Huey Freeman
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| The Boondocks Character | |
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| Huey Freeman | |
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| Character Information | |
| Full Name | Huey Freeman |
| Age | 10 |
| Gender | Male |
| Relatives | Riley Freeman, (brother} Robert Freeman (grandfather) |
| Hair | Black, Unkempt afro |
| Occupation | Student |
| Political Ideology | Revolutionary Socialist Black Nationalist |
| Religion | Agnostic |
| Hobbies | Kung Fu, reading, uncovering and exploiting ignorance, intellectual terrorism, listening to music, conjuring conspiracy theories |
| Best Friend | Jazmine Dubois (show) Michael Caesar (strip) |
| Show Information | |
| First Episode | The Garden Party |
| Voice actor | Regina King |
| WikiQuote | |
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Huey Freeman is the main character and narrator for the animated TV series, The Boondocks, and is also the main character of a comic strip by the same name. Huey is a ten-year-old African American boy with strong leftist ideologies and extreme social, political, and cultural revolutionary aspirations. He is named for Huey P. Newton, who co-founded the Black Panther Party in 1966, and is voiced by Regina King.
Huey, who grew up with his brother Riley on the south side of Chicago, was moved along with his brother to the peaceful, predominately white suburb of Woodcrest by their Granddad.
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[edit] Personality and ideologies
Huey is straightforward and cantankerous in both manner and speech, occasionally to the point of conspicuous cruelty. He speaks in a relatively emotionless manner, apart from slight anger toward others' ignorance, and rarely smiles. He has the ability to stymie or confound people with his unfiltered dialogue and sharp quip. Huey seems to be able to control what response he evokes with his speech; depending on the situation, he can silence crowds, elicit optimism, drive people to tears, or confuse them. However, this barefaced attitude of his has little to no effect on the idiocy, tenacity, and irrationality of most of the characters due to his age.
Huey's intelligence is far beyond his years, and he often demonstrates how he surpasses even the adults in his life in mental acuity and perspicacity. He particularly possesses a vast knowledge of anything pertaining to the history, culture, traditions, and contemporary afflictions of African Americans. Huey is an exceptional martial artist and swordsman, especially considering his age, and shows artistic talent as a visionary playwright and actor.
Huey's hair is wild, uncut, and unkempt and may be a symbol of Pan-Africanism. He has repeatedly refused to succumb to his grandfather's wishes to have it cut, recognizing it as symbolizing his own personified nonconformity.
[edit] Spiritual beliefs
Huey demonstrated no acknowledgement of a higher power until a prison inmate whom he had befriended neared his execution. Believing that this man was innocent and not being able to do anything about it (despite an elaborate plot that failed because he "couldn't get a ride"), he eventually falls to his knees and calls upon an unspecified higher power to end the injustice. Though lightning struck at just the right moment to prevent the man from being executed, Huey admits that he still believes that people make their own miracles (The Passion of the Ruckus). This would indicate that he is an agnostic, if not an atheist.
[edit] Relationships
Huey and Riley tend to have a regular brotherly relationship despite their contradictory personalities. Due to the blunders Riley makes, Huey inevitably tries to teach him the error of his ways, but often to no avail. When their granddad isn't around, Huey usually will not hesitate to set Riley straight himself.
Robert Freeman, Granddad, is Huey's grandfather (whether maternally or paternally is unknown). Grandpa Freeman disagrees with many of Huey's more radical ideas, and otherwise shows little interest in Huey's musings, especially when Huey goes on one of his rants. However, it is shown that he does agree with some of Huey's views as he smacked Huey for dreaming about telling white people the "truth". Most of the interactions that take place between the two occur due to Huey's perceived insubordination or disagreement on anything from religion to parenting.
Jazmine Dubois
Jazmine is Huey's closest friend and usually the first person he talks to about anything and everything. She was the first person he talked to about how anxious he was to see his former best-friend Cairo in Chicago (Wingmen). But even though he talks to her often, he still dispels her illusions about things like the tooth fairy (The Real). In general, he does look out for her as though she were his real sister.
Tom Dubois
Tom, the Father of Jazmine, represents everything Huey doesn't believe in. Tom, being a conservative, straight-edged assistant district attorney, is part of the structure that Huey views as inhibitive and self-destructive. Despite his disagreements with Tom, the two are shown generally to be on good terms. Huey was even the first person Tom called when he was arrested as a murder suspect (Date With The Health Inspector).
Ed Wuncler Sr.
Ed Wuncler's opinions about child labor and minimum wage laws push him even further away from Huey than any other character as far as political ideology goes, thus making him a primary antagonist. Huey is one of the few characters who sees through Ed Wuncler's facade of kindness, but is the only one who ever does anything about it (The Block is Hot).
Huey distrusts Ed and Gin even though they have had limited interaction. He has seen them perform many amoral and idiotic actions and does not hesitate to point out the obvious stupidity behind the careless manner in which they conduct themselves. Rummy and Ed don't think they've given Huey any reason to dislike them, but this only follows the traditional character structure of the show.
[edit] Differences from his comic counterpart
In the comic, Huey is depicted as constantly raging against the machine, lampooning late news developments. Since the animated version can't really make a statement on current events, and isn't trying to deliver any particular message, he is generally seen as the voice of reason for the rest of the characters, who are all comically silly (Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder himself has stated on DVD Commentary that they aren't trying to make any particular statements, since absolutely everyone is trying to make a statement)
