Uncle Ruckus (born July 4, 1939) is a fictional character and the primary antagonist of the American animated sitcom The Boondocks. Voiced by Gary Anthony Williams, he first appeared on television in the show's pilot episode on November 6, 2005. Created and designed by cartoonist Aaron McGruder, Ruckus enjoyed great success after appearing in the comic strip of the same name.[1]
Ruckus had a turbulent childhood being raised by his abusive father, Mr. Ruckus, whose abuse is the reason Ruckus has a mismatched glass eye. His mother, Bunny Ruckus had an identity crisis which often led her to criticize fellow African-American people and have a high opinion of white Americans. After being kicked out of his home as a teenager, he traveled to Woodcrest where he worked 47 odd jobs.
He embodies many old American working-class stereotypes as he is crude, short-tempered, obese, clumsy, rule-breaking, and a jack of all trades. One of his most notable traits is his internalized racism; he is an outspoken white supremacist and even claims to be an Irish-American who suffers from "reverse vitiligo".
Despite this, Ruckus maintains a close relationship with Robert Freeman and yearns for social acceptance. Despite the blue-collar routine of his life, he has had a number of remarkable experiences, including work as a recording artist.
Personality
Ruckus has an intense hatred of anything related to African-Americans and goes out of his way to distance himself from them, especially those of older generations. He claims that God says the path to forgiveness for being black is to rebuke one's own race. He is extremely proud of the Irish ancestry he claims to have, although a DNA test showed him to be '102% African with a 2% margin of error'.
Although Ruckus had a terrible father, the main cause of his foul personality and hateful view of the world is his mother who loved him deeply, yet was extremely deluded and damaged and influenced him so. Despite a lifetime of abuse and poor decisions, her conviction that her life would have been better had she been born white resulted in Ruckus wishing that the African-American population was still enslaved or never existed at all. He frequently introduces himself as "Uncle Ruckus, no relation" to indicate that he has no familial connection to the people he is addressing (and because his first name is literally Uncle).
Ruckus frequently expresses white supremacist views and makes derogatory comments about Michael Jackson, calling him a "lucky bastard" for his skin condition, vitiligo. Ruckus claims to have "re-vitiligo," which he believes keeps his skin tone from darkening. He uses a homemade ointment of bleach and sulfur, which he believes helps his condition, though its effectiveness is uncertain.
In a flashback from when he was 20 years old in 1959, he is seen protesting against Martin Luther King Jr.'s marches during the civil rights movement and occasionally throwing bricks at him. Another flashback scene shows Ruckus serving on a Tennessee jury in 1957 that succeeded in convicting a blind black man of supposedly shooting and killing three white girls, with a Winchester rifle from about 50 yards away. Ruckus is the only black person on the otherwise all-white jury in a Jim Crow courtroom. During his first encounter with the Freeman family, Ruckus sings "Don't Trust Them New Niggas Over There" in the pilot episode, though he socializes freely with them afterwards.
Ruckus constantly hurls racism at all things black. On being asked if he supports the use of the word "nigga", he says, "No, I don't think we should use the word, and I'll tell ya why. Because niggas have gotten used to it, that's why. Hell, they like it now. It's like when you growin' crops and you strip the soil of its nutrients and goodness and then you can't grow nothin'. You gotta rotate your racist slurs. Now I know it's hard 'cause 'nigga' just rolls off the tongue the way sweat rolls off a nigga's forehead, but we cannot let that be a crutch. Especially when there are so many fine substitutes: spade, porch monkey, jiggaboo. I say the next time you gonna call a darkie a nigga, you call that coon a jungle bunny instead."
Jobs and lifestyle
Ruckus worships white society and culture, which explains why he lives in Woodcrest. Ruckus claims to like the smell of white people, which he likens to "lemon juice and Pledge". Despite Woodcrest's newfound acceptance of different ethnicities, the neighborhood apparently does not find Uncle Ruckus' racist beliefs problematic. Ruckus can be seen employed in a variety of places performing a number of blue-collar jobs. However, not all members of that community agree with his racist outbursts. Rather, they tend to ignore them due to his constant racist profiling.
Ruckus has held a wide variety of jobs during the series such as a car parking valet, police officer, maitre d', movie theaterusher, and exorcist, as well as working at many of the town's establishments. In the banned episode "The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show", he claims to have 32 jobs over the course of the week, which is why he wakes up at 4:45a.m. every morning. Despite having worked so many jobs, he continues to live in a dilapidated home and drives a beaten-up truck. At one point, he joined the police force after turning down a seven-figure settlement for being wrongfully shot at 118 times, claiming that the officers "were simply doing their job". Even after he becomes an officer, they still beat him on the pretext that "he has a gun". As an officer, he promises to make every black man's life as miserable as he possibly can.[2]
Ruckus also becomes an evangelist after dreaming of going to "White Heaven", preaching that black people must hate their blackness and love the white man to receive entrance.[3] The beginning of this episode is also one of the few moments of the series in which Uncle Ruckus admits, or even suggests, that he is or might be black. The episode starts with Ruckus knocking on Robert's front door with the news that he has been diagnosed with cancer. He proceeds to attempt to describe the specific type of cancer he has been diagnosed with in Latin, but fails to do so and ends it with "or some other big word my small negro brain and big lips can't pronounce".
