Maya Leibowitz-Jenkins - The Proud Family's Broken Activist 

Actually, I did see The Proud Family on TV once. I. The crossover with Lilo & Stitch. I have a few ideas for more videos on this show. We'll see how it goes.

the “black people cant be racist” line ticks me off so badly. as you said, regardless of skin color, anyone is capable of doing terrible things. me and my mom are colombian and we’ve been treated unfairly by people of different races because of it, including black people. why the show writers thought it’d be smart to say something like that in the cartoon is beyond me

My issue of Maya is that she only sees her people being dealt with racism. She basically said that black people couldnt be racist after penny made those assumptions about the Chang triplets.

1:49 Thing is, I don’t see Maya as mature at ALL. She just sees herself this way due to her constant pursuit of vigilante political justice which 9 out of 10 times, just results in her trying to bring others down to do it, all the while putting herself up on a pedestal she appointed herself 😑 this girl is the FURTHEST thing from mature there IS.

The problem with the Proud Family is just that it is a mean show. Penny and her boyfriend are thw only characters who aren't shown to be terrible all the time. Maya had no chance of not being terrible because everyone on this show is terrible.

The whole thing with Maya is the show almost NEVER calls her out when she is wrong. She causes an entire friend group to rail against Zoey despite no evidence to support her claims? Nah it’s Zoey who is the ignorant one. Maya preaches about inequality and yet won’t say a damn word when her fathers are being discriminated against? Nah she’ll be fine. Maya is a complete dick to Penny without even knowing her? Nah the girl who supposedly hates stereotypes engages in one for how she treats Penny. She’s rude, hypocritical, and doesn’t practice what she preaches.

The problem with social awareness/activist characters like Maya is that they don’t realize their own hypocrisy. And claim that they no knowledge from oh no spending 20 minutes reading a Wikipedia page, and think that they are better than most people who don’t participate in their cause. Also yes Black people can be prejudice and I wish shows would stop saying that they can’t, it’s stupid.

Maya is also a massive hypocrite. She refuses to be friends with penny due to her "being superficial and fake" when she hangs out with La Cienniga (i probably butchered that) the most superficial character in the series. And no. Pandas in the wild also eat almost exclusively bamboo. Also while i appreciate the jab at Sakura, Penny didn't know Maya and her brother were orphans while Sakura knew damn well Naruto was one.

Still can't get over a Disney show referencing The Boondocks.

Maya honestly feels like she’s supposed to be a criticism of modern activists who barely do any research into what they’re going against and end up just doing more harm than good. She thinks she knows better than everyone else, only has a surface level knowledge of stuff like the WNBA pay gap, tries to help those in ways they don’t want as some sort of saviour complex, makes assumptions on people and things based on practically no evidence, and even makes the ironically racist statement that black people can’t be racist. It feels so much like she’s supposed to be a criticism of activists like this, but no, she’s supposed to be taken seriously and it’s so bizarre. There’s a lot of potential for a proper activist character in a show like The Proud Family, but it really seems like the writers didn’t know how to do it properly and ended up making a bad character.

Maya's poor characterization wouldn't be as much of an issue if the show wasn't about addressing socio-political situations. It's a shame that this series never evolved to become a nuanced and thought-provoking series on identity.

Pandas are "technically" carnivores. They're in order Carnivora, this has to do with the shape of their teeth. However ALL bear species have omnivorous diets and in the wild pandas get a lot of protein from foods like insects, small animals, or carrion. Does this have anything to do with the video? Not really, but I thought it would be interesting to share.

As white guy I fondly remember the original show, it didn’t feel preachy. The 80 to the 2000s were great at making shows for everyone. I remember Nike at Nite playing reruns of Fresh Prince, Gorge Lopez, My Wife and Kids, etc.

You hit the nail on the head when you asked if her purpose is to be the other dark skinned girl besides Di'Jonay because I feel like her addition was to avoid the previous colorism accusations and that's it.

About the panda thing, it’s kinda true. Panda bears are indeed BEARs, that should be eating meat by all accounts. However, they spend most of their days eating bamboo, which gives them relatively little nutrition. Like how koalas eat eucalyptus and nothing else even though it’s toxic and does nothing for them

This show wants to be the boondocks so bad

My biggest ick with Maya is that she's hypocritical with her dislike towards Penny in S1E1. She says she hates Penny fro being "superficial" but then later hangs out with LaCienega, the most superficial of the friend group and maybe the whole school, and helps LaCienega in her attempts to steal Kareem from Penny. What?! That makes no sense.

