    Hmm… astute analysis.  As a fan of the series myself (got all 3 seasons on dvd, bought the first 2, stole the last one from a roommate) it had not dawned on me the lack of non stereotypical female characters.  However, aren’t all the characters stereotypical or at least fit a specific kind of Black male (w/ the obious exception of Huey)?  Riley the typical Black teen imitating what he sees on BET, Uncle Ruckus the self hating negro, Tom the uncle tom, Grandpa cantankerous old man.  

  • CA Pullen

    I don’t even watch the boondocks.

  • GovermentChecks

    Men have the same dating hang ups as woman they just don’t get called out for it because they are outnumbered and so called in demand. That must mean they have no issues so that means no need for self evaluation (Sarcasm). Black Woman should be adapting to they dysfunctional azzes but seem like they trying to say to some of these black men with dating hang ups is……. even if the perfect black woman drop in your lap you would still eff it up, Actually I think he poking fun at the Angry Black Men instead of Black Woman pay attention to the beginning when he said the reason he ain’t found the one is because of everybody else but not him. Sound like the typical Superficial dater IJS.

  • JustSaying

    I love the Boondocks. Every aspect of it. 

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