Sharpton Says Boycott The Boondocks

REV. AL SHARPTON has called for a boycott of Aaron McGruder's The Boondocks. The plot in question centered on a fantasy scenario that has the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. surviving his 1968 assassination and awakening from a four-decade coma. Sharpton, who is one of the country's foremost leaders for civil rights, says: "Cartoon Network must apologize and also commit to pulling episodes that desecrate Black historic figures. We are totally offended by the continuous use of the "N" word in McGruder's show. While I can appreciate Mr. McGruder and his achievements, this particular episode is over the line. If we don't receive an apology, we will picket the corporate headquarters."

"I'm astonished by the psychological gymnastics some people perform to make that self-denigrating word acceptable," he told the Daily News. "No other race does it. Why is it accepted? In an industry that makes Michael Jackson take out a word that was offensive to Jewish people, why does it sanitize a word that continues to be used by the Ku Klux Klan when it attacks our people?"

Comic/Actor FRANKLYN AJAYE, currently enjoying a run on the acclaimed HBO series Deadwood, thinks Sharpton's remarks are the expected politically correct response. "Satire is supposed to push boundaries and be irreverent, and satire without irreverence is toothless," he told Tasty Clips. "The Cartoon Network should just ignore Sharpton and anybody else who wants to water down Boondocks. When Sharpton and other Black leaders take on those ridiculous "gangsta rappers" who are desecrating modern day Black culture, then they can once again earn the right to be listened to on other subjects."