The B.O.O.N
Hello all, I am going to tackle a complex personality type in today’s Plog. Today I will talk about the B.O.O.N. B.O.O.N. is an acronym for Black Only Of Necessity. B.O.O.N’s are a rare brand of person living amongst us in everyday life. They are easy to identify because they are usually Blackety Black Black. They will have a good amount of melanin in their skin and are undeniably African descendants. But where these B.O.O.Ns will fool you is when you talk to them about anything having to do with race. When I say race I mean the black race. They don’t do the Black thing. At all. They are under the impression that they belong to another race. It is puzzling to others. Their thoughts are borne out of many things but I basically think it is a choice that they consciously make. We went to college with a deep browned skin young man who had been adopted and raised by a Suburban white family. He only associated with white students. Everything from his vernacular, interests and opinions was as white as possible. Whenever we saw anyone acting similarly we called them out as “being a Brody”. Brody had no clue that he was black. It became an actual college cultural phenomena. I say that kind of jokingly but there is more.
My Gen Z daughter told me about Uncle Ruckus from the Boondocks cartoon who is also a BOON or a Brody. The terms Coon and Uncle Tom and Aunt Tomasina can be inserted interchangeably. Many terms have been developed to describe these people. They are fascinating and need to be studied. The creator of Boondocks is Aaron McGruder and his character Uncle Ruckus speaks to this BOON phenomena. Uncle Ruckus (similar to Uncle Remus or Uncle Tom) is a bug eyed BOON who symbolizes Black self-hatred. He is angry at and hates all things black. He has one giant eye and the other one is normal sized. The cartoon is satirical and full of hyperbole, hate filled insults and outrageous racial put downs. All of this from a black man who thought he was white and never says anything but derogatory insults about black people. They even go back a generation to the grandmother who is even worse than Uncle Ruckus’ parents. For a cartoon, it is very deep and has sharp edges. I watched about 10 minutes of Boondocks featuring Uncle Ruckus before I found myself SHOOK. It is very brash, unabashed and unsettling. The words that come out of Ruckus mouth are those that an abusive and loud mouthed racist would spew at a Klan rally. Definitely not a kids cartoon. I think McGruder teaches by extremes and opposites. I would love to meet him.
Back to the real world there are many BOONs who have risen to notoriety. Number one on my list is a High Court Justice who it seems would do anything to hurt black people. Another successful BOON became president of Godfather’s Pizza and later attended a 45 rally without a mask and shortly thereafter died of COVID. He had serious pre-existing conditions but ignored them in order to be at the rally. These are just a few stand outs. There are many more, even in our everyday lives. Many B.O.O.N.’s find themselves sitting close to the podium at 45 rallies. They have no problem with being used as tokens. Integrity and self-pride have never bothered B.O.O.Ns. A B.O.O.N made it to the January 6 Insurrection and then complained that he got a longer sentence than other white criminals involved. Aw too bad about the racial injustice he endured since he would have probably denied that it existed prior to that time. B.O.O.N.s are complex beings. Some seem to marry openly racists spouses and support things that put their own race behind. Their reasoning is clouded by their need to try to be white, if only on the inside. I will never understand them but I will always be amazed by their ways and beliefs.
The next time you see a black person who you swear thinks they are white, just remember you have seen yet another B.O.O.N. I joke about it, but self-hatred must be horrible to live with. In a later post I will talk about racism deniers versus racism ignorers. Two entirely different threats. Love the skin you are in. God put you there for a reason.
Reclaim!