Uncle Ruckus
Uncle Ruckus is a fictional character and occasional antagonist of the American animated sitcom The Boondocks. Voiced by Gary Anthony Williams, he first appeared on television in the show's pilot. "The Garden Party", on November 6, 2005. Created and designed by cartoonist Aaron McGruder, Ruckus enjoyed great success after appearing in the comic strip of the same name.
Ruckus had a turbulent childhood as he was raised by the abusive Mister Ruckus. His mother had a self identity crisis, often praising white people. After being kicked out of his home as a teenager, he traveled to Woodcrest, where he works odd jobs. Ruckus embodies many old American working-class stereotypes: he is crude, short-tempered, obese, rule-neglecting, clumsy, and largely ignorant. He is also internally racist, repeatedly proclaiming his love for the white race, and he even identifies as Caucasian, saying he suffers from "reverse vitiligo".
Despite this, Ruckus maintains a close relationship with Robert Freeman and yearns for social acceptance. Despite the blue-collar routine of his life, he has had a number of remarkable experiences, including work as a recording artist.
Personality
Ruckus is weak, problematic, and repellent in appearance, behavior and attitude, especially toward his own race. He has an intense hatred of anything pertaining to African Americans and goes out of his way to distance himself from blacks, especially those of previous generations. Ruckus claims God says the path to forgiveness for being black is to rebuke one's own race. He has a mismatched glass eye due to the beatings he received from his father. Ruckus champions the small traces of Irish ancestry he claims to have, though a DNA test shows he is "102% African" with a 2% margin of error. After BET deliberately tampers with the test results to cheer him up, they state that he is 50.07% white.Although Ruckus had a terrible father, the main cause for his personality and view of the world is his mother. Though his mother loved him deeply, she was an extremely deluded and damaged woman who, despite a lifetime of abuse and poor decisions, was convinced that her life would have been better if she had been born white. As a result, Ruckus wishes that all black people were still enslaved or never existed at all. He frequently introduces himself as "Uncle Ruckus, no relation," to indicate that he has no familial connection to the black people he is addressing.
Ruckus prattles white supremacist rhetoric and calls Michael Jackson a "lucky bastard" as he doesn't look black. Ruckus claims that he himself has "re-vitiligo", to explain his own skin tone. Ruckus applies a homemade topical ointment of "bleach and sulfur" in order to treat his self-diagnosed condition, stating that he "likes to think it works" and that it has preventing him from "getting any darker these past few years."
According to a flashback, in his early 20s he protested against Martin Luther King Jr.'s marches during the civil rights movement and would occasionally throw bricks at King. Another flashback scene shows Ruckus serving on a Tennessee jury in 1957 that helped convict a blind black man of killing three white girls. In spite of being blind, the African American man supposedly shot the three with a Winchester rifle from about 50 yards away. Ruckus is the only black person on the otherwise all-white jury in a Jim Crow courtroom. During his first encounter with the Freeman family, Ruckus sings "Don't Trust Them New Niggas Over There" in the pilot episode, though he socializes freely with the Freemans thereafter.
Ruckus constantly hurls hateful racist invective at all things black. On being asked if he supports the use of the word "nigga", Ruckus says:
Jobs and lifestyle
Ruckus worships white society and culture, which explains why he lives in Woodcrest. Ruckus claims to like the smell of white people, saying they smell like "lemon juice and Pledge furniture cleaner". Despite Woodcrest's newfound acceptance of different ethnicities, the neighborhood apparently has no quarrel with Uncle Ruckus' racist beliefs. Ruckus can be seen employed in a variety of places performing a number of blue-collar jobs. However, that does not mean that all members of that community agree with his outbursts of racist remarks. Rather they tend to ignore them due to his constant racist profiling.At one point Ruckus joined the police force after turning down a 7-figure settlement for being wrongfully shot at 118 times, claiming that the officers "were simply doing their job." Even after he becomes an officer, they still beat him on the pretext that "He has a gun." As an officer, he promises to make every black man's life as miserable as he possibly can. Ruckus also becomes an evangelist after dreaming of going to "White Heaven", preaching that black people must hate their blackness and love the white man to receive entrance into heaven.
