Cartoonists of color are fed up, dammit!

There’s a protest action happening today in your Sunday newspaper. Right there on the funny pages.

Yes, America’s black and brown comic-strip artists have had all they can stands... they can’t stands n’more! So they’re striking a blow against the newspaper industry with coordinated cartoons mocking the attitudes of white readers (and white editors) that keep colored folks down.

You say: “Uhhh... what black and brown comic-strip artists? Aaron McGruder is doing TV now.”

I say: Wake up, black nation! I’m talking about Darrin Bell (“Candorville”). And Stephen Bentley (“Herb and Jamaal”). And Cory Thomas (“Watch Your Head”).

You say: “Uhhh... who?”

And that right there is proof that the white man is keeping them down. Otherwise, these cats would be household names!

Here’s the problem, according to cartoonists of color: If a newspaper runs one black comic strip and one Latino comic strip, its editors won’t even consider adding another one.

“It’s the one-minority rule,” Lalo Alcaraz told the Washington Post last week. “We’ve got one black guy and we’ve got one Latino. There’s not room for anything else.” (The Post story is here.)

No doubt, the daily funnies are a tough hustle. And today’s protest action is cute.

But would you call me a sellout if I said there hasn’t been a funny black comic strip since “Boondocks”?

And that Lalo Alcaraz’s “La Cucaracha” is the only funny Latino strip?

The rest of them joints are like little cups of lukewarm milk... lukewarm skim milk. With dry toast.

Of course, most white comic strips are unfunny wastes of space that I would like to burn, except I don’t waste matches. And I truly believe that black folks deserve to prosper despite mediocrity just like everybody else.

So keep on fightin’, y’all. I’m right there with you. (I won’t be reading your comic strips, though. Life’s too short for that.)