If it makes any sense, the Gross sisters were a lot more aware of Black history, music, and art than Maya ever was which I find hilarious because the Gross sisters are, well, bullies. Comical bullies but still but that moment where they talk about Lou Rawls in the OG series was a lot more engrossing (HA) than anything Maya has every done or the crew of the show has tried to bullhorn through her. The reboot takes itself way too damn seriously when the original show knew EXACTLY what it was and what it had to do at Disney's own exect limits. The Proud Family was first and foremost an animated SITCOM about a girl going through her life growing up. Penny being Black was important but it honestly feels like people just took that too far to the point where the idea of the show just being chill is impossible. The original show had lessons but also had off the wall episodes that made no sense and just existed to shatter reality. It knew how to fan fun and knew not to take itself too seriously. The reboot is trying to act like it's some sort of revolutionary show for whatever reason, as if we've never had shows, animated or live, with Black protags....EVER and for some reason acts like it needs to have so many talking points but the show itself seems ill prepared and unaware to know how to tackle a lot of it's 'issues' with nuance which is why you have reactions like what happened with the Autism show. And for the most part....Boondocks already did this shit better. Maya is more or less Dewey Jenkins from that show, the wannabe Pan-African 'activist' who didn't have a cause but wanted to act like he had one anyway, ontop of being the worse part of Huey who himself even pokes fun at activist because he's not a perfect and the show wasn't afraid to call that out even though we see so much through Huey's eyes and a lot of what he said was true, but his problem was he DID take things too seriously and he needed to have someone to bring him down (ala Cesar from the comics).

3:36 yep, pandas are carnivores but the bamboo diet is not the greatest reason. The greatest reason is that pandas reproduction is trash. No really they have like the shortest period in which they are fertile and if they miss it wait another year. Also pandas mothers seems not so capable at taking care of multiple cubs. There are other issues sure but these tends to be the greatest

I only watched a few episodes of the original proud family and movie and watch clips of the proud family: louder and prouder, but in my opinion, Maya was wasted potential. I thoughts she would hate LaCienega but nope. The creator and writers of this just ignore the criticism people have of the old show and made it worse. The way it handle issues back then is definitively different to how it tackle them now. Artiece Tb did a video on the historical inaccuracies of that season 2 finale and how the Cleveland show did it better.

Funny that Maya brings up Uncle Ruckus in the second episode of the Reboot. The creators tried to make her into Huey Freeman, but instead made her into Dewey "Obababa-ooo, Mamma-say, Mamma-sah, Mamma-ma-cu-sah" Jenkins (with an attitude) from the "Wingmen" episode.

I was excited to have a socially aware character. Then she turned out to be just as shallow and mean spirited as Penny's other friends. I grew up on the original show, so I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up.

The main food source for giant pandas is really bamboo, but they also eat other plants and even meat, but rarely.

The funny thing about Pandas is that their stomaches and bodies are made to be carnivores but they just choose to eat bamboo. They’re really lazy and would prefer to not chase something down. They’re also really bad at mating, they probably would be close to extinction rn if not for humans thinking they’re super cute. Also they’re no longer endangered, just vulnerable.

I had to rewind the clip at least 4 times where Maya brings up uncle Rukus. I’m genuinely surprised Disney allowed them to even mention anything or anyone from that show

It’s mad annoying writers wrote better lessons and characters in 90’s shows for children while kids today don’t get that now. Wtf happened!?

The original Proud Family was already a mean spirited show, it only made sense that the revival was even meaner

I'm black. I cant imagine constantly, consistently blaming other people for me being black. It sounds like a nightmare scape where success eludes me because of ancient spooky ghosts only i could see that say i should still be underfoot. But all those people are dead. And I'm magnificent. Get your affairs in order and try to convince me otherwise.

You're correct about Sticky, for what it's worth.

Literally Penny saying that when an Asian person calls her out on feeling she was racist it feels like the equivalent of the "I can tolerate being prejudiced, but I draw the line at holding power over Asian people" ("So you can tolerate being prejudiced?") Meme. Refusing to call it racism doesn't make the problem not be a thing, and the person perpetuating the stereotype doesn't really get to dictate what language the victim uses to describe the prejudice they exp.

Hey man. Not sure you remember me we met on twitter a while back and you were shocked I was one of your watchers. Great video you hit basically all the points of contention I had with Maya. Beyond feeling unnecessary despite being the "woke" charater meant to embody the old version of the term that meant being socally aware of the world she honestly feels like she embodies the modern derogatory meaning of someone who thinks they are aware of those issues but doesn't understand them properly or views them from a very narrow lens. It's kinda sad to because she started out with the potental to be the charater who grows from the modern meaning into someone reprsesnting the old positive one but the creators just dropped the ball and made her the girl who reads critical race theory and acts superior to everyone.

