Dubois Family

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Boondocks Character
Dubois Family
Tom Dubois Sarah Dubois Jazmine Dubois
Character Information
Full Name	Thomas Dubois (husband) Sarah Dubois (wife) Jazmine Dubois (daughter)
Occupation	Tom: Assistant District Attorney
Political Ideology	Democratic, Green Party, Liberal
Religion	Christianity
Best Friend	The Freeman Family
Show Information
First Episode	The Trial of R. Kelly
Voice actor	Tom: Cedric Yarbrough Sarah: Jill Talley Jazmine: Gabby Soleil
WikiQuote
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Dubois Family

The members of the Dubois family — Tom (husband), Sarah (wife), and Jazmine (daughter) — are fictional characters and featured players in Aaron McGruder's Boondocks comic strip and animated TV series. They live across the street from the main characters, the Freeman family — Robert and his grandsons, Huey and Riley.

[edit] Tom

Thomas Dubois, a wealthy and scrupulous African American man, is an assistant district attorney and close friend of Robert Freeman. Tom, being non-confrontational and skittish by nature, adheres strictly to the law, particularly due to his irrational fear of being sent to prison and anally raped as explained in the episode A Date With The Health Inspector. This fear originated when Tom was exposed at a very young age to a movie depicting the violent prison raping of a man. The fear developed to such a degree that Tom refused to participate in even the slightest of legal infractions both as a youth and throughout adulthood. The nature of his job as a prosecuting attorney produces an irony in that his job is essentially to send other people (mostly black men) to the fate he himself most fears.

In the episode The Trial of R. Kelly, Tom serves as the prosecuting attorney in the case against R. Kelly. He has all the evidence — from a videotape to DNA — on his side. However, the defending attorney, using what some would call the "Chewbacca Defense", brings up peripheral matters that have nothing to do with whether or not R. Kelly is guilty. He attacks Dubois' marriage to a white woman while trying to justify why a black man urinating on an underage black girl is preferable to a black man marrying a white woman. His defense, contingent on racism, is completely preposterous. But he wins over the jury and Tom loses the case to the delight of everyone except the Dubois family and Huey.

Tom's hobbies include singing and playing the piano. He, not unlike many black men, once dreamt of being a successful recording artist. He is also an active member of the NAACP, attending meetings and whatnot. He also played basketball on his ivy league college team, but, as Sarah points out, he was mostly a bench warmer.

From a certain standpoint, Tom's character can be interpreted as an "Uncle Tom" in that he lives in a predominately white suburban area and is married to a white woman. He and his wife are both practicing members of the NAACP, however, and both seem to demonstrate a strong understanding of the struggles of African Americans, much like Huey does. Huey, however, is more proactive and confrontational in his approach and generally questions to what degree the NAACP actually helps African Americans. Furthermore, Huey views Tom as part of the white power structure that he detests (i.e. part of the "system"). Riley's interactions with Tom are few and far between, and though his brother shows Tom respect as an elder, Riley, as is the case with most adults he encounters, does not, and this leaves him prone to clash with Tom just like he often clashes with his own grandfather, for example.

[edit] Sarah

Sarah Dubois, Tom's white wife, is the least prevalent character from the Dubois family. She, like her husband, is liberal and somewhat fiercely political. For example, when she revealed to Tom that she voted for Ralph Nader instead of Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election, Tom accused her of helping elect George W. Bush, calling her a "Green Party heifer" and "political hussy". Sarah promptly kicked Tom out of the house and refused to speak with him until he apologized. She eventually let Tom return only after Huey served as an arbitrator to help settle their differences. After arbitration, Huey concluded that Sarah voted for Nader because she was dissatisfied with the Democratic Party and the two party system in general — points to which Sarah agreed. Huey further concluded that she had become a radical ready to "take up arms against tyranny," but Sarah considered this deduction a little too extreme. Nevertheless, she and Tom came to realize that their political differences were not so great, and they agreed to focus their attention on political action against Bush instead of bickering about dissent within the left.

Despite being unafraid to voice her strong leftist political views, Sarah generally controls herself capably. For example, she is incredibly casual about her and Tom's interracial marriage, even going so far as to joke about it when Tom is mocked and attacked for it in The Trial of R. Kelly. As previously mentioned, she is a member of the NAACP and a self-proclaimed "crusader for black rights."

[edit] Jazmine

Jazmine Dubois, Tom and Sara's biracial daughter, is a typical naive and innocent ten-year-old girl, which, to her chagrin, makes her an object of ridicule for Huey and Riley. She is the most prominent child in the show other than the Freeman boys, filling a void left by the absence of Michael Caesar — another ten-year-old who, though absent from the show, appeared very frequently in the strip and was Huey's closest friend. In fact, Jazmine disappeared from the strip for two years soon after the September 11 attacks — a span during which Caesar could be seen almost daily. McGruder made light of this when he re-introduced her to the strip, claiming that she had been in hiding, afraid that Al-qaida was going to blow up her school. She decided to re-emerge after a "credible threat against her teddy bear" was made and she decided it best not to be near it.

Though Huey takes pleasure in ripping on her both subtly and conspicuously, she considers him to be a close friend. Huey, however, does not consider the feeling to be reciprocal. He has shown a willingness to empathize with her on occasion, however, and tends to avoid being mean just for the sake of it. Most of the time, when he chooses to tear into her, it is actually his way of dealing with her ignorance and naiveté in what could be construed as an unnecessarily cruel way to try and enlighten her. Though such attempts usually fail, he remains patient and tolerant with her.

A particularly unusual aspect of Jazmine's personality is that she is an ardent believer in Santa Claus, viewing him as not only the true meaning and essence of Christmas, but also of Christianity itself. Though theistic, she seems to confuse and muddle Santa with Jesus Christ. This is an example of McGruder satirizing the unseen effects that parents lying to children can have.