I haven't heard boo about the Boondocks in at least a year. If I were the vindictive sort, I would be drudging up hagiographies from all over the blackosphere about the genius that was Aaron McGruder. While I'd be the first to admit that he'd probably be hella fun to hang around with, he blew his moment by thinking he was more politically sophisticated than he actually was. Whereas Kanye West blew all of his cred in about 40 seconds, McGruder burned through his in about 40 days. I seem to recall some gaffe that was the beginning of the end at the National Press Club, but I'm too lazy to go dig it up. People who know, know.
Now it's probably not fair to hold McGruder to the standard of a political cartoonist. In the end you can say that his target was and is the hiphop generation, despite some perfectly off the wall shots at American society of the sort I hear my young kids call 'random'. I think he fell into that trap of people who believed that there was a such thing as hiphop culture and hiphop politics, when basically all there has really been was people dancing to hiphop beats thinking the lyrics were thinking. I know there are a class of artists who genuinely feel that were it not for their 'science' a whole generation of shorties would be clueless to a taste of reality. The Underground is full of itself. But we know that the mythological pedagogy of hiphop can envelop the feeble-minded as well as any Afghani Madrassa, and our hearts should go out to those whose romantic notions center around VIP rooms in Da Clubs of America. A little anyway. But those who continue to perpetrate the fraud eventually need to be called on the table, and I think that is the future of Aaron McGruder, that is if anyone cares enough.
One wonders if black youth are set up for nothing more than a series of Sista Soulja moments from here to eternity in the real world of electoral politics. Now that Sharpton has signed on with Hillary Clinton, is there room in Obama's big tent for one so familiar to black youth as McGruder. I seem to recall he was good enough for Edwards last time, for a quick moment at least. Aside from whether he's smart enough, is he black enough? Or should 'black enough' be stricken from all conversations about politics and Obama, but OK in the context of ancient Greek battles thousands of years before the invention of black consciousness. Hmm. More randomness I detect. But that's the kind of randomness blackness creates, Baldwin yesterday, Omarossa today, Jennifer Hudson tomorrow. Who can define a consistent thread?
I don't bother. They say you should never forget where you come from. I agree, but I don't see it as a dictum not to leave, but to remember what made you strong. Unfortunately for those who like to play patty cake all day long, much of what made me strong was knowing when to cut pretenders loose.
Now I haven't paid attention since he did his thing with King,so I can't really tell, if I'm the only one who has kicked him to the curb on matters of political seriousness and even gadfly cred. But my nickel says Edwards won't be calling him back and he becomes just another new jack who swung and struck out.
It's too bad, because when it comes down to it, most black pundits today are basically flat and humorless. I mean we really are suffering from a horde of doomsayers and nudges. Can you imagine going out for beers with John McWhorter? I can't. I mean I love Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell for their ability to kill the noise, but I get the feeling that they're hemorrhoidal. Lord knows anybody who can be set on their ear by Michael Richards is not going to be any fun nor is anyone who can't mock those who are. Shrill killjoys the lot of them. So there's the dichotomy.
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