Uncle Ruckus is the main antagonist in the Boondocks. He serves as the main protagonist of the episode "The Color Ruckus". He is a black man who firmly doesn't like black people-- the world's biggest "Uncle Tom". An overweight, horrid,detestable homely man with one oversized glass-eye, he enjoys disassociating himself from other African Americans as much as possible, and is outspoken in his support of what Huey calls the "white supremacist power structure." He is voiced by Gary Anthony Williams.
In the show, he speaks racistly towards and about all black people. Uncle Ruckus's name is a reference to Uncle Remus or Uncle Tom. He is the darkest-skinned character on the show. His name is also a reference to Amos Rucker, an African-American United Confederate Veterans member, who allegedly wanted to stay a slave after the United States Civil War. A "ruckus" is also the act of making a noisy disturbance, something which Uncle Ruckus is almost always sure to do. His #1 song he wrote is called "Don't Trust Them New Niggas Over There". His hatred of black people comes from his black adopted mother who taught him white history and told Ruckus a skewed, bigoted and lopsided history of achievements of black people such as claiming that George Washington Carver was the person responsible for the most peanut allergy deaths.
Personality
Uncle Ruckus (No relation) is repellent in appearance, behavior, and attitude. He has an intense hatred of anything pertaining to black people, and goes out of his way to free himself from this identity. Ruckus claims God says the path to forgiveness for being black is to rebuke your own race. Ruckus champions the small traces of Native American, French, or Irish ancestry he claims to have (all of which are completely non existant), and wishes that all black people were still enslaved.
He spouts white supremacist rhetoric and calls Michael Jackson (who suffered from the pigmentation disorder vitiligo) a "lucky bastard", as he no longer looks black. Uncle Ruckus claims that he himself has "re"-vitiligo, to explain his own skin tone. During the Civil Rights Movement in 1959, when he was 20, he protested against Martin Luther King's marches, and would occasionally throw bricks at him, but usually missed ("Return of the King"). Perhaps Ruckus' most famous quote was “I’d shot you myself, but I realized the white men got better aim".
During his first encounter with the Freemans, Ruckus sings Don't Trust Them New Niggas Over There at a garden party, though he socializes freely with the Freemans thereafter. In fact, Robert Freeman and Thomas Dubois are probably the only people on the show who could be considered friendly to Uncle Ruckus. Ruckus believes firmly in racially insensitive assaults, hurling invectives of prejudice and hatred to all things black.
On being asked if he supported the use of the word "nigga," Ruckus says: "No I don't think we should use the word and I'll tell you know why! Because niggas have gotten used to it! That's why. Hell, they like it now! Just like when you grow a crop and you spit the soil of its fertile nutrients and GOODNESS, and then you can't grow anythin'. You gotta rotate your racist slurs. Now I know it's hard, 'cause niggas just roll out their tongue, the way sweat rolls off a nigga's forehead. But we cannot let THAT be a crutch. Especially when there are so many other fine substitutes: spade, porch monkey! JIGGABOO! I say the next time you wanna call a darkie a 'nigga', call the coon a' jungle bunny' instead!"
Ruckus adores white society and culture, the reason why he lives in Woodcrest neighborhood, Baltimore, Maryland. Ruckus claims to like the smell of white people, saying they smell like "lemon juice and Pledge furniture cleaner"("The Trial of R. Kelly").
Despite Woodcrest's newly found acceptance of different ethnicities, the neighborhood apparently has no quarrel with Uncle Ruckus' racist beliefs. Ruckus can be seen employed in a variety of places performing a number of blue-collar jobs. He at one point joined the police force after turning down a 7-figure settlement after wrongfully being shot at 118 times, claiming that the officers "were simply doing their job." (Even after he becomes an officer, they still beat him on the pretext that "He has a gun.") As an officer, he promised to make every black man's life as miserable as he possibly could ("The Block Is Hot").
Ruckus became an evangelist after dreaming of going to "White Heaven," preaching that black people must hate their blackness and love the white man to receive entrance into heaven ("The Passion of Reverend Ruckus"). The beginning of this episode is also one of the few moments throughout the series that Uncle Ruckus admits, or even suggests, that he is or might be black. The episode starts with Ruckus knocking on Robert's front door with the news that he's been diagnosed with cancer. He proceeds to attempt to describe the specific type of cancer he's been diagnosed with, in Latin, which is one made up for the show, but fails to do so stating "... or some other big word my small Negro brain and big lips can't pronounce."
Uncle Ruckus has had a vast variety of jobs over the two seasons of the show, and is ubiquitous in nearly every working establishment on the show. In the banned episode "The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show", he claimed to work 32 jobs over the course of the week and wakes at 4:45 a.m. every morning for work. Despite holding that many jobs, Ruckus continues to live a less than modest life, as shown by his not abused, yet not maintained, home and truck.
In the first episode, "The Garden Party", Ruckus appears to have an alcohol problem as he's seen drinking from a hidden flask several times throughout the episode, but appears to have this under control for the rest of the series. Although over 71 years old and obese, Ruckus is an advanced practitioner of martial arts and has shown himself to be Huey's equal on multiple occasions. He has mastered nunchaku and is capable of incredible acrobatics along with his martial skills. Recently he has begun to run for Mayor of Woodcrest.
Trivia
- Uncle Ruckus has claimed to have 32 jobs over the course of a week. He says it is pretty interesting that he has 32 jobs, since "most blacks" could not even find "one" (The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show).He later states that he has 47 Jobs to Nelly Ruckus (The Color Ruckus) .
