This letter is in defense of “The Boondocks,” a nationally syndicated comic by Aaron McGruder (“Comic not funny, just bashes race,” SN 11/19).

McGruder is an African American comic artist who created “The Boondocks” to be both a racial and political satire. In the Nov. 8 comic, McGruder made a statement on the history of race relations in the United States.

Since the arrival of the first Africans to the New World, racism has been seen as a primarily white-black issue. During World War II, Japanese Americans were the focus of racial discrimination because of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It is also true that since Sept. 11 there have been events where Arab and Muslim Americans have been victims of discrimination and hate crimes. Events such as these shift the focus of race relations from white-black to white-Japanese or white-Arab.

McGruder is not racially bashing anyone, but using satire to make a statement about race relations since Sept. 11. The author of the Nov. 19 letter on “The Boondocks” is right about one thing: If society is to stop hate based on ethnicity, then The State News must aid in that fight. A strip like “The Boondocks” brings attention to issues to race and ethnicity and allows people to think critically about the history and current state of race relations in the United States.

Teresa Heinle
Spanish senior