Without so much as an apologetic note to readers, the Austin American-Statesman‘s editors/humor police last week refused to run a controversial, weeklong storyline of The Boondocks, the comic strip drawn by popular African-American cartoonist Aaron McGruder. The series depicted a reality/game show in the style of The Apprentice. Instead of Donald Trump, the show was hosted by rap mogul Russell Simmons and titled Can a N***a Get a Job?
“We looked at the content and we wanted to be sensitive to our readers,” said Statesman Executive Features Editor Kathy Blackwell. In general, it’s the paper’s policy to either replace an offensive word or not run it – “We don’t use asterisks,” she said.
Instead, the Statesman simply reran older Boondocks strips. Of the more than 300 papers carrying The Boondocks, Universal Press Syndicate spokeswoman Kathie Kerr says she has heard of only five that didn’t publish the series, including The Washington Post and the Statesman. Others, like the Sacramento Bee and Dallas Morning News, used the series as an occasion to write about racial stereotypes.
Ironically, due to a production error, the Statesman accidentally ran the final episode of the series, asterisks and all, in the Sept. 25 paper. As of press time, Blackwell said she hadn’t received a single complaint.
This article appears in October 1 • 2004.