Although he is over 70 years old and obese, Ruckus is shown to be strong enough to pull a car door off its hinges with ease and is an advanced practitioner of martial arts. He has proved himself to be Huey's equal on multiple occasions with his mastery of nunchaku and incredible acrobatic capability. In the series' second season,[4] a sound-alike variation of "Jabba's Theme" from Return of the Jedi is used as a musical theme for Ruckus, drawing a parallel between the two characters.
In the episode "The Story of Jimmy Rebel", Ruckus records racist songs and sends them to his idol, Jimmy Rebel, a racist songwriter who lives in Spokenhoke, Texas. The songwriter and his label Racist Records love the songs so much that Rebel himself heads down to meet Ruckus. Although he is a black man, Rebel puts this aside. Ruckus introduces himself as Toby, spending two days with Rebel, who brings him to Spokenhoke to record songs with him.
The only episode where Ruckus does not display any animosity toward blacks is "The Story of Gangstalicious Part 2". In the episode "The Color Ruckus", it is revealed that Ruckus' mother told him he was adopted and had white heritage. She also invented the disease re-vitiligo and told Ruckus that it alone was the reason he is physically indistinguishable from a normal black person. His father harshly claimed these explanations were lies meant to protect Ruckus' self-esteem, telling his son that he was "just another black nigga like the rest of us". Ruckus refused to believe his father's words and his mother continued to lie about his heritage.
Relationships
Robert Freeman is the closest thing to a friend that Uncle Ruckus has, though Robert rebukes Ruckus' racist notions. For example, a friendly match of checkers between them ends bitterly after Ruckus makes white supremacist remarks. Ruckus is supportive of Freeman during his training for a rematch with Stinkmeaner and is the only one besides Riley who praises him when he fights and kills Stinkmeaner.[5] Despite all this, Ruckus claims their friendship is a pretense,[6] and that he still sees him as a "nigga". In the episode "The Real," Ruckus is also one of the homeless people that Robert houses.
Uncle Ruckus says in episode, "...Or Die Trying" that he has despised Huey ever since the Freemans' arrival in Woodcrest. For Huey's part, he seems to ignore Uncle Ruckus' racist rantings, knowing that arguing with the man will do little good. However, when Ruckus challenges him to a martial arts showdown, Huey fights him twice - first with a push-broom handle as a staff and later unarmed. Neither fight is shown in its entirety. Huey is seen sitting in the theater manager's office after the first one and the episode ends in a freeze-frame as the second one begins. Both fights appear to be references to the Japanese manga series Fist of the North Star. Ruckus often gets angry at Riley for being a hoodlum, which regularly leads to fights.
Ruckus tolerates the Dubois family, largely due to Sarah's presence since she is white. He believes that Tom is lucky to have Sarah and that she is with him out of pity rather than love, even postulating at one point that she taught him how to read. He does not think much of Jazmine due to her mixed-raced status, pejoratively calling her a "mulatto" and a "little half-and-half". In a moment of relative kindness, he refers to her as a "nice little mixed-breed girl". However, he does seem to hold her superior to a black child, once stating that she is smarter than Riley. In a rare moment, he manages to single-handedly restore her faith in Christmas and in Santa Claus, effectively cheering her up.[7]
Film
McGruder launched a Kickstarter campaign with the aim of raising $200,000 in order to produce a film focusing on Ruckus. The fundraiser, from January 30, 2013 to March 1, 2013, obtained pledges of $129,963.[8] He stated that crowd-funding would be the sole source of funding for the film's budget.[9] The David Brothers of ComicsAlliance expressed concern that a film about the character might not be effective as a racial comedy outside the context of The Boondocks.[10]
Related Research Articles
The Boondocks was a daily syndicated comic strip written and originally drawn by Aaron McGruder that ran from 1996 to 2006. Created by McGruder in 1996 for Hitlist.com, an early online music website, it was printed in the monthly hip hop magazine The Source in 1997. As it gained popularity, the comic strip was picked up by the Universal Press Syndicate and made its national debut on April 19, 1999. A popular and controversial strip, The Boondocks satirizes African American culture and American politics as seen through the eyes of young, African American radical Huey Freeman. McGruder's syndicate said it was among the biggest launches the company ever had.
Aaron Vincent McGruder is an American writer, cartoonist, and producer best known for creating The Boondocks, a Universal Press Syndicate comic strip and its animated TV series adaptation.
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