Return of the King

"Season 1 Episode 9 "Return of the King"" The Boondocks. Cartoon Network.

This media portfolio entry is about an episode of the popular comic strip turned cartoon show The Boondocks. I choose this item because it really made me think about how civil rights leaders of the 1960’s might perceive the current state of affairs in the black community. The idea to explore historical yet fictional portrayal of Dr Martin Luther King came to me after reading Kindred. The episode received a tremendous amount of media scrutiny and rightfully so. It dealt with a very creative scenario that had Dr. Martin Luther King being the recipient of a non-lethal gunshot.

King falls into a coma and wakes up in early 2001. A typical multimedia promotional tour spawned a film about Dr King’s live entitled “King” as well as a book. The timing of the release of the movie is the key, as it comes out September 21, 2001 (ten days after 9/11). While out promoting the movie on Politically Incorrect, Dr King reiterates his philosophy of non-violent intervention only to find out that it runs contrary to the mood of the country. He is branded a coward and is voted one of the top ten most unpatriotic Americans by Time magazine. After a period of depression Dr King joins with Huey Freeman (a main character on the show) to form the first African American political party. The movement starts out with some real momentum but quickly spirals out of Dr King’s control upon hiring an urban promotion specialist. The situation comes to a head when Dr King and Huey are forced to bribe a doorman to get into the very first meeting of their political party. Inside they find that there is less attention being paid to the political aspects of the movements and that the emphasis had shifted to the party. After witnessing what can only be described as stereotypical and exaggerated behavior including a rapper truce, a pandering preacher, and the inevitable fight; Dr King delivers a fiery speech condemning of the group’s behavior. Dr King’s fierce chiding of the assembly comes to a head when he utters the word nigger. The crowd is shocked but captivated, and at the end of the speech he announces that he is moving to Canada. The empowering speech sets in motion a series of events that culminate in the election of Oprah Winfrey to President of the United States.

The episode had some real close connection to Wright’s “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow” article. The media attention and particularly the condemnation by the Rev Al Sharpton given to the episode seem to have the same sort of feel that the main character of “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow” must have had in the optical factory. Regardless of whether creator Aaron Magruder was right or wrong regarding the portrayal of blacks in America it seemed that because he used the n word he cannot be made out to have any legitimacy.

Personally I feel great respect and admiration for Aaron Magruder. He has shown real moral fortitude to question the behavior of his fellow blacks. Not only did he confront the establishment and leadership of the black community, he did it with creativity and humor. Should we take the cartoon too seriously; absolutely not, however there is real value in the exercise of speculating what the civil rights leaders of the 1960’s would think of the current state of the black community.