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12 Graphic Blackness/Anime Noir aaron mcgruder’s THE BOONDOCKS and the adult swim deborah elizabeth whaley dr. martin luther king jr: I want young men and young women who are alive today to know and to see that these new privileges and opportunities did not come without somebody suffering and sacrificing for them. response: Whatever, NIGGA. —“The Return of the King,” The Boondocks Aaron McGruder’s “The Return of the King” (2006) is one of many of the artist’s controversial episodes, yet it stands out because of the criticism it received among mainstream media outlets and civil rights leaders.1 It was the ninth episode to air from his series The Boondocks, which is an anime show that airs on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim cable channel. McGruder presents the following scenario in “The Return of the King”: What if Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) did not die after his April 4, 1968, shooting and instead awoke after being in a coma for thirty-two years? How would he assess racial progress in the United States today, and how would the masses and the country’s leaders perceive his politics? McGruder’s answer to this question is that if MLK were alive today, America would see him as naïve at best, or as an unpatriotic traitor at worst. He asserts that Martin Luther King Jr.’s calm demeanor would transform to outrage given his perception of political apathy within African America in the twenty-first century. In McGruder’s episode, nihilism among a portion of the Black masses provokes MLK to organize a quasi-political rally to galvanize them into political action.2 Unbeknownst to King, his audience attends the rally not because they are interested in political transformation; rather, they attend the event because they believe they are there for a chance to win tickets to a rap concert. McGruder’s episode reveals an interception of MLK’s dream for the masses of Black Americans. Instead of the dream, McGruder’s King sees only a 187 Bakhtinian carnival of an irrepressible nightmare.3 As MLK approaches a podium to speak to the group, he finds that the crowd’s laughter, fighting, loud talking, and signifying on each other mute his relatively soft-spoken voice. After bearing witness to audience members who sucker punch and kick each other, inhale malt liquor, and dance to hip hop music in hoodies (men) or scanty outfits (women), MLK, as the show’s voice-over says, “did what all great leaders do. He told them the truth.” In an inflective mixture of religious oratory, hip hop intellectual bravado, and seething outrage, he berates the unruly audience by shouting: mlk: Will you ignorant Niggas please shut the hell up? crowd: Huh? What? Did he just say what I think he said? (The room falls silent as the crowd freezes in their tracks). mlk: Is this it? This is what I got all those ass whoopings for? I had a dream. It was a dream that little black boys and little black girls would drink from the river of prosperity, free from the thirst of oppression. But lo and behold, some four decades later, what have I found but a bunch of trifling, shiftless, good for nothing Niggas. And I know some of you don’t want to hear me say that word. It is the ugliest word in the English language, but that is what I see right now: Niggas. And you don’t want to be a Nigga. ’Cause Niggas are living contradictions. Niggas are full of unfulfilled ambitions. Niggas wax and wane; Niggas love to complain. Niggas love to hear themselves talk, but hate to explain. Niggas love being another man’s judge and jury. Niggas procrastinate until it’s time to worry. Niggas love to be late. Niggas hate to hurry . . . I’ve seen what’s around the corner. I’ve seen what’s over the horizon, and I promise, you Niggas have nothing to celebrate. And no, I won’t get there with you. I’m going to Canada!4 Outside of its die-hard fan base, the Boondocks series largely ran under the radar until television promotions began to air on several networks announcing the MLK episode. They provided brief snippets of the civil rights icon unable to relate to what McGruder illustrates as a post-9/11, hyperpatriotic, nearly apocalyptic “hip-hopscape.” On the MLK holiday, which was the night...

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