The Most Surprising Thing I’ve Seen in the Washington Post All Year

I don’t know this comic. Is the mother married? Is she meant to be African American?

The ‘moral’ of this strip could be a covert assertion of the need for lavish welfare for single mothers, especially minorities, so that they do not need to work – and do not lose-out by not working.

(Even when they are potentially ‘high flying’ (see what I did there?) career women; as is (ahem) so common among minorities…)

Mr. Charlton, I really wish you had not left your comment taking things in the direction you did.

When I saw this strip in the paper yesterday morning, I imagined the flak it could draw for its lionizing (lionessizing?) a woman choosing to make being a mother her career. I thought how distasteful or problematic the phrase “raise you to be a man” would be for most writers who are published in the Washington Post.

To answer your questions, this fictional mother and son pair are African American, as is their creator, Ray Billingsly. From the web site billingslyart.com, there are these character descriptions:

Greg Wilkins (the dad): Always stressed over bills, his job at the DMV, and loud rap music. A heavy smoker who resists Curtis’ attempts to get him to stop.

Diane Wilkins (the mom): The real backbone of the family. She keeps everything together with a combination of tenderness, common sense, and an iron hand.

@JM – Sorry. I was just trying to see how this might be understood in the mind of what I imagine to be a mainstream WaPo editor/ reader; which I suppose to be different from a JG author/ reader. I generally regard the mainstream media as only saying good things for a bad reason, true things for a dishonest reason.

John, from the bio you read it sounds like the author understands what society needs to do to improve and is using his influence with whatever kids actually still read comics in this age to influence them. That’s great.

It shows the state of things when this content would actually appear in a comic and either be novel, influential or controversial.

Cynicism, a moral poison. Beware it. Celebrate goodness when it is found, lest we dull our ability to grasp it.