Talk:Robert Jebediah Freeman

Comments
Interesting viewpoint on Robert Freeman. However, it seems VERY superficial and perfunctory at best (no offense).

I'm not sure that disciplining of Huey and Riley is because of his own humiliation rather than the fact that he comes from the old school of child discipline which follows the biblical edict of "spare the rod, spoil the child". Indeed, with the lack of discipline many children have today due to school teachers no longer having the authority to envoke physical disciplining, and even parents having to be careful lest their child contact Child Protective Services, a large portion of the youth in this country today have serious problems respecting authority from their elders.

Also, something the show does not go in depth on (as of yet) but is known at large by many in the "African-American" community is the notion that "it takes a whole village to raise a single child". This style of thought seemed to be very prevalent up until the early to mid-1980's. Unfortuneately, Caucasians (at least not any from the U.S.) do not suscribe to the belief in communal raising of a child. The results of this style of thought has spread throughout most communities in the U.S. causing many situations in which the youth of America are highly disrespectful towards teachers in general. (Another discussion would be why so many Caucasion people never had this problem. I would reply that the previous generation had a single parent working since the average Caucasion up until 1970s earned much more than their African American counterparts.  This resulted in at least one parent being home to raise the child instead of both parents needing to work.  Conversely, African-Americans had many "elders" in the community who could subtley and overtly watch and discipline the youth of the community after school hours.)

Saying Robert Freeman is "selfish" is also a superficial way to view him. Here is a man at least in his 80's raising a 10-yr old and an 8-yr old. He is providing them a home, food, a nice community to live in and I seriously doubt those kids purchased their game systems and clothing on their own. The fact that he allows a prostitute into his home and his kids still did not lack for anything, shows that they are still on his mind always. With the prostitute in their house, he still talked to and treated them the same. He may be a bit terse with them, but many older people are with children. If you pay attention to the series and the comic strip many of the comments made by both Huey and Riley are taken with a grain of salt by him. How seriously would (or even should) the average adult take a 10-yr old Pan-African revolutionary or an 8-yr old thugged out wannabe gangster? They are kids and that's where a large part of the humor comes from. As far as his woman obsession goes, except for the prostitute with whom he fell in love with, the relationships he has outside of his family seems to be few and far between. There are the Dubois', "Uncle Ruckus" and his family from Chicago. I'm not sure about you, but if I had an 80+ year old grandfather who had comments about wanting messages only from cute girls on his answering machine, I'd find it hilarious.

I guess that ultimately, you need to look at shows like this and recognize what aspects are supposed to humorous and what aspects are supposed to thought provoking.

Well, that's my piece for now. Peace, -kuma

If you think about it, yes having a woman-obsessed grandfather is humorous, but that doesn't mean he hasn't got selfish traits. That's like saying George Jefferson isn't a grumpy old miser because he's funny. When he allowed the prostitute into his house, sure he was in love, and he was still taking care of Huey and Riley, but despite this and the personalities of the Freeman kids, what he was doing was in fact selfish, as he was only doing things to interest the prostitute to keep her in the house, unaware of the corrosive effect it is on the family. Also, he is ashamed of Huey and Riley, (considering their personalities, one wouldn't be surprised but still), enough to tell them several times not to embarass him when they were invited in Ed Wuncler's garden party, and another selfish trait was when he set up a buisnees with him, not noticing (or not caring) the effect it is having on the community with Ed Wuncler. I'm not saying Robert Freeman is genarally selfish, I'm just saying there are selfish traits to his personality (By the way, I didn't write the article). Uglyguy2006 00:43, 2 August 2007 (UTC)]

Another point I'm making is first of all, the notion "It takes a whole village to raise a child" isn't African-American (or at least it wasn't originally). It is an African phase which has since been adopted by African-Americans as wisdom from their heritage and culture. Also this notion in which you are arguing for not only doesn't neccessaarily apply to The Boondocks, and Robert's actions, it counters it. The title alone proves it (If you still wish to make a point, find "boondocks" first in the dictionary) Robert spent the inheritance money (whose it was is not made clear) to move Huey and Riley from inner-city Chicago to Woodcrest simply to spend the rest of his retirement (Again, another example of a selfish act). Although it could be argued that he did so because of the environment that the children were living in, and for a better opportunity in education (like in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air), there's no evidence that this was the case. In fact it would probably made no difference to where in life they are going as metaphorically speaking, the "village" is not influencing the children, and at times the children (or even Robert) are influencing it. Also, who's to say what they didn't already have the game console and and the clothes? (Then again, Robert may have bought the game console).

