TIR PRESENTS POP LIFE ft. JASON MYLES Ep. 10: The Boondocks and Black Culture ft.Bertrand Cooper
One of the most groundbreaking shows in the last 20 years that did a masterful job of telling stories of race and class was Aaron McGruder’s Boondocks from 2005. The show opens with one of it’s main characters, Huey Freeman, a young Black 10 year old boy who’s just been transplanted from his South Side Chicago home to live with his 8 year old brother with their grandfather in the fictional suburban town of Woodcrest. Huey is telling a captive older rich white audience that “Jesus was black, Ronald Reagan is the devil, and the government is lying about 9/11” the white audience erupts into chaotic violence from the words spoken by Huey Freeman. These words, to Huey, are the truth, and white people are never to hear the truth because according to his grandfather, “you never tell white people the truth”. The scene is just a dream, but later in the episode Huey gets a chance to utter the words again, hoping they will be the spark to start the revolution, but he is shocked to find that nothing happens. The captive audience of rich white people simply clap. They patronizingly compliment him on how well he speaks and don’t seem to fear his condemnation of the system, or his utterance of “truth”.
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