1. Willie Moultrie
RCAH 390 Jackson
Major Paper 3
Black Talk In Comics: Power, Language, and Diversifying Cultural
Understanding
“Aaron McGruder just might be the most dangerous black man in America. But you
won't find his mug shot on the FBI's "10 most wanted" list, and the CIA isn't stalking
his trail. McGruder is neither a threatening al-Qaeda operative nor a ruthless crack-
cocaine drug lord. He's a cartoonist.”
“If this dig made conservatives chuckle, a strip a few days later probably wiped the
grins off their faces. "Some people in other countries are comparing Bush to Adolf
Hitler because of his warmongering," a Boondocks character says of the president.
"That's preposterous; even I wouldn't compare him to Hitler," another responded. "I
mean, Hitler was democratically elected. Wasn't he?"” (Wicham, A11)
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2. This article from USA today in 2012 captivates in a sense a pleather of words
to boldly describe not just a Black man in McGruder’s position, but also any black
man with a voice. A cartoonist.. A man that creatively expresses himself within the
public sphere, using his words and art to share his perspective is now a public
enemy? What interests me about the previous quotes is how language is being used
to describe Aaron McGruder as dangerous, but does having an opinion on something
makes you a threat? Why would a Black artist be any type of social threat, and what
is happening when we use this type of language to describe people and their
actions? My point is that we must be very attentive when this happens; overall,
language is power when it comes down to it. One word such as “dangerous” paints
the entire picture with no need of any other commentary. Black language has it’s
complex issues inside and out of the African American community, and with it’s fight
against opposing forces; language regulation in the educational space, along with it’s
failure to address larger linguistic issues of systematical racism through denouncing
Black language in the public and educational sphere (Delpit, Perry) has fueled the
fire to the social-linguistic issues we have today. The outrage such as the remarks
and negative comments made toward McGruder could have more to do with the
audience—the youth taking in this type of social commentary of political dogma and
social hierarchal problems, and its potential to influence great numbers of people at
a time. This study has more to do with the influential, cultural, and knowledge value
that comes with Black comics upon the Black youth, the significance of Black
language used in the comics and it’s authenticity of African American Language
features, and the comparison of Black Language versus slang or an negative

3. connotation of Black Language may share similarities or have variations. I will view
an issue of a comic written by an African American writer and then analyze its
content for AAL features, and identify variations in context of AAL or negative
connotations. The comic being viewed is written by Dwayne McDuffie titled Shadow
Cabinet of DC Comics. I think Black comics, or at least good black comics is
significant in understanding other ways of looking at authentic Black Language, and
that’s what is so special about Black writers. They understand theoretical linguistic
behavior of both worlds black and white, and specifically know when and how to
use Black language in writing in an esthetic manner.
African American comic strips made its first appearance in newspapers
during the 20s, where there were a few known newspapers that were ran by African
Americans, (Howard, Jackson, 13) and the depression had made the industry of
newspaper comic strip boom; more people looked to humor during hard times.
When African American comic strips left the newspapers onto actual books, Black
comics became more about the cultural and intellectual stimulant of the people and
less about the satirical value, while aimed more at consciously thinking about how
Black language could and should work within a comic. There were many advisories
along the way, (black-balling of black comic strips, racial discrimination) of the early
black comic strips, but the Golden era of comics, and afterwards brought about
access to a whole new perspective of black comics.
The Shadow Cabinet Issue #1: To Save Humanity From Itself

4. McDuffie’s The Shadow Cabinet has been apart of the DC Universe before its
own series, being cameo casted as side characters in McDuffie’s famous Static series
under DC Comics. Debuted in 1994, The Shadow Cabinet is a secret group of super
humans whose sole purpose is to protect the world from threats and terror. The
series ended in 2010 due to the franchise revamp of most to all DC characters and
storylines.
On the first few pages there’s not much to talk about in relevance. On page 4
though, there is something interesting happening. There is a scene inside of a
restaurant in Brooklyn, and there are four girls sitting a table having general
conversation. It is an interracial group of friends, black and white just hanging out
and talking. What’s fascinating is that the dialect being used is definitely not
specifically a form of Standard English nor shows any signification of AAL, but it also
doesn’t enforce negative stereotypes of Black people. The girls are talking in a
”valley girl” style that is identified more with a pop culture style of language and
how girls may communicate. “I know. He’s like completely—“ or “So I’m like, get a
clue! And he’s like, whatever!” are examples of how the writer is challenging
stereotypes of how language barriers may disrupt the linguistic value in between
social groups, but rather Black language is still valued within these bounds of
communication. What the audience could take from this instance would pertain to
not be so reluctant to support or disapprove of Black language (Delpit). On page 13,

5. the group of the Shadow Cabinet meets each other for the first time, while escaping
an island that they were held captive on because of their powers. This is their first
meeting, and they all understand why they are on the island, so they began to tell
the stories of how they got there. The first guy tells his story of being a
photojournalist in the past. His dialect is much different from the other two
characters. “—Even if he did ask me to help out in return. Since then, I mostly been
gettin’ into trouble, fighting the system.” Is one example of the writer using AAL in
an authentic manner that correlates to the correct syntax and structure of the
language. “I mostly been” is a prime example of Black language being used correctly.
“But what I was really into investigate journalism. Shuttin’ down the big-money
dudes, y’ know?” is another example of him using the language in an esthetically
pleasing manner. The call back signification (Smitherman) being used displays how
McDuffie is using parts of Black language that is not enforcing stereotypes but
acknowledging intellectual stigmas that exist to ridicule the value and complexity of
Black culture. In terms of seeking more AAL features the most significant one found
in this issue was of a callback signification (Smitherman).
Discussion/Conclusion
There were different variations of language being used in way that was not
satirical. McDuffie gives the audience an authentic representation of the language
and image of black culture and people, and this is significant when acknowledging

6. how the language/cultural barriers are broken within this comic, and how the
misconception of Black culture and language is not evident. McDuffie pushes great
ideas of gaining cultural understanding, and makes us ask a question such as how
does this pertain to educational problem for black children? The progress of the
education issue with the black youth has to come from cultural understanding and
language understanding from the educator’s perspective, and I feel that black
comics such as this one does a great job of delivering social and cultural
understanding to the youth that linguistic intervention through education couldn’t
do alone. Black comics provide us with more attuned understanding of what
authentic Black language and key elements of AAL should look like in the given
correct context. Through the conclusion of this study and course (390) I will conduct
research on ways to further expand these ideas to levels of community outreach and
civic engagement of the youth.

7. Works Cited
Howard, Sheena C., and Ronald L. Jackson. Black Comics: Politics of Race and
Representation. London: Bloomsbury, 2013. Print.
McDuffie, Dwayne. Shadow Cabinet: To Save Humanity From Itself. Vol. 1. N.p.: DC Comics,
1992. Print.
Perry, Theresa, and Lisa D. Delpit. The Real Ebonics Debate: Power, Language, and the
Education of African-American Children. Boston: Beacon, 1998. Print.
Smitherman, Geneva. Black Talk: Words and Phrases from the Hood to the Amen Corner.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. Print.
Wicham, DeWayne. "Boondocks Comic Echoes African American Thoughts." USA Today,
Winter 2012. Web.
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