Final Project

The Boondocks and Popular Culture

Little boy listen closely, society says this is what you are; your purpose in life, a manual of what your life should consists of; wear jeans down below your knees; never complete a sentence that doesn’t start with “F” and ends with “UCK”; never study and love your neighbors; state ignorant things; never open up a book to read it; you don’t have goals and dream, don’t believe it; your only good for playing basketball or making rap videos; doctor? Forget about it; lawyer? Forget about it; chase after girls; never treat them like ladies; remember they are just tools at your disposal; growing up fast is the way of life; don’t create a life, take one, destroy one; let them understand that you’re their number one fear; statistics and stereotypes are never false…right??

               Dumb, dangerous, deviant, deprived, criminals, drug dealers and ganstas! Is this how popular culture portrays the average Black male adolescent? Yes, that’s exactly what is shown for entertainment on television. It seems like the only positive image of Black males are shown on the sports channel. Want proof? Well tell me this, how many modern positive cartoons or shows are out there with young Black males? Shows that star Black males not cursing and being ignorant. Black males with an education and middle class family, like so many other White middle class family sitcoms out there. One of the only shows on television that portrays the role of young Black males is the cartoon “The Boondocks”. This show is full of degrading language and violence, with a majority of its characters being Black and the main characters being Black.

               What is this saying about our society? Well some people think these images are no big deal, its just entertainment! What many don’t realize is this so called entertainment has a major influence on today’s youth. A lot of kids look up to the images shown on T.V. and try their hardest to make it reality. The fact that this show is basically the only portrayal of Black males that youth can look up to is quite sad. Yes, there have been shows like “The Cosby Show”, but today’s youth don’t watch these older shows anymore and the shows themselves are not on T.V. often. There are a number of White modern sitcoms like “Family Guy “and “American Dad” that portrays extremely funny but not overly negative images of its characters. This shows that sitcoms can be funny without being degrading!

               Popular culture and media has the greatest influence on our lifestyles. So it’s no wonder why many cling to their television and imitate the things that they see. Will this negative image of the young Black male ever be exchanged for a more positive image in popular culture?

“Sunday nights are part of my relaxation ritual, I turn on the T.V. and tune into the latest episode of the Boondocks. I absolutely love Riley and his gansta wannabe image”.

               Like so many other American youth, watching television is my favorite past time! Although there are a number of different shows I could watch on T.V. its seems like the most entertaining ones are the most negative ones. Why is that in order for something to be funny, it has to contain ignorant words and images? Maybe it’s because media has seen a demand for these shows and getting rid of them will only take away money from the greasy hands of these million dollar corporations! So until then, “The Boondocks” negative portrayal of Black males will remain. 

Comic

I decided to make a video with a character from the Boondocks and a girl from the book " Women without Class"

Satire Blog

Since I'm doing my inquiry project on the show "The Boondocks" and the stereotypes it portrays I decided to show a youtube show that I often times watch. This show makes fun of stereotypes and other racial issues as well as a variety of other issues. This particular show is portraying a white mother and black mother and the stereotypes that go with their parenting techniques. It brings about the issue of if these shows actually serve as just a funny show or a resource for getting stereotypical ideas. Some people believe everything thing they watch.

Interview Post

My inquiry project is on the cartoon sitcom “The Boondocks” and the message it brings to its audience which is America’s youth. I decided who better to interview than my nephew who is in the age range in which this show targets and their characters ages are. I interviewed my nephew through Facebook. The questions were 1. What type of sitcoms do you watch on tv? 2. What makes these shows so entertaining to you? 3. How do you feel after watching these shows? 4. In what ways is your life similar to these shows you watch? The shows that my nephew watches on tv includes “Everybody Hate’s Chris”, “Rob Dydreks Fantasy Factory”, “American Dad” and “The Boondocks”. I found this very interesting because “Everybody Hate’s Chris” is the outlier out of this group. This show has a very positive image of the African American family and it’s also very fun. I didn’t know much about the “Rob Dydreks Fantasy Factory” so I asked if he could explain. The show is about a professional skateboarder Rob Dydrek and his life on camera with the people he loves. What was so interesting was the variety of type of shows he watched. They ranged from positive reality shows to stereotypical cartoons. When I asked what made these shows so entertaining to him he said he just likes the laughs that he gets out of them. I can relate to this reason because I also watch shows just for laughs, even negative shows. Shows like “The Bad Girls Club” is full of foul language and fights but I watch it simply for the drama and to laugh and so do other people which says a lot about popular culture. We don’t see anything wrong with women fighting each other and making bad names for themselves because we’re used to it and that’s what we consider entertainment. When I asked how these shows make him feel he said they made him feel good because he’s “learning” new things. I asked him what he meant by learning new things and basically every episode of a show has a message that it tries to get to its audience. For example one episode from “Everybody Hate’s Chris” moral to the story was always asks for help when needed. My nephew said his life is similar to the shows he watches because he loves to skateboard just like Rob Dydrek and he’s known as the comedian of the family so he loves playing jokes and making people laugh. My nephew doesn’t believe any of these shows have a negative impact on his life and there just entertainment.

Reflection

I came across an article on scholar.google.com that dealt specifically with my topic and was quite interesting. The article talked about black identity dealing with cartoons shows including The Boondocks, a show that I’m investigating more deeply into. It talked about how shows like The Boondocks have a negative effect on the black community, confirming stereotypes that others already believe to be true. This article discussed how characters in the shows such as pimps who are obviously not intelligent and have bad grammar make fun of black men. Also it goes into rap music and the videos that go along with it. In most of the rap videos today there’s lots of money, alcohol, expensive cars and plenty of half-naked women dancing in front of the camera. When people of other ethnicities, maybe someone whom has never came in contact with a black person before sees these videos different generalizations and stereotypes are formed. The Boondocks only presses that point further by portraying these negative images of blacks in the show. Many would say well there are some positive images and episodes but overwhelmingly the negative outweighs the positive. More positive cartoon sitcoms need to be made representing blacks so there is a balance. Race, whiteness, "lightness," and relevance: African American and European American interpretations of Jump Start and The Boondocks Naomi Rockler Critical Studies in Media Communication Vol. 19, Iss. 4, 2010

My Storify Blog

Storify Blog

Picture Essay: The Boondocks And The Portrayal Of The Black Family On Adult Swim.

     The Boondocks is a show about two boys that move in with their grandfather into the "white" suburbs.

                          The characters consists of Riley, Huey, and the grandfather Robert Freeman

               Riley is 8 year old boy he loves to keep it "gansta" and show off his so called "thug" mentality

Huey is a 10 year old and considered to be a future revolutionist and present day intellectual terrorist.

Robert is the grumpy old grandad that takes care of the two boys

                       Uncle Ruckus is a strange character who hates blacks and believes he is white.

                       The following pictures show the typical portrayals of the characters on the show.

                                                                "Guns are cool"

                                                                      "Thug Life"

 This show is one of the most popular shows on adult film and is watched by all ages, especially the younger generation. The overall impression is, being black means you can act like a thug, violent, and it's cool to be wild! Kids look up to these characters including some of my neices and nephews.

A short slide show with music.

The Negative Effects!

 This boy was on the news awhile ago for stealing his grandmother car. He said "he likes doing bad things, thug things with his friends". They made a boondocks episode based off of him.

Our future.