this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2026
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The Boondocks
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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.
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I remember that being called “mixed” back in the day, I wonder if another term is used now
In the US at least, it's usually "Black." Barack Obama's mother was white. He's known as the first Black President.
Part of our toxic history was "the one drop rule." One drop of black blood made you black (and therefore a slave by default) so that slaveholders could increase their profits/property by raping their slaves. It's not law anymore but it's still the default mindset.
A major moment in the musical "Showboat" turns on this law, and the law against "miscegenation," or interracial marriage.
In public schools, at least here in CA, race is avoided explicitly for the reasons you can see in the comic. On paperwork, you can mark "multiethnic" or other or decline to state and teachers violating that can get in trouble. And if you're Latino/Hispanic, that tends to supercede anything, which is kinda fair since you very much can be white, black, or multiethnic Latino.
So yeah, your designation would probably be "multiethnic" now. But that's just officially; as the other commenter says, it's one-drop rule if you look black (or Asian, or Latino). My daughter is half Asian but she looks extremely vague, so I've seen people guess Italian, middle eastern, white Latino, and so on.
Oh and fun fact, in Japanese they call kids like my daughter "half" or "ha-fu" which is very much derogatory in many places in Japan.