Again on Robert's attitudes to the children, If you actually think about it, an adult's response to seeing the personalities of Huey and Riley, is purely dependent on the person. The Dubois couple, specifically Tom is in terms of political and social ideals, the opposite of Huey and Riley often mocks him on his masculinity. Still, he is pleasant to them and is even willing to have debates with them on topics. In comparison to Tom, Robert is a grumpy old man, and if it wasn't for the fact he moved to Woodcrest and his role in the Civil Rights Movement, he would be simply seen as that (Assuming he knew him, although he would be pleasant enough to say hello). Uncle Ruckus, sees both Huey, Riley (and Robert) as generally the same, and cares not for their personalities, but their colour which is his main issue. Yes, Huey and Riley are not taken seriously mostly (especially in the pilot episode) but when they are, it's because they provoked an outrage in the community. e.g. When Huey made a Christmas play and kicked the kids out of it (Even then he was taken seriously by both Quincy Jones and the teacher), and when Riley sprayed graffiti on houses.

Your belief that the collective editing of this article, which wouldn't have existed had the TV series been aired is actually (although probably not intended) quite mean. Especially if you don't bother to look at Robert in the point of view of the characterization, rather than the comedy as a whole. Not much is meant to be taken seriously, but then it is political satire, which is basically comedy also dependent on the views people think of the topic. Again, yes Robert Freeman is funny to watch as you pointed out. But if you're saying that simply because having an answer machine that answers only to "cutie-pies" is not an example of a selfish attribute of his character, is frivolous in its itself, and do note that the children had no desire or a specific reason to be relocated. Again, I'm not saying Robert Freeman is selfish, but do note, the article itselfd doesn't say that he is. I'm simply saying if not for the fact he was raising Huey and Riley and taking them out with him, he would be seen as such (If not convinced, please reply so that I can give more examples, But I would like you to reply anyway). Robert does seem to care for others than himself at times. The fact that he is friends with Uncle Ruckus (probably the worst example of a black man, or wven a human being) and even saving him from himself whne he was preaching a hate message through out the community and when he saved the prostitute from being slapped by the pimp coming to get her, and when he prayed for the old man he killed (Actually, the real worst example of a black man, or to a greater extent a human being) is are examples of Robert's good nature, and can be seen as testament to him following his religious beliefs. (The saving prostitute bit could be debatable, one I am not willing to argue about) Uglyguy2006 01:43, 2 August 2007 (UTC)]]

i just have one dispute with this article, which is Robert Freeman's year of birth. The article says it is 1939, but Grandad had to have been born earlier if he served in WWII as a pilot. Does anyone know more about this? Stevengodumb (talk) 22:32, 5 April 2008 (UTC)Stevengodumb

Original Research
Since the article is all original research, how about speculating that the character is loosely based on Bill Cosby? There seems an amazing resemblance, both in appearance and in the stern attitude resembling Cosby's of recent years. Are there any sources for these articles except for original research based on an editor's opinions having read the comic strip or watched the TV cartoon? Inkpaduta 19:22, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Article Name
Besides the content, this article has many more articles linking to it. Therefore it is reasonable to assume that this article has more traffic than that for the photographer. If the photographer's article is more in demand than this one, it would have more content. Since it does not, I can assume that either a) the article isn't sought after or b) he actually isn't that famous. If either of these two conditions were false, there would be more content for that article. It's not a great stretch to concede that this article is more deserving of the name space. —GrittyLobo441 05:12, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Granddad Freeman.jpg
Image:Granddad Freeman.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.BetacommandBot 00:06, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Vlcsnap-2523940.jpg
Image:Vlcsnap-2523940.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot 11:23, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Inheritance Money
When did they say that he spent their inheritance money on the house? I've never heard that.

In the very first episode of the series. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.111.125.39 (talk) 08:28, 17 June 2010 (UTC)