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 gangsta-wannabe, the strip explores issues involving African American culture and American politics. May 29 is the 149th day of the year (150th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Flag Seal Nickname: The Windy City Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location Location in Chicagoland and northern Illinois Coordinates , Government Country State Counties United States Illinois Cook, DuPage Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 606. ... For the album by the Kaiser Chiefs see Employment (album) Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. ... May 29 is the 149th day of the year (150th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Flag Seal Nickname: The Windy City Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location Location in Chicagoland and northern Illinois Coordinates , Government Country State Counties United States Illinois Cook, DuPage Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 606. ... Official language(s) English[1] Capital Springfield Largest city Chicago Largest metro area Chicago Area  Ranked 25th  - Total 57,918 sq mi (149,998 km²)  - Width 210 miles (340 km)  - Length 390 miles (629 km)  - % water 4. ... Cartoonist Jack Elrod at work. ... For the originating definition of Boondocks, see Boondock. ... Universal Press Syndicate, an Andrews McMeel Universal company, provides syndication for a number of lifestyle and opinion columns, comics, and various other content. ... This article is about the comic strip, the sequential art form as published in newspapers and on the Internet. ... Nickname: Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location in the Chicago metro area and Illinois Coordinates: , Country United States State Illinois County Cook & DuPage Settled 1770s Incorporated March 4, 1837 Government  - Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) Area  - City  234. ... Housing subdivision near Union, Kentucky, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio. ... Huey Newton Dr. Huey Percy Newton (February 17, 1942 – August 22, 1989), was co-founder and inspirational leader of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, a black internationalist/racial equality organization that began in October 1966. ... Gangsta can refer to: Eye dialect/Slang for a member of a gang, a gangster. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

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 two 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. Seal of the National Transportation Safety Board The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is a U.S. government independent organization responsible for investigation of accidents involving aviation, highway, marine, pipelines and railroads in the United States. ... Official language(s) None (English, de facto) Capital Annapolis Largest city Baltimore Area  Ranked 42nd  - Total 12,407 sq mi (32,133 km²)  - Width 90 miles (145 km)  - Length 249 miles (400 km)  - % water 21  - Latitude 37°53N to 39°43N  - Longitude 75°4W to 79°33... The Society of Jesus (Latin: Societas Iesu), commonly known as the Jesuits, is a Roman Catholic religious order. ... Main article: Secondary education High school is a name used in some parts of the world, and particularly in North America, to describe the last segment of compulsory education, which is otherwise known as secondary education. ... For the similarly named school in Millbrae, see Mills High School Oakland Mills High School was established in 1973 as one of the first high schools to service the Columbia, Maryland area. ... The University of Maryland, College Park (also known as UM, UMD, or UMCP) is a public university located in the city of College Park, in Prince Georges County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C., in the United States. ... A student newspaper is a newspaper run by students of a university, high school, or middle school. ... The University of Maryland, College Park (also known as UM, UMD, or UMCP) is a public university located in the city of College Park, in Prince Georges County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C., in the United States. ... Jayson Blair (born March 23, 1976, Columbia, Maryland) is an African American and former New York Times reporter who was forced to resign from the newspaper in May 2003, after he was caught plagiarizing and fabricating elements of his stories. ... WMUC 88. ...

McGruder presently lives in Los Angeles, California, where his projects include the Boondocks animated TV series. He is also the co-author, with Reginald Hudlin, of a 2004 graphic novel, Birth of a Nation, drawn by cartoonist Kyle Baker, and a frequent public speaker on political and cultural issues. Nickname: Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates: , State California County Los Angeles County Settled 1781 Incorporated April 4, 1850 Government  - Type Mayor-Council  - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa  - City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo  - Governing body City Council Area  - City  498. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... The Boondocks is an American animated television series produced for Cartoon Networks Adult Swim programming block, based on the comic strip of the same name. ... An animated television series or cartoon television series is a television series produced by means of animation. ... Reginald Alan Hudlin (born December 15, 1961) is an American writer and film director. ... Trade paperback of Will Eisners A Contract with God (1978), often mistakenly cited as the first graphic novel. ... Kyle Baker (born 1965 in Queens, New York City, United States) is an American writer and illustrator of comic books as well as an animator. ...

