I found this sad for 2 reasons. One, is that I think that my story is full of good intentions that Sentinel readers never got a chance to read. And second, this is a "reading specialist" at a local school who can't spell "appalling" and doesn't know how to make a word possessive like week's or Glendening's. But did I start a letter-writing compaign to get her removed? Of course not.

But wait, there's more!!!

The paper wouldn't tell me who the woman was, or if anyone else wrote to complain, they just dropped it. Then the Chicago Defender found out about it and did a full-page story on it. This is an excerpt from that story. I'd like to personally thank the writer, Tim Jackson for his kind words and support.

Many expect nothing form a comic strip but to be funny, safe and non-threatening when they turn to the comic pages of their local newspaper.

This mindset can often be a challenge for African-American cartoonists now that their strips can appear on the pages of the mainstream newspapers. Can they draw a cartoon that is reflective of the Black community, and not be seen as offensive to those, both White and Black, who may not understand the humor or pop cultural references?...

One of the papers that ran Mama's Boyz was the Prince George's County Sentinel in Maryland. That is, until a letter writing campaign initiated by an individual calling herself a "Reading Specialist" from of the local schools caused the Sentinel to make the decision to drop the cartoon after the first in a series of 11 comic strips was run.

None of the following strips that completed the story were seen by the citizens of Prince George's County.

What the community missed out on was a delightfully witty lesson a young man learns about the responsibilities associated with fatherhood...

...The fascination with being a dad at such a young age is the focus of the remaining strips. As Mrs. Porter hatches a scheme to give Yusuf a lesson in parenting when a visiting friend, exhausted from caring from her infant son stays with them awhile to get some rest. Yusuf is confident that childcare is a breeze until he is given the responsibility of changing and feeding the baby. He discovers the task of midnight and three a.m. feedings.

The series of the Mama's Boyz comic strips appears to contain an inspiring message about the responsibility of parenting and the importance of teens postponing having babies until they re emotionally and financially better prepared to give them the proper care and nurturing.

Had the community in Prince George's County been allowed the opportunity to see the series of this Mama's Boyz comics, would they have found the message to be appalling and demeaning to their children? Or should the funny pages of newspapers avoid addressing any form of serious social issues simply to provide passive entertainment for the public?

Protest is a valuable tool to the African-American community when organized and implemented intelligently. Acting quickly before sensitive issues are allowed to quietly fade away from public attention can bring out great victories and gains for the community at large. You be the judge as to the victory or loss in this case.

Neither the Prince George's County Sentinel nor the person who began the community protest could be reached for comment on the matter.

It is not known if either party has the opportunity to review the entire series of comic strips....

The teen-parenting cartoons received no complaints from the other newspapers that run Mama's Boyz.

Tim Jackson

And Finally...

I received over 400 emails of support after this happened. I reprinted a few on the next page. Check them out!