- Starting in the second season, his leitmotif is a tuba soundalike version of Jabba the Hutt's theme from Return of the Jedi. It draws a parallel between Jabba and the equally repellent Ruckus. It can be heard here
- He used to work for Ed Wuncler, Sr. in the first ever Boondocks episode ("The Garden Party"). Ruckus was presumably fired after he sang a song about black people while being drunk.
- Ruckus once served as an exorcist, but it was unclear whether he was affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church or not while he served in that position. ("Stinkmeaner Strikes Back")
- Ebony Brown is the only black woman Ruckus ever loved, since she tolerated his views on black people. He even tried to take her hand in marriage in the Freeman household.
- Uncle Ruckus's favorite singer is Jimmy Rebel.
- Ruckus calls President Obama "Baboon Bama".
- Uncle Ruckus constantly claims to have the "Re-vitiligo ", the opposite of what Michael Jackson had.
- Uncle Ruckus is "102% of 100% black" with a "2%" margin of error at the first attempt of genetic testing, but then retested as about 51% caucasian. The retesting was faked by BET to shake Ruckus from his depression (which was bad for The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show's ratings) and stop him from killing himself.
- Uncle Ruckus basically hates all colored people, any other race that is not white. He also stated he hates anti-Christians, communists, and Muslims (It's a Black President, Huey Freeman). He also hates Chinese people, referring to them as "yellow niggas." (From The Red Ball).
- It was revealed in The Color Ruckus, that Ruckus was literally named after his father's uncle, making "Uncle" his first name instead of a title. This also brings the possibility that the Uncle Ruckus we know is actually Uncle Ruckus II.
- Ruckus is equal to Stinkmeaner in terms of being a horrible, awful human being.
- Ruckus hates the LGBT community saying he doesn't even respect gay white people.
- He is an advocate for people with disabilities.
Relationships
Robert Freeman
Robert Freeman is the closest thing to a friend that Uncle Ruckus has, though Robert rebukes Ruckus' racist notions. For example, a friendly match of checkers between them ended bitterly after Ruckus made supremacist remarks. Ruckus was supportive of Robert during his training for a rematch with Col. Stinkmeaner and was the only one besides Riley who praised him when he won the fight (killing Stinkmeaner) in "Granddad's Fight". Despite all this, Uncle Ruckus claims their friendship is a pretense ("The Trial of R. Kelly") and that he still sees him as a "nigga." Also, in "The Real", Uncle Ruckus was one of the "homeless people" that Robert was "housing", the other being Jazmine Dubois. He has also been seen doing many odd jobs for Robert, normally which consist of him fixing or repairing something for him. He considers Robert to be "the smartest monkey."
Huey Freeman
Huey Freeman vs. Uncle Ruckus.
Huey Freeman fights against Uncle Ruckus.
Uncle Ruckus said that he despised Huey ever since he came into the Woodcrest community during the episode "...Or Die Trying". For Huey's part, he seems to ignore Uncle Ruckus' racist rantings, knowing that debating with the man will do little good. However, when Ruckus challenged him to a martial arts showdown (with the nunchaku he forgot in the theatre bathroom), Huey faced him in hand-to-hand combat. The victor of the first fight was unknown although it can be implied that Ruckus won since Huey was seen afterwards being interrogated by Ruckus though Jasmine was there too meaning Huey could've forfeit the fight.In the final scene of this episode the victor of the second fight is unknown. It should be noted that both fights appear to be references to Fist of the North Star.
Tom Dubois
He believes that Sarah taught him how to read ("Tom, Sarah and Usher"). He also thinks Tom is "a lucky son-of-a-bitch" ("The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show") for being with Sarah. He doesn't think much of Jazmine due to her half-black status, calling her a "mulatto" in a pejorative manner and a "little half and half." In a moment of relative kindness, he refers to her as a "nice little mixed-breed girl." In a rare moment he managed to single-handedly restore her faith in Christmas and in Santa Claus, effectively ending her crying and cheering her up ("A Huey Freeman Christmas"). He also notes that he holds her in somewhat higher regard than Riley, due to her white mother.
Ruckus Family
Uncle Ruckus is the oldest of three sons. He has a good relationship with his "adopted" (or secretly biological) family apart from his father and grandmother. He even said that for a family of niggas, they weren't that bad (since he discovered that most of his hatred towards blacks came from Mister and Nelly after they died). He loves his mother Bunny Ruckus and has a good brotherly relationship with his two younger brothers, Darrel and Darryl. ("The Color Ruckus"). His father, Mister Ruckus was very abusive towards him and even kicked him out of the house when he was little (when he was 12 in 1953). Mister gave Ruckus many injuries and emotional trauma, coupled with Bunny's white supremacist method of raising him, leading Ruckus to take his upbringing a step further and hate black people with a vengeance. Ultimately becoming a far worse man than Mister. His grandmother, Nelly Ruckus was perhaps even worse than Mister as her presence made him miserable, even on her last day on earth (which she spent most of her life waiting for). At the funeral, Ruckus stood up to Mister and told him "Well get it out of your system and sit down, and shut the fuck up!". Mister was about to hit Ruckus until the injuries Mister got from so many years of physical abuse from the white man have finally taken it's toll on him and he fell into his mothers open grave died instantly of a broken neck. This left Bunny free to marry her white lover. Later, after the sun went down, Darryl took his mother and her soon to be husband back home, while Darrel went back home to his wife. This left Uncle Ruckus thinking back on his own life as he went back to his shack.
It was mentioned that Ruckus had a Great-Uncle Ruckus Sr., whom he was named after.