Maya is definitely a joke about extreme social activists. Unfortunately the problem is the show rarely calls her out on it except for when she was first introduced.

Maya is one of the characters I hated on this show. She’s a Black activist with a woke mindset but in a negative way that normal people don’t like. Honestly this reboot was horrible overall. The original was great and it did tackle social issues but in a good way or in a way that wasn’t in ur face or be like “HEY LOOK AT THIS!”.

Controversial opinion, but Maya 100% seems like the kind of person who when they grow up will reconnect with her birth parents who likely lost custody of her and completely abandon her gay adoptive dads to be with her "real family" who understand her "roots" better, being bitter one of her dads is white and the other married a white man.

as an american im so sorry for this character's representation on woke and how it presents América were better than that and should

Thanks for watching this show so we don’t have to.

Huey Freeman is what Maya wished she could be given his actions and personality. He knew more than everyone because they were made to be dumber than he was for the sake of it. He had goals and acted on them in massively over the top ways but when you see you do that, it doesn’t seem far out there. Maya however? She’s just meant to be that but all the ego and self pride in thinking she’s right. I’m not at all saying this is wrong, but it’d be better if she had actually made some development and being something else other than that.

I feel like Maya's role in the show is oddly ambiguous even during her reveal. We don't know if the writers intended us to side with her or laugh at her.

Good lord, no wonder Maya was adopted.

honestly this video was actually interesting to watch , keep it up

I didn't know you're a fellow Nigerian. And no, Disney Channel Africa never did show "The Proud Family."

If Maya wasn't mean to penny I would been happy

Oh wow, I didn't even realize the show took place in California. They're really gonna do that whole plot in a state that never had slaves??

So for the panda thing its a lot more complicated but on the meat front (as far as im aware) Pandas are very much still omnivoresbin their digestive tract and Bamboo is on its own not all that nutritious which combined with the large size of the pandas and (much more importantly) the deforestation if their habitats drastically reducing access to their primary food supply of bamboo

As a Mexican watching this, the Panda segment reminded me of countless times people from the US got offended by "stereotypical and insensitive Latin American representation" when we take most of that stuff as either accurate representations or harmless jokes. If anything, people meddling in our business without asking for our opinion pisses us off more; we're not endangered animals nor pets to be "protected" by you.

6:17 True that power corrupts but to say that thats the only reason is dumb....like I have met people with prejudices that were certainly not big shots.

This show is so mean-spirited which is why i never bothered and forced myself to watch it.

She’s very “I’m not like other girls” mixed with broken activist

I HATE Maya because she’s every bad thing and Twitter stereotype people have about real activists

1:22 Nah, Mya is definitely called woke thay way. She sees herself as this progressive activist with none of the nuances. She's overall annoying/self-righteous with her views and is just an outright unlikable overall.

Uncle Ruckus rules

6:17 is a hot take that earned a chuckle from me. In terms of 'who holds power' in your country, you're mostly correct. But if we reintroduce the socioeconomic angle to the equation, wealth disparity would still very much allow for a certain minority to do some considerable social damage over time. (Hint: it's one of a few reasons why I'll never get gas from a Shell station.)

Maya is... eh. It feels like her episodes are sometimes out of order and it can be very... jarring to see her with the others when they don't really have a reason to be around each other. I get that Penny has a lot of Fair-weather friends but she is there because... idk.

I don’t know if maya was written to be “woke” but poorly done at the point she sounds like the “I am offended and oppressed, I must cancel!” stereotype or if it was done intentionally to mock some hypocritical activists telling other what they should do but don’t apply their own words

Interesting I'm still over here watching the old proud family. The animation the themes everything is just so much better!.

It's wildest how they made the new Proud Family like that cuzz.

I feel like she's a character that was made just to make a stab at "the woke crowd" as a whole. Why else would she be so mean, and overall just unreasonably stubborn to a T? Id love a character that would actually brooch these topics and take an impassioned stance on the matter. It's a shame she's just ruthless, hypocritical, and often doesn't make sense.

