The Boondocks Television Program

The battle between "The Boondocks" creator Aaron McGruder and Black Entertainment Television is about to get a lot more animated. Two second-season episodes of the biting cartoon series that attack the black-themed network but were never aired -- possibly because of corporate pressure -- are slated for DVD release Tuesday.

Aaron McGruder, the Artist Formerly Known as the Angriest Black Man in America, can't stop smiling. In fact, he's busting up, bobbing and weaving as he reacts to the animation unfolding on his living room wall big screen.

The year 2007 has been a vibrant one at the intersection of the black popular sphere and mainstream morals. First came the Imus affair, in which an old white man was lambasted for his use of a derogatory word for women, which he attributed to hip-hop culture. Then, in response to that situation, rap executives were corralled by Oprah Winfrey to defend themselves in an uncomfortable display of cultural class warfare.

Aaron McGruder, creator of "The Boondocks" newspaper strip, will take a six-month sabbatical from the politically charged cartoon beginning March 27. No official reason for the break was given by Universal Press Syndicate, which distributes the strip to 300 newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times. McGruder could not be reached for comment. McGruder for more than a year has been juggling the strip and the animated series it spawned on the Cartoon Network.

ALL around the city, wherever billboards bloom, one has lately seen a drawing of an African American child with a wedge-shaped head and ferociously knitted brows over the words, "I don't mean '*#&%*$' in a disrespectful way."

THE automatic weapon African American junior militant Huey Freeman is aiming at the wealthy white banker visiting his grandfather is just a toy. But there's nothing playful about the hidden Huey's steely eye or the message being delivered by the sniper scope's blood-red laser focused on the unsuspecting target's head. Ten-year-old Huey and his gangsta-wannabe younger brother Riley are trying to fight the powers that be in the suburbs.

Several local African American leaders launched a protest Monday over the use of the N-word on "The Boondocks," an animated series that premiered Sunday on the Cartoon Network. Earl Ofari Hutchinson of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, Najee Ali of Project Islamic Hope and others said they would head a national letter-writing campaign urging network executives and "Boondocks" creator Aaron McGruder to eliminate the word from the series.

"The Boondocks," the controversial new animated series based on the comic strip by Aaron McGruder, delivered record ratings in its Cartoon Network premiere Sunday night. A total of 1.6 million viewers, or roughly as many as for a typical episode of Comedy Central's popular "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart," tuned in for the 11 p.m. show, according to figures from Nielsen Media Research.