<HTML>Oh boy! Yes I do deserve to get called on both statements. Now let's see if I can clarify at least a little. "Everybody" in my case happens to be a small number of African American close friends who get odd and idiosyncratic ideas about many things from some combination of BET and talking to each other. These guys are friends because of other circumstances--one of them is wonderfully adept at home decor--not because we would ever have run into each other at, say political events. I have not talked to them about Boondocks or this particular series, or even Condi Rice. In fact I am a little afraid to ask for fear of finding out they are not engaged enough to know who she is. "Everybody" is most definitely not even all the African Americans I know, and "it" in the same paragraph is really my friends' lack of interest in talking in depth about politics, a problem PARTLY related, if you ask me, to the fact that they don't read as well I think as some circumstances of their education. As I write this I realize that might not be fair, that one could think about issues rigorously without a lot of reading, but these guys seem not oriented to doing that either. As to self-criticism, Uh, I am your typical Tavis Smiley listening, one-time NAACP joining, hopefully well-intentioned but sometimes clueless white person. I am happy to skip Rush's oxycontin addiction and try to write a little more clearly when I dash off random rants. That said, herewith further efforts at clarity of thinking. I reread the entire series of Boondocks strips as well as the Richard Blow article Doug posted. I do not think whether Aaron Magruder has an opinion one way or another as to the lesbian issue is the central point. I think Magruder has a couple characters who are deliberately oblivious about how deeply sexist it is to imply that who Condi Rice does or doesn't sleep with is the only driving factor in her politics.  I am not clear from the get-go where they get the idea that Condi is hellbent on destroying the world or why never a word is mentioned of all her academic accomplishments, only that she is "cold." I see in Magruder's characters one kid, Riley who thinks Huey and Caesar are huge nerds even to be talking about Condi and a couple young black guys who are thrilled when the White House operator blurts out something about seeing Condi with a 40-ouncer of malt liquor. In fabulous comic strip logic Huey and Caesar conclude this means she prefers black guys and one even remarks in the Saturday strip that that pretty much rules out Trent Lott even though "they would have made a cute couple." It sounds to me more like Magruder thinks Condi could or should be every Black kid's wet dream and he means to probe dating dynamics among African Americans or involving powerful women of any race than that he necessarily thinks Condi is a lesbian. Or if anything, the reference to Trent Lott could be a back-handed question: how did a smart woman like Condi get hooked up with all the loser men she works with, even worse loser white men, and worse than that a loser white dude with Trent Lott's history about race relations? Maybe the boys are calling Condi a traitor to the race. Boondocks would not be the first instance of that ever. And why given those lines of thinking would Condi hook up with Black guys like Huey  or Caesar anyway? Richard Blow was the one who stated the lesbian point explicitly, and I am inclined to blow him off, pun definitely intended, with my "welcome to the club" rant about single powerful women always being accused of being lesbians as if that in itself is so terrible. I am inclined to blow that guy off specifically because he spends his whole article using Magruder's strip to wink, wink, nudge, nudge probe all the DC rumors. Then he gets all gushy about how our leaders a human after all and that is why the Washington Post doesn't want to run the Condi Rice strips. In fact I think it would be a lot fairer and less trivializing just to take Condi on within her professional turf the same way one would with any male politician! I do think it's stupid of the Post not to run the strips, but I also recall a bit from Jeane Kirkpatrick, no screaming dyke as far as anyone I know has ever claimed. In her memoirs she wrote about how tiresome it was sometimes to spend all day in rooms full of men who blame every disgreement on "PMS" or I might add among clueless male journalists and cartoonists's teenage boy characters. I have no idea where this leaves Condi and her dating situation, but unlike, say Ah-nold, at least no one is accusing her of pawing and groping all the women that come by. DoreneC Subj: [lbo-talk] Condi a lesbian? Date: 10/21/2003 11:31:25 AM Pacific Daylight Time From: <A HREF="mailto:cbrown@michiganlegal.org">cbrown@michiganlegal.org</A> Reply-to: <A HREF="mailto:lbo-talk@lbo-talk.org">lbo-talk@lbo-talk.org</A> To: <A HREF="mailto:lbo-talk@lbo-talk.org">lbo-talk@lbo-talk.org</A> Sent from the Internet (Details) From: DoreneFC@aol.com First off, I think Magruder is making huge fun of celebrity culture in the Black community where "everyone" talks about who is sleeping with whom but no one can have an articulate conversation about more substantive politics. Okay I admit my sample of "everyone" is pretty skewed but since it's definitely a product of public school plus other social welfare relaities, what the heck. Anyway, Magruder probably still knows way more about that than I do. ^^^^^^^^ Dorene, I'd like to challenge you on these parts of your post. " Everyone" in the Black community talks >about which celebrities are sleeping with whom ? ^^^ Ok "everyone" is in quotes, but I can think of hardly _any_ Black people I know whom I have heard discussing that. It certainly is not a widespread discussion. >No one Black can have an articulate conversation about more substantive politics ? ^^^ That's a doozy, unless it's exaggerated self-criticism. >"it's definitely aproduct of public school plus other social welfare relaities, what the >heck." What is "it" ? The Black community ? That sounds like something Rush Limbaugh would say. Regards, Charles Brown ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk </HTML>