Aaron McGruder

Infobox Writer
name = Aaron McGruder


imagesize = 250px
birthdate = birth date and age|1974|5|29|mf=y
birthplace = Chicago, Illinois, United States
deathdate =
deathplace =
occupation = writer, artist, public speaker
genre =
movement =
notableworks = "The Boondocks"
influences =
influenced =

Aaron McGruder (born May 29, 1974 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American cartoonist best known for writing and drawing "The Boondocks", a Universal Press Syndicate comic strip about two young African American brothers from inner-city Chicago now living with their grandfather in a sedate suburb. Through the leftist Huey (named after Huey P. Newton) and his younger brother Riley, a young wanna-be gangsta, the strip explores issues involving African American culture and American politics.

Biography

When McGruder's father accepted a job with the National Transportation Safety Board, McGruder moved to Columbia, Maryland at age six with his parents and his older brother Dedric. He attended a Jesuit school from grades seven to nine, followed by public high school at Oakland Mills High School and the University of Maryland, from which he graduated with a degree in African American Studies. "The Boondocks" debuted in the campus newspaper, "The Diamondback", in late 1997, under its then-editor, Jayson Blair. McGruder created the comic while working at the Presentation Graphics Lab on campus. At the time, he was also a DJ on the "Soul Controllers Mix Show" on WMUC.

McGruder currently lives in Los Angeles, California, where his projects include the "Boondocks" animated series and the Super Deluxe variety comedy series, "The Super Rumble Mix Show". He is the author of five "Boondocks" collections: "All The Rage", "Public Enemy #2", "A Right To Be Hostile", "Fresh for '01: You Suckaz", and "Boondocks: Because I Know You Don't Read The Newspaper". McGruder is also the co-author, with Reginald Hudlin, of a 2004 graphic novel, , drawn by cartoonist Kyle Baker, and a frequent public speaker on political and cultural issues.

Controversy

The content of McGruder's comic strip often came under fire for being politically left-wing and occasionally risque, leading to its being published in the op-ed section of many newspapers. For example, a strip making fun of BET's rap videos, some of which rely on the sexually suggestive gyrations of female dancers, and a strip mocking Whitney Houston's drug problems and emphasizing her buttocks, were pulled out of circulation.Fact|date=February 2007 McGruder has also received hate mail for his unflattering portrayal of white people,Fact|date=February 2007 and garnered significant attention after the September 11, 2001 attacks with a series of strips in which Huey calls a government tipline to report Ronald Reagan for funding terrorism. Soon after, he "censored" several strips by featuring a talking patriotic yellow ribbon and a flag instead of the usual cast.

Several of his strips have been briefly pulled from prominent publications. His "Condi Needs a Man" strip, in which Huey and his friend Caesar create a personal ad for U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, portraying her as a "female Darth Vader type that seeks loving mate to torture", resulted in "The Washington Post" withholding a week's worth of strips, the longest such suspension ever by the paper. However, the paper's ombudsman Michael Getler, later sided with McGruder. cite article |title=Putting 'The Boondocks' in the Dock |first=Michael |last=Getler |date=October 19, 2003 |publisher=The Washington Post |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A43907-2003Oct17] The "Post" also declined to run "Can a Nigga Get a Job?", which had black contestants compete on a reality TV show to work for Russell Simmons, only to find that all the contestants were rude and lazy. This unflattering portrayal drew the ire of many in the African American community.Fact|date=February 2007

McGruder wrote a strip where Huey and Caesar discuss the "Most Embarrassing Black Person of the Year Awards", which they dub the "Elder" after Conservative Black commentator Larry Elder. In response, Elder published an opinion piece in which he created the "McGruder Awards", naming liberal commentators, and including five quotes from McGruder, to whom Elder awarded his award. [http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=37531 The McGruder: Award for most outrageous statement by a black public figure] ]

McGruder also amassed controversy following his visit with Fidel Castro in Cuba, after being requested by California Congresswoman Barbara Lee to make the trip.cite article |title=The Radical: Why do editors keep throwing 'The Boondocks' off the funnies page? |first=Ben |last=McGrath |date=April 19, 2004 |publisher=The New Yorker |url=http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/04/19/040419fa_fact2]

Along with controversy over his comic strip, McGruder has had an adverse relationship with the nationally-aired Black network B.E.T. During the comic’s early debut in the paper, McGruder asked then C.E.O., Robert Johnson, to allow a Boondocks television show on B.E.T.Fact|date=September 2008 The offer was declined, and McGruder and B.E.T. have been at odds ever sinceFact|date=September 2008. Two of McGruder’s episodes in Season 2 of The Boondocks were pre-empted in the U.S. and Canada, however, the episodes resurfaced for television airplay weeks later. The episodes in question depict B.E.T. as a cheap and ignorant media empire.

Footnotes