I’m late to the vid, but good analysis and I need to speak against the panda slander I see in the comments also the Beethoven comment from the show lol. Pandas are herbivores. Yes, they’re part of the order Carnivora, but that doesn’t mean that they are, or that they “should” be, carnivores. Pandas are highly adapted for their environment, an environment that is being deforested, hence why they’re endangered. Bamboo is a an abundant food source and so they evolved to eat it. It’s not the most nutritious or digestible thing, but it’s everywhere and bamboo shoots have a surprisingly high amount of protein. There’s a reason they evolved the way they did. There’s always some sort of reason behind evolution, even if it seems a bit convoluted and inefficient to humans. Pandas are hard to breed in captivity mostly cause it’s hard to recreate their natural environment, and the fact that humans have a hard time even understanding them. It’s hard for people to even tell the gender of a panda, which is obviously pretty damn important when it comes to breeding. Pandas do just fine in their natural environment when it’s not being wrecked by humans. As for the Beethoven thing: there’s no reliable evidence that Beethoven was black or mixed. The misconception is very much debunked by scholars, so I was surprised to hear it casually brought up. There are family records that don’t we don’t have good reason to doubt, and they say he’s Flemish, no Black ancestry. He was described as by contemporaries as “dark”, “swarthy”, and a “Moor”. Moor is a complicated word that has had various meanings and definitions. In context of the Beethoven theory, it refers to tanned Muslims (like Arabs, Turks, and Berbers), sometimes specifically referring to Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula. During Beethoven’s time, it was actually fairly common to call white non-Muslims Moors if they were “Dark”. “Dark” doesn’t necessarily mean having dark brown skin. You have to remember this is 19th century Europe, dark is relative. It meant tanned, or having dark colored hair or eyes (Not from the same time or culture, but the phrase “tall, dark, and handsome”, also traditionally referred to dark hair and eyes). People point to his friendship with fellow musician, George Bridgetower (who was mixed black and white), as evidence. That’s a ridiculous argument cause interracial friendships very much exist, even in 19th century upperclass Europe. The “Beethoven was Black” theory exists cause Black Americans wanted to claim an icon. To learn that one of the most famous Classical musicians was “Black” was powerful. The problem is that “power” isn’t real. People shouldn’t perpetuate fake Black History, but real Black history and icons like George Bridgewater. Fake history only sends the wrong message. Minorities shouldn’t have to make up history taken from the majority cause we already have history, it’s just not as commonly brought up. I know I wrote a lot, but these two things really bugged me lmao. I didn’t want to oversimplify too much especially since that’s how these misconceptions spread.

Sticky: " Why you think I stayed out gone."

Pandas mainly eat bamboo, but there stomachs are made to digest meat, because of this they tend to be lazy and tired because the natural diet they eat doesn’t give them enough nutrients.

The seventh month old video only a few minutes in and i already subscribed

As a side note, Yes, Panda's are designed for bamboo eating. They have nubs on their palms that act like thumbs to grab onto the bamboo they eat, which turns out to have a shockingly large amount of toxins in it that most animals would keel over from but Pandas are just fine with and thus have exclusivity with a very common food source. Also pandas don't mate in captivity because their habits require a larger and more spread out environment for it to work. Stick them in the wild and they do fine. It's not that they aren't interested, they're just camera-shy.

Because pandas are bears, they are in the carnivor order. However, Carnivore does not describe thir diet as pandas' diet is mainly bamboo but no flesh.

Like this show was so awful I almost had heart attacks whenever i decided to hate watch an episode Every character has become or is really mean spirited & the flash animation is just nauseating Imo this show is worse than Velma because it’s teaching this shit TO YOUR KIDS as if they want more kids to be mean spirited “victims”

2:22 - Interesting change in the background proportions between the scenes. Didn’t notice that until now.

6:26 Thank you!

This is what happens when you lack a prefrontal cortex

I miss Sticky, he was the only real friend to Penny

It is actually true, Pandas, like most bears are supposed to be primarily carnivorous with some omnivorous tendencies, supplementing their diets will a little vegetation here and there. For whatever reason though Pandas instead started to eat bamboo almost exclusively (probably due to human expansion as is usually the case), this sudden diet change iis currently believed to be responsible for their lack of mating desire and neglect of their young as they literally don't have the energy to give a fluff.

I see after most reboots most people talk how good the original was, not the Proud family.

6:19 - It's actually a woke-centric definition.

If I was back in Highschool... both Penny and Maya would have me on lock 🔐😩

5:48 I swear, I’ve seen that chair before. Maybe in that Spike Lee Vietnam joint?

Let's remember the first episode where Maya appears. Her meeting against the statue of the city founder is nothing near the idea she suggested to Penny: to sneak around in the zoo tonight and lead the animal (panda) out of cage, without a thought that this "act of justice" could cost her and her friend their lives. And now a question: does it character Maya as adequate person?

