Product Description: This scathingly hilarious political satire—produced from a collaboration of three of our funniest humorists—answers the burning question: Would anyone care if East St. Louis seceded from the Union?
East St. Louis, Illinois (“the inner city without an outer city”), is an impoverished town, so poor that Fred Fredericks, its idealistic mayor, starts off Election Day by collecting the city’s trash in his own minivan. But the mayor believes in the power of democracy and rallies his fellow citizens to the polls for the presidential election, only to find hundreds of them turned away for trumped-up reasons. Even sweet old Miss Jackson—not to mention the mayor himself—is denied the vote because her name turns up on a bogus list of felons. The national election hinges on Illinois’s electoral votes and, as a result of the mass disenfranchisement of East St. Louis, a radical right-wing junta led by a dim-witted Texas governor seizes the Oval Office.
Prodded by shady black billionaire and old friend John Roberts, Fredericks devises a radical plan of protest: East St. Louis will secede from the Union. Roberts opens an “offshore” bank (albeit in the heart of the U.S.) to finance the newly liberated country, and suddenly East St. Louis becomes the Switzerland of the American heartland, flush with money. It also begins to attract a motley circus of idealistic young militants, OPEC-funded hitmen, CIA operatives, tabloid reporters, and AWOL black servicemen eager to protect and serve the new nation.
Problems set in almost immediately: Controversies rage over the name and national anthem of the new country (they decide on the Republic of Blackland with an anthem sung to the tune of the theme from Good Times), and local thug Roscoe becomes a warlord and turns his gang into a paramilitary force. When the U.S. military begins to move in, Fredericks is forced to decide whether his protest is worth taking all the way.
Birth of a Nation starts with a scenario drawn from the botched election of 2000 and spins it into a brilliantly absurd work of sharply pointed satire. Along the way the authors lay into a host of hot social and cultural issues—skewering white supremacists, black nationalists, and everyone in between—drawing real blood and real laughs in equal measure in this riotous send-up of American politics.
Continuation of series If you liked Aaron McGruder's previous work, then you'll probably like this one he coauthored with Reginald Hudlin & Kyle Baker. They take a real American town and use "fictitious" issues arising from a questionable problem with voter registration. Quick easy read, funny with enough truthfulness to make you wonder about things.
Welcome to Blackland. To be completely honest, I don't like "The Boondocks". The only time I enjoy reading the comic strip is when the grandfather gets into some sort of argument with the kids. However, I do believe the Aaron McGruder writes some great satire. Some of his it's just too heavy-handed for my tastes. Despite this, I really enjoyed BIRTH OF A NATION. The book is graphic novel that follows some of the citizens of the East St. Louis during the 2000 Presidential Election and their ultimate decision to cede from the United States and form their own country, the Republic of Blackland. The choice isn't easy and seems to cause more problems for the citizens of the community than they had before. The soon have to decide whether they will fight to be free and make their own decisions are give in to political pressure.
The book is hilarious, but it's also full of biting satire. McGruder & Hudlin comment and critique on President George W. Bush's administration, American black culture, social schema that whites have of blacks, and the stereotypes that blacks sometimes purposely proliferate themselves. Our entire society and culture is under the satirical microscope leading one to realize just how difficult it is for things to successfully lead to the BIRTH OF A NATION.
Inappropriate Adult Humor I'm not sure how much Aaron McGruder was really involved in this book but the adult humor was a diappointing departure from the wit of The Boondocks comics. McGruder may be at his best when he is confined by what is acceptable to print in daily newspapers. The characters and drawings were not that appealing either. I have the other 3 books by McGruder and they are funny indeed.
Great fun As always, great fun from Aaron McGruder, one of my current favorites. I love the Boondocks, so I thought I'd try some of his other stuff. His political commentary is spot-on.
Aaron McGruder`s woman problem I purchased this book with high hopes. I'm a fan of the Boondocks comic strip (I actually called the New York Daily News to complain when they pulled the strip after 9/11!) and I regularly watch the animated TV series on Adult Swim.
And, I must say, McGruder does challenge American racism and electoral fraud head on...as I expected.
But, when it comes to the sistas, McGruder falls short...
His mysogynist tendencies, hinted at in the TV version of the Boondocks (most notably in the episode unfortunately entitled ``Guess ho`s coming to dinner``), are full blown here.
With the exception of little kids, old ladies and Condoleeza Rice, all of the Black female characters in Birth of a Nation are presented as loose women of low morals.
Several of the characters (in particular, the lightskinned ones) are drawn with absurdly huge breasts of Pamela Andersonesque proportions.
But, top-heavy or not, pretty much all of the sistas in this book throw themselves at the men, pretty indiscriminately.
In fact, the only moral adult Black woman in the book is the Condolezza Rice stand in!!! Other than her, the only Black women who don't act like hookers are little girls and grandmas.
McGruder`s Black MALE characters have a broad range - honest politicians, sleazy businessmen, viciously cunning gangsters, brave fighter pilots, hard working blue collar guys, young hustlers and comic jokers.
But his Black FEMALE characters are all sleazy loose women, who will do it with anybody...
Is that what Brother Aaron thinks of our sistas???
That alone is reason enough to NOT buy Birth of A Nation
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