For our media piece we are going to analysis the TV show the Boondocks. The Boondocks was first aired on November 6,2005 and it ended on August 15,2010. It was created by Aaron McGruder. It had 3 seasons. The Boondocks takes place in the South Side of Chicago, Illinois and it follows the Freeman family. Which is Huey Freeman, Riley Freeman, and Robert “Granddad” Freeman. We are analysis two episodes they are called “The Swine Chicken Flu” and “Guess Hoes Coming For Dinner”.
The plot for “The Swine Chicken Flu” is that KFC came out with a new type of chicken and instead of 12 herbs and spices they now have 13 herbs and spices and it is the talk of the town. Suddenly there is an epidemic spreads around the town and they do not know what caused it. Huey has been preparing for an epidemic for years and he only prepared for his family and no one else. All the Freeman's friends from there neighborhood ends up going to there house. One of there friends Tom ends up getting the Swine Chicken Flu and everyone has to evacuate from the house. Later on in the episode they realize that the epidemic is from the new chicken.
Some of the stereotypes in this episode are that they think that all African Americans people only eat chicken and that African americans get angry when they do not get there food.
The plot for “Guess Hoes Coming For Dinner” is that Granddad meets a girl at a grocery store and her name is “Crystal like the Champagne”but she is a “hoe” and granddad is extremely lonely, and Riley and Huey try to tell him but he does not care. Crystal like the Champagne ends up moving into the house with the Freeman family and lives off of grandpas money. All the clues lead up to Crystal like the Champagne of being a hoe but Granddad will not listen. Crystal like the Champagne was becoming a huge problem for the Freeman’s so Riley and Huey got photographs of Crystal like the Champagne but she lied and grandpa believed her because he loved her, so Huey called A Pimp Named Slickback which is her pimp and he came to get Crystal like the Champagne. Granddad tried to change Crystal like the Champagne’s mind but it did not work and she went back to her pimp.
Some of the stereotypes in this episode are that they think that African American girls are not treated as fairly as the African American men. It also shows how they portray as African Americans as very violent and vulgar people.
In our opinion The Boondocks reinforces these stereotypes. They do not challenge them at all. The show reminds us of a what the media would call a stereotypical “African American family.” The show talks about relevant issues but we do not think anyone takes them seriously because it is a comedy. If the show had a more serious approach maybe the messages would get across. We also think that the Boondocks focuses more on the negative stereotypes than the positive ones. The show never really talks about anything school related they just focus on the obvious negative stereotypes.
The lesson we learned from our research was that African Canadians/ African Americans are not represented well in the media. Most TV shows that focus on African Canadians/ African Americans have more than one stereotype in the show. Most of these shows are reinforcing the stereotypes and not challenging them. The only show that challenges the stereotypes is “The Wire”. It shows good guys who are bad and bad guys who are good. For example Omar Little is a bad guy who is good He is basically Robin Hood. Our form of media creates a better understanding of African Canadians/ African Americans because it shows people that you can not believe everything you see on television and the media does not always portray people like they actually are.
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