Controversy

The content of McGruder's comic strip has often come 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 lewd female gyrations, and a strip mocking Whitney Houston's drug problems were pulled out of circulation^{[citation needed]} for emphasizing her buttocks and marijuana use, even though done as parody. McGruder has also received hate mail for his unflattering portrayal of white racism,^{[citation needed]} 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. In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition... An Op-Ed is a piece of writing expressing an opinion. ... Black Entertainment Television is an American cable network based in Washington, D.C. targeted toward African-American audiences in the United States. ... Hip hop music is a style of popular music. ... Whitney Elizabeth Houston (born on August 9, 1963), is a multiple Grammy Award winning American R&B/Pop Diva, actress, film producer, and former fashion model. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... A Cannabis sativa plant The drug cannabis, also called marijuana, is produced from parts of the cannabis plant, primarily the cured flowers and gathered trichomes of the female plant. ... In contemporary usage, a parody is a work that imitates another work in order to ridicule, ironically comment on, or poke some affectionate fun at the work itself, the subject of the work, the author or fictional voice of the parody, or another subject. ... Because racism carries connotations of race-based bigotry, prejudice, violence, oppression, stereotyping or discrimination, the term has varying and often hotly contested definitions. ... A sequential look at United Flight 175 crashing into the south tower of the World Trade Center The September 11, 2001 attacks (often referred to as 9/11—pronounced nine eleven or nine one one) consisted of a series of coordinated terrorist[1] suicide attacks upon the United States, predominantly... Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981 – 1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967 – 1975). ... Yellow ribbon flown in 1979 by Penne Laingen when her husband, US diplomat Bruce Laingen, was held captive during the Iran hostage crisis; among the first of the modern yellow ribbons. ...

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", resulted in The Washington Post withholding a week's worth of strips, the longest such suspension ever by the paper — whose ombudsman, Michael Getler, later sided with McGruder. ^{[1] [2]} 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.^{[citation needed]}
Seal of the United States Department of State. ... Condoleezza Rice (born November 14, 1954) is the 66th United States Secretary of State, and the second in the administration of President George W. Bush to hold the office. ... Darth Vader is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe. ... The Washington Post is the largest newspaper in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. ... Reality television is a genre of television programming which presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and features ordinary people instead of professional actors. ... Russell Simmons (born October 4, 1957 in Queens, New York), is an American entrepreneur, the co-founder, with Rick Rubin, of the pioneering hip-hop label Def Jam, founder of another label, Russell Simmons Music Group, and creator of the clothing fashion line Phat Farm. ...

Conservative black commentator Larry Elder took exception to one strip in which Huey and Caesar discuss the "Most Embarrassing Black Person of the Year Awards", which they dub the "Elder". Elder published an opinion piece in which he created the "McGruders" to the same effect, naming liberal commentators and including five quotes from McGruder, to whom Elder awarded his fictional award. This article deals with conservatism as a political philosophy. ... Larry Elder Laurence Allen Larry Elder (born April 27, 1952 in Los Angeles, California) aka the Sage from South Central is an American libertarian-minded Republican radio and former TV talk show host and author whose The Larry Elder Show is nationally syndicated on ABC Radio Networks. ...

McGruder also amassed controversy following his visit with Fidel Castro in Cuba, after being requested by California Congresswoman Barbara Lee to make the trip.^{[citation needed]} Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born on August 13, 1926) is the current President of Cuba but on indefinite medical hiatus. ... Type Bicameral Houses Senate House of Representatives United States Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D since January 4, 2007 Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D since January 4, 2007 Members 535 plus 4 Delegates and 1 Resident Commissioner Political groups (as of November 7, 2006 elections) Democratic Party Republican... Barbara Jean Lee (born July 16, 1946), American politician, has been a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 1998, representing Californias 9th congressional district (map) and is the first woman to represent that district. ...

Footnotes

References

• The New Yorker profile
• Aaron McGruder Website
• Aaron McGruder at IMDb
• The Onion (Nov. 23, 2005): "The A.V. Club" interview
• Ka Leo O Hawai‘i article: Cartoonist discusses politics and TV premiere(November 3, 2005)