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October 22, 2002
All Over the World
Ok. Valuable lesson yesterday. When I'm tired and grumpy, I get all intellectual. Or what passes for intellectual with me, anyway.
Don't worry, skimming it I'm not sure what the hell I was talking about either.
Over at Bellona Times, Ray Davis writes an insightful but less academia-flavored take on the previous season of Buffy:
In a television series, we can be sure that the regulars will return, no matter how much crap they're dragged through, and we can be sure that they'll stay together, no matter how dreadfully they may have behaved towards each other.
Which quote isn't particularly representative, or much of an indication of what the entry is about. But I didn't want to just say, "This is cool, click the link and read it."
Wait, can I do that?
Jim Romenesko's Media News links to an article in USA Today, of all places, on how 'Boondocks' comic echoes African-American thoughts:
As much as it might pain some to hear this, the barbs offered up by Freeman -- McGruder's black everyman -- closely track the thinking of a broad cross section of African-Americans. That's a truth many of the strip's critics avoid as assiduously as a stroll through an inner-city neighborhood.McGruder's comic strip is an unwavering voice of black consciousness. He is as much the nemesis of the black leaders he believes have gone astray as he is of whites he thinks have undermined the interests of African-Americans.
That makes him a very dangerous black man.
There was also a piece in the Chicago Tribune a few days back.
And to a certain category of readers, [McGruder] has become like a torturer's needles shoved under their fingernails--a persistent source of pain and anger and outrage. In the just-over two years that I have been the Tribune's public editor, rarely has a week gone by without at least one complaint about "The Boondocks." Invariably the complaints are from white readers; I can't recall a single one from someone who said he was black.
Ok, guess they just stopped complaining before he took over. Or stopped reading the strip. Or something, because I'm not buying that clear a racial breakdown on complaints.
Found another mention doing a Google search for that Trib column (which I'd originally seen linked yesterday at, um, Anil Dash's maybe?), from the Atlanta Journal Constitution:
I'm not a "Boondocks" fan. But I am a fan of the First Amendment, which means McGruder has the right to make fun of the president of the United States and to make my life complicated by doing so, which he does -- often.The controversy over this particular strip was compounded by its running in the Sunday comics pages, which are printed in advance and often are not read by news editors before being distributed. (During the week, "The Boondocks" runs inside the Living section, and editors have, in the past, tweaked its language before publication.)
Which is. . . interesting. I didn't know they could do that, and would like to see some examples.
On second thought, I probably wouldn't.
Right, checked, the Trib column was linked where I thought it was. Also followed a link to Identity Theory because I am Sarah Vowell's bitch.
That last link is to an interview with her. It's cool. Click the link and read it.
Posted by Aaron at October 22, 2002 08:28 AM
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