After two years of waiting, The Boondocks returns to Adult Swim in bold fashion. It’s A Black President, Huey Freeman takes a unique look at how each of the characters is affected by the 2008 Presidential Election. This episode could set up a serious debate in the near future for all communities. The episode follows real-life German filmmaker Werner Herzog as he documents the historic 2008 Presidential Election to its aftermath. Herzog interviews the Freeman family, their neighbors, and rap artist Thugnificent to gather their thoughts and feelings on the matter. True to life, everyone he interview was swept in Obama-mania.

Grandpa Freeman went on and on about how his so-called struggles within the civil rights era helped shaped the way for Obama to earn the chance of being president. Riley considers Obama the ultimate gangster who can get away with anything. Uncle Ruckus believes that Obama was the devil coming to rein terror. Attorney Tom DuBois sees Obama as the greatest hope for America and his wife Sarah is so obsessed with Obama that we feel that she wants him sexually. Huey Freeman is the only one that’s not giddy about Obama being president. Huey’s only response to Obama being president was that of a shrug. Herzog was disappointed that this lone African-American young man does not share the views with the rest of the community.

When Thugnificent was interview, he wasn’t aware that Obama was running for president. He later joins the bandwagon and even joins rapper Will.i.am for the campaign video Dick Riding Obama. It was funny to see how the rapper try to clean up his image after really getting into the campaign to disastrous results. Instead of appearing to be intelligent, the experience made him into a buffoon for amusement, poor guy.

The episode emphasizes on the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Presidential election. It opened the doors that while of the characters were in support of Obama, none of them realize what he actually stood for. They all had the perception that Obama was the Supreme Being that could change the course of America. McGruder captures the spirit early in the election from both sides of the coin. As we all know, the change that we were promised during the entire election takes time – even for a president. The episode seemed that it was setting up a big speech from Huey in the end about Obama being a stepping stone in the right or wrong direction. This was not achieved and made the episode a bit underwhelming. Huey nearly sighs more than anything else in the episode. In the end, most of the characters were disappointed that Obama was the Supreme Being they made him out to be. He’s a human being with good days and bad. He has not changed the race relations that America deals with on a daily basis.

It was true to form that Herzog stated that Robert Freeman’s election party that every African American in the room felt that he or she was elected president that November 4th. The episode teaches us about change, symbolic and real as it pertains to the last election. When we don’t get real change when we want it, you can easily be disappointed. The characters in the episode all hoped for that symbolic change that could make this world a better place. Maybe we find out in our lifetime, until then all we can do is hope and watch the next Boondocks for our entertainment.

FINAL GRADE: B-

About The Author

Dean Rogers

Editor-in-Chief/Entertainment Reporter

I knew early on that I wanted to take my place among the stars. One day, my mother saw me reading The Washington Post at a very young age. Who would have known that it would be the building blocks of my journey? Since that day, I dedicated my life to learn all that is learnable. I read everything from encyclopedias, to books, to dictionaries, to magazines. I’m also an avid consumer of television, with my favorite genre being game shows. If you’ve seen me on Who Wants to be a Millionaire or Wheel of Fortune, then you know that this interest has served me well!

My unique style of reporting began back in junior high school, when I started to chronicle the events that shaped my life. Whether it was the annual family vacation or the local science fiction convention, I shot numerous pictures and recorded my thoughts so I could truly appreciate the history. During my senior year at Friendly High, I wrote what was to be my first masterpiece, “Advanced Space Academy – A One Week Journey.” I sent the eleven-page article back to the U.S. Space Camp staff. The article was highly praised for being “one of the best written articles in the history of U.S. Space Camp.” From then on, I knew what I wanted to do for rest of my life — to be a reporter.

Since then, I have trained in Broadcast Journalism at Bowie State University (2008) in Bowie, MD earning a B.S. in Communications. I gained experience in news production and editing through field experiences with Bowie Community Media Corporation, Prince George’s Community Television, and Bowie State University Television. I also wrote scripts for a variety of quiz shows for over five years.

As a lifelong movie buff, I now see close to 100 films every year. I took this love of movies to the next step when I became a co-host for Eclipse Magazine TV in the fall of 2005. While at EMTV, I interviewed celebrities, worked red carpets, and attended a wide variety of movie screenings. In January 2009, I took a leap of faith and started my own entertainment news magazine, The Rogers Revue. Shortly afterward, my life-long journey of studying the silver screen and writing about what I learned finally earned me a place in the Washington Area Film Critics Association.

All of this has led me here, giving you the latest entertainment news for the DMV and the entire nation, and I am truly excited for whatever will come next.

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