The beginning of this episode is also one of the few moments of the series in which Uncle Ruckus admits, or even suggests, that he is or might be black. The episode starts with Ruckus knocking on Robert's front door with the news that he has been diagnosed with cancer. He proceeds to attempt to describe the specific type of cancer he has been diagnosed with in Latin, which is one made up for the show, but he fails to do so, stating: " or some other big word my small negro brain and big lips can't pronounce." Although, he might have been using his "condition" to get some pity out of the Freeman family.
Ruckus has held a vast variety of jobs over the course of the series at many of its business establishments. In the banned episode "Uncle Ruckus' Reality Show", he claims to have 32 jobs over the course of the week, so he needs to wake at 4:45 a.m. every morning. Despite holding so many jobs, Ruckus continues to live in a dilapidated home and drive a beaten-up truck.
Although over 70 years old and obese, Ruckus has been shown to be strong enough to pull a car door off its hinges with ease and is an advanced practitioner of martial arts. He has shown himself to be Huey's equal on multiple occasions. His mastery with nunchaku surpasses even Huey's and he is capable of incredible acrobatics. In the series' second season, a sound-alike variation on the tuba piece "Jabba's Theme" is used as a musical theme for Ruckus, drawing a parallel between the Star Wars character and the similarly repellent Ruckus.
In the episode "The Story of Jimmy Rebel", Ruckus records racist songs and sends them to his idol, Jimmy Rebel, a racist songwriter who lives in Spokenhoke, Texas; this character is based on real singer/songwriter Johnny Rebel. Jimmy Rebel and R.R loves the songs so much that Rebel heads down to meet Ruckus. Although Ruckus is a black man, Jimmy puts this aside. He spends two days with Toby and brings him to Spokenhoke to record songs with him.
So far, the only episode in which Ruckus does not display any animosity toward blacks is in the episode "The Story of Gangstalicious Part 2".
In the episode "The Color Ruckus", it is revealed that Ruckus's mother told him he was adopted and had white heritage. She also invented the disease re-vitiligo and told Ruckus that it alone was the reason he is physically indistinguishable from a normal black person. In spite of this, his father harshly claimed these explanations were lies meant to protect Ruckus' self-esteem, telling his son that he was "just another black nigga like the rest of us." Ruckus refused to believe his father's words and his mother continued to lie about his heritage.
Relationships
Robert Freeman
is the closest thing to a friend that Uncle Ruckus has, though Robert rebukes Ruckus' racist notions. For example, a friendly match of checkers between them ends bitterly after Ruckus makes supremacist remarks. Ruckus is supportive of Freeman during his training for a rematch with Col. Stinkmeaner and is the only one besides Riley who praises him when he fights and kills Stinkmeaner.Despite all this, Ruckus claims their friendship is a pretense and that he still sees him as a "nigga." In the episode "The Real," Ruckus is also one of the "homeless people" that Robert "houses," the other being Jazmine Dubois.
Huey and Riley Freeman
Uncle Ruckus says in "...Or Die Trying" that he has despised Huey ever since the Freemans' arrival in Woodcrest. For Huey's part, he seems to ignore Uncle Ruckus' racist rantings, knowing that debating with the man will do little good. However, when Ruckus challenges him to a martial arts showdown, Huey fights him twice - first with a push-broom handle as a staff and later unarmed.Neither fight is shown in its entirety. A battered Huey is seen sitting in the theater manager's office after the first one and the episode ends in a freeze-frame as the second one begins. Both fights appear to be references to the Japanese manga series Fist of the North Star. Ruckus often gets angry at Riley for being a hoodlum, which regularly leads to fights.
Dubois family
Ruckus tolerates the Dubois, largely due to Sarah's presence, since she is white. He believes that Tom is lucky to have Sarah and that she is with him out of pity rather than love. He does not think much of Jazmine due to her half-black status, pejoratively calling her a "mulatto" and a "little half and half." In a moment of relative kindness, he refers to her as a "nice little mixed-breed girl."However, he does seem to hold her superior to a black child, once stating that she is smarter than Riley. In a rare moment, he manages to single-handedly restore her faith in Christmas and in Santa Claus, effectively ending her crying and cheering her up.