Boondocks Cartoon Censored
By Frances M. Beal
The missiles and bombs raining down upon Afghanistan
have claimed another victim, this one within the borders
of the U.S. of A. His name is Huey Freeman and he is
the surly son of Aaron McGruder who conceives and inks
the ever-popular Boondocks comic strip. Huey is the
main protagonist in the strip, a pre-teen black
revolutionary who sports a huge 1970's style Afro hairdo
and trades quips about the vagaries of Black life in
white America, usually with his grandfather.
The strip's hard hitting social critique of race and
racial discrimination in the U.S. has earned it a
faithful following - particularly among African
Americans - in the many newspapers throughout the
country that carry it daily. That is to say, the strip
appeared daily until it was pulled from many papers this
week, allegedly for "patriotic" reasons.
In some ways, this action on the part of Corporate
America is not surprising. Despite strong messages from
the White House that dissent from its domestic or
foreign handling of the post September 11 attack on the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon will not be
welcomed, McGruder has been unrelenting in his social
satire of current events. In one strip, for example,
Huey sits before the TV watching the Attorney General
intone that it is his duty to protect us against
terrorism while protecting the rights of all Americans,
including those of Middle Eastern descent. In the next
panel, however, Huey is seen clutching his Afro while
the AG says "so I would like to reassure Congress that
my proposed Turban Surveillance Act, which would allow
the FBI to covertly plant listening devices in the
headgear of suspected terrorists, is in no way meant to
single out Arab or Muslim Americans."
The strip that allegedly went beyond what is considered
the acceptable political pale these days and which got
it booted from competing with the likes of Mary Worth or
Family Circus is a panel that featured Huey calling the
FBI's terrorist hot line number. Huey then claims he
has the names of those who aided terrorist and public
enemy #1 Osama bin Laden. When the FBI asks for names,
the plain talking Huey says, "All right, let's see...the
first one is Reagan. That's R-E-A-G..." and then goes on
to accuse the CIA of training bin Laden in terrorism in
the struggle against the Soviets in the early 1980s.
What is particularly ominous about this incident is that
it strongly suggests that those who insist upon their
right to dissent, or in the case of Aaron McGruder, to
the right to satire and yes, even to ridicule government
policies, will face serious consequences. In sum, you
will be subjected to economic and possibly political
sanctions that will threaten your livelihood and your
standing in the community if you challenge government
policies. Those who have an appreciation for history are
already making comparisons with the McCarthy period when
dissent with America's cold war policy abroad was
equated with a lack of patriotism and even treason, and
accompanied by a stultifying censorship of thought and a
curtailment of constitutional freedoms on the domestic
front.
Those who think that the McCarthy comparison is an
exaggeration should take a look at some of the
provisions of the so-called Uniting and Strengthening
America Act ("USA Act") of 2001 (S.1510). Behind the
mask of fighting terrorism, the law was pushed through
the Senate without even a review by that body's
judiciary committee and with minimal debate. In one of
those ironies of history, the sole dissenting vote came
from the late Sen. McCarthy's home state of Wisconsin
and was cast by Russ Feingold. Advocates of civil
rights and civil liberties are aghast claiming that the
legislation is nothing more than "a prosecutor's wish
list of powers that allows them unchecked discretion to
curtail the civil liberties of all Americans." (Karen K.
Narasaki, President of the National Asian Pacific
American Legal Consortium).
One of the most precious freedoms we have is that of
dissent - and not just in times of peace and harmony.
Our Attorney General John Ashcroft should take a
refresher course in Constitutional Law 101. The right
to dissent by citizens, journalists and commentators is
particularly important when our government undertakes a
military adventure that can cost the country and the
world untold misery in terms of ecological and human
devastation. If the government's expansion of police,
military, security and domestic intelligence agencies
cannot be criticized by artists like Aaron McGruder, and
if the new powers, resources and freedom to detain, and
spy upon "suspicious characters" are not open to
discussion, we are further along the path to the
establishment of a police state than some had feared.
What is frightening about all of this is that we have
been down this path before. McGruder's satirical pen and
biting wit stands on the shoulders of Black cartoonists
like Ollie Harrington. His most famous character was
Bootsey who made comic reference to Black love and life,
but he too was a social critic. Harrington's criticism
of what he called nationwide apathy about legislation
against lynching came under scrutiny from the FBI during
the McCarthy era. Finally, Harrington left the United
States and lived first in Paris and then in the former
East Germany until his death in 1995 at the age of 84.
Let us hope we can build a strong enough movement for
peace and justice that we can turn back the tide of
reaction and the repressive measures that would force a
young talent like Aaron McGruder onto the sidelines.
Frances M. Beal is a political columnist for the San
Francisco Bayview newspaper and National Secretary of
the Black Radical Congress. Contact fmbeal@igc.org
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