Comprehensive information and links about Aaron McGruder

Aaron McGruder (born May 29, 1974Aaron McGruder is an African American comic strip author, best known for writing and drawing , a strip dealing with various issues involving African American culture and American politics.

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Biography

McGruder was born in Chicago, Illinois, and moved to Columbia, Maryland as a child. He attended the University of Maryland, graduating with a degree in African American Studies. , in late 1997. He created and worked on the comic while working at the Presentation Graphics Lab on campus.

McGruder now lives in Los Angeles, where he is working on projects including a Boondocks animated series. He is also the co-author, with Reginald Hudlin, of a graphic novel, , drawn by cartoonist Kyle Baker and published in 2004, and a frequent public speaker on political and cultural issues.

In 2002, he was contacted by the United States Green Party, which asked him to run for president on the party ticket. McGruder was forced to decline the offer, as at 28 he was too young to serve. That same year, McGruder gave a Keynote speech at H2K2.

Controversy

The content of McGruder's comic strip has often come under fire for being too politically liberal, and occasionally risque, leading to its being published in the op-ed section of many newspapers. For example, a strip making fun of BET's rap videos which rely on lewd female gyrations and a strip which mocked Whitney Houston's drug problems have been pulled out of circulation for emphasizing the derrier and marijuana use, even if they were done so in parody. McGruder has also received hate mail for his unflattering portrayal of white racism, and garnered significant attention after 911, when he alluded to Ronald Reagan's support of Osama bin Laden. He "censored" the strip by featuring a patriotic yellow ribbon and a flag instead of the usual cast.

Several of his strips were briefly pulled from prominent publications like the , specifically his "Condi needs a man" strip in which Huey and Caesar create a personal ad for Condi Rice, portraying her as a "female Darth-Vader type". The also declined to run "Can a Nigga Get a Job?" which had black contestants compete on a reality television show to work for Russell Simmons, only to find that all the contestants were rude and lazy. This unflattering portrayal drew the ire of many in the black community.

Libertarian commentator Larry Elder took exception to one strip in which in Huey and Caesar discuss naming the "Most Embarrasing Black Person of the Year Awards" the "Elder". Elder published an opinion piece in which he created "The McGruders" to the same effect, naming liberal commentators and including five quotes from McGruder, to whom Elder awarded his fictional award. Little more has been said on the matter since.

At the same time, Mr. McGruder has himself amassed controversy, specifically following his visit with Fidel Castro in Cuba after requested to do so by California Congresswoman Barbara Lee.

At the NAACP Image Awards in 2002, it is said that he was approached by then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, who asked if McGruder would include her in his comic strip. McGruder allegedly replied "I don't draw mass murderers," although he did later include her in the strip for May 20, 2004.

After the launch of the cartoon based on

In 2005, McGruder refused an interview with an Atlanta radio station (WNNX 99X) because of its predominantly white demographic.

In January 2006, Adult Swim ordered a second season of McGruder's "The Boondocks," which was the highest rated original series for the network to date.*