Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder is back with ‘Black Jesus”, and true to form, he has everyone pissed off
by Shimbo
Black folks have a problem with satire.
Well, that might be a little heavy-handed, but to a certain extent it’s true. Take for example, “Black Jesus” premiering tonight on Adult Swim. The latest venture from “Boondocks” creator Aaron McGruder, this 30-minute live action sitcom has all the makings of an instant classic that will aggravate every sanctimonious Christian and professional moralist from here to next week.
Yesterday, I stumbled upon a conversation on Facebook (yeah, I know) where one of my more religious friends seemed to be having a bit of a fit that “Black Jesus” even existed. For her, a black woman, the very notion that Jesus would return to the hood was “stereotypical” and “blasphemous”. That alone piqued my interest, because any opportunity to break someone’s balls over irrational deity worship was not unlike drinking breast milk from an actual angel.
While I’d been aware of the project as the purported reason McGruder was unable to return to what ended up being a pretty lackluster final season of “Boondocks”, I hadn’t seen anything from the show until last night, when an extended trailer from YouTube popped up.
Once seeing it, I couldn’t stop watching. Soon after, hell, almost immediately after, I determined that “Black Jesus” was an instant classic, and the most important sitcom in years. Starring Slink Johnson as the brown-skinned savior, the show is a full-on satire of not only the black community, but also the relationship the community has with religion itself. When I read what my friend said, and why she was so offended, I realized that not only was the show hitting too close to home for her, I realized that she (and others like her) were exactly the reason why the show exists in the first place.
Seeing the stereotypes of hood life, juxtaposed against the imagery of a dark-skinned Christ show just how blurred the lines are between fact and fiction. Those in the black community complain about how people of color are portrayed in entertainment. For many, the negative stereotypes cast a pall over black folks in general, thereby skewing the view of an entire culture based on the lowest common denominator.
The problem I have with this line of thought is that all too often, we want to sweep our stereotypes under the rug and pretend that they don’t exist in real life, when a look into most neighborhoods in places like South Central Los Angeles, look exactly like what you see in movies, TV and music videos. We can’t necessarily hope for change when we’re unwilling to confront the very stereotypes that are steeped in reality.
Slink Johnson (center) as the titular dark savior with, from left, Corey Holcomb, Andrew Bachelor, Kali Hawk and Andra Fuller, Thursdays on Adult Swim.
Seeing a black Christ-figure smoke weed or turn water into Cognac is jarring for the devout, but it is also a mirror into the things that beset and often plague black folks in reality. Satire such as this gives us a level of reality that many are too afraid to face, but absolutely should.
Our neighborhoods are in decay, and so often we treat ourselves and each other like shit for six days out of the week, but when Sunday comes, some black folks put on such a level of piety, one is forced to determine what’s real and what’s bullshit. “Black Jesus”, at least so far, deftly holds a mirror up to that false piety, and that’s going to have some people pissed off by default.
For others outside the black community, “Black Jesus” represents the ultimate form of blasphemy, as their vaunted lord and savior is made into a caricature and a mockery. Conservative harpy watchdog group One Million Moms, run by the homophobic, and ironically named American Family Association, released a statement denouncing “Black Jesus” because, as they put it:
“Adult Swim is not ridiculing any other religion currently and wouldn’t dream of mocking Mohammed or Muslims. If we speak with one voice now, we can keep this program from ever seeing the light of day.
Christians must take a stand and not be silent. Networks like Adult Swim continue to mock Christianity, and we will not stand for it. Christians should no longer sit idly by and allow this blasphemy to continue without speaking up in protest. “Black Jesus” is anoher (sic) attempt to distort the truth about Christianity.”
One can’t help but wonder if they’re aggravated more by seeing Jesus drink and smoke, or because this Jesus is black. They ironically decry the depiction of Jesus in an economically depressed area surrounded by violence and temptation, because, of course, the real Jesus H. Christ spread his gospel in the upper-middle class suburbs of Jerusalem, an area known for its cleanliness and lack of violence.
For their part, Adult Swim said “Black Jesus is a satire and one interpretation of the message of Jesus played out in modern-day morality tales; and despite what some may consider a controversial depiction of Jesus, it is not the intent to offend any race or people of faith.”
That black evangelicals and ultra-conservative Christian organizations are pissed off means that everything about “Black Jesus” is exactly what it should be. Satire is a vital way for us as a society to course correct every once in awhile. We get too far up our own asses for our own good, and shows like this help us realize that no matter how serious we think it all is, it really isn’t, and sometimes we need dark (no pun intended) humor to shine a light on our collective bullshit with the hope that one day, society will pull its head out of its own ass long enough to see what’s really going on in the world.
“Black Jesus” airs Thursday nights on Adult Swim.
Hashim R. Hathaway (Uncle Shimbo) is the host of the Never Daunted Radio Network, and proud father to NeverDaunted.Net. You can reach him on Twitter @NeverDauntedNet