I thought Maya disliked Penny and her friends, why is she hanging out with them

Whenever I see these activist characters, I always feel the need to ask, “So, did the writers make the character this insufferable on purpose?”

2:31 My definition of talking to the mirror

I feel like whete this series went wrong was changing the delicate balance of the friend group. Sure, Penny's friends arent perfect but they could get away with their flaws. Sticky and Zoe are two good friends. Deejonay tries to be a good friend but is also socially clumsy and lacks forsight. Still, she does try to be there for Penny when she isnt being selfish. Lacienaga was never meant to be a friend. She and Penny are only frenemies because they share a social group and their parents are. Now we got rid of Sticky and added a friend who actively is antagonistic to Penny. We shit on Zoey and Deejonay's bad habits arent called out as much as they used to be and seem normalized.

great video! This was really well thought out, and it was really cool to get your perspective on what was presented. I like the part where you semi-call out the whole "Black people cant be racist" and put actual reasoning to the statement. I think Mayas character would have worked out a lot better if they made her more the type of person who actively learns from her judgement errors instead of doubling down.

I gave up on activism years ago. Now, I just want to take things slowly

Hey @JesseGolo consider watching the original Proud Family it genuine is a pretty good cartoon. It fills the wholesome cartoon family niche like Goof Troop did before it. Honestly most Cartoons from between the 90's to the late 2000's across Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, and Nickelodeon were bangers but there are some stinker there as well.

6:11 Also prejudice can be made on both ways. If you think someone is better due to their race is also prejudice, like thinking black people is better in basketball or asians being smarter

6:19 EXACTLY!!!

This is why I prefer the old proud family

This reboot fell so the Good Times Reboot could FUMBLE.

Anyone else found it weird that the new added characters have such hyperrealistic hairstyles, but the original characters still have their cartoonish hairstyles?

If you ever met any woman like maya, run. They will never be happy, they will always find something wrong with the world but nothing positive. I met someone like that. And years later she is still like that.

The Panda thing is technically true. Their eating bamboo has caused constant low energy in pandas. They also haven't evolved to eat it, their natural slothful nature has made adapting to changes in their habitat harder than living alongside humans already is

Is that naruto in the background?

6:41 W.I.T.C.H reference, BASE!

Maya has mixed up morals and is unnecessarily rude for no reason. I wouldn't mind if she barely showed up so long as her encounters were pleasant but it's always the most infuriating thing I've ever heard. She just says "hey there's this rumor that your sister is sleeping with your boyfriend" and then just walks away. Long story short, if I was about to die and Maya was right next to, I would not ask her for help. She is the last person I'd trust.

People that say their group can’t be racist are usually the most.

For me, she acts so smug about it and when things don’t go her way she tries to down play it.

I remember being so excited when I heard the creators were adding a new girl to the group in the reboot. My biggest peeve with the original show was how awful Penny’s ‘friends’ treated her and how they never faced any consequences for their actions either! I was so hoping the new girl would be someone to counter the others. Someone kind and empathetic to Penny but also confident and unafraid to stand up to LaCienega and Dijonay and put them in their places. Zoey was just a sheep that went along with whatever the others did. But no, instead we got Maya. An obnoxious, rude, self-righteous hypocrite who AGAIN doesn’t face any consequences for her actions and just walks around with her nose in the air because her opinions are oh so more important than yours. Like what other people have said in the comments, she preached about how she didn’t like superficial people then spends pretty much the rest of the series glued to LaCienega’s side and doing her bidding! 🙄

1:15 blud in the back think he obito 💀 💀

Like, I get that people don't want to watch shows where your main cast are terrible people, but as a disabled person who grew up in a small town, I can say for a fact that it's very true to life for kids to be that mean spirited. And it's easy to fall into toxic friend groups when it seems like they're the only ones who will make room for you.

Are people legitimately blind to how much modern entertainment HATES Red heads? Aside from this show that treats her badly... there are multiple other shows and movies that downright delete and replace them. Obvious ones are Ariel, Mary Jane, starfire, Triss and more... It’s actually sick.

We need Uncle Ruckus on this show

do they produce these end loose money ?? how ?

Not to mention the counter productive on being progressive. Zoey would’ve been tackling interracial relationships which is a very progressive concept (honestly in my opinion it’s normal) when it comes to pop culture. But i find it funny because often times I do see women of color being the most against interracial relationships. Big taboo (from my observations of living in a mostly diverse community). This episode fed that stereotype.