Misnomer Of Blaxploitation

John Williams
Dr. Fontenot
AFR 198/WRT 120
6 May, 2015
The Misnomer of Blaxploitation: The Explosion of Modern African Films During the 1900’s America was finding itself in the middle of a worldwide abandonment of past morals. Skirts were getting shorter, shirts were getting tighter, and television and movies were starting to hit their adulthood. As this trend grew we also saw the rise of independent African American films all across the country peaking in the 1970’s in what many call the “Blaxploitation Era”. With a name such as this one, we can only assume that it was a dark time for African Americans in the movie industry, however it was just the opposite. Many actors and actresses of time will agree that there was not any exploitation
being done at the time, in fact we can see that this era was the beginning of modern film era where we can see African Americans in major roles. In a documentary called “Baadasssss Cinema”, we heard from multiple actors and actresses from the Blaxploitation era with each giving different accounts on how the movies effected not only their lives but the film industry that we know today. Unlike many of the films featuring a Negro cast before this time, we did not see the stereotypical traits of a poor black man getting into trouble with his idiotic behavior. Instead we saw African Americans playing private detectives like Richard Roundtree in Shaft (1971) who weren’t afraid to beat anyone that got in their way. Movies such as Shaft, gave African Americans a hero-like character that was easy to relate to and easy to love. Giving us a revolutionary new character for African Americans, this has evolved into African Americans being able to play dominant superheroes in big budget films such as Wesley Snipes in the Blade Trilogy, Will Smith in Hancock, and Halle Berry in an assortment of X-Men films. Secondly during this time we saw the beautification and acceptance of female African Americans.
As we saw in movies such as Imitation of Life, the struggle of being a young African American female at the time was immense. If they could, most of the lighter skinned girls would try to make it seem like they were white. This trend was not just a fantasized movie depiction of a whiny teenage girl, this was a legitimate struggle that black households had to deal with at the time. It was not until movies like Sheba Baby and Foxy Brown starring Pam Grier that we saw the black woman become a true sex icon of an era. Pam Grier in these movies had a killer beauty that she used often to get what she wanted by any means necessary. These movies not only broke from racial constraints but also broke from the sexist constraints that held America down at the time. Pam Grier was a firecracker that went off on anyone that got in her way with little to no help from any man. She was the counter to the male African American superhero. She was as seductive and lustful diva who brought in rave reactions from around the nation as she became the face of the Blaxploitation era. While not only being beautiful and deadly, she also was able to always be one step ahead of the opposition. Thinking about the next move constantly throughout the movie giving her a truly three-dimensional character that was destined to leave her footprint in the movie
industry. Her contribution became the reason that we see beautiful black actresses today such as Halle Berry, Kerry Washington, and Rashida Jones are able to find and portray their roles. She laid the groundwork for African American females, and I would argue that she also laid the ground work for women of all ethnicities. She is the reason that females are now becoming some of the most well-known people on the industry, allowing women to assert their beauty onto the crowd with three-dimensional characters that are not reliant on a strong male presence. It is obvious that her contributions were more influential on African American females giving them a role model to look up to who has already achieved so much and who helped turned the decade into a decade remembered for change and black films. Lastly, the name Blaxploitation has been used a lot to describe this era but like the actors, I see this as a misnomer.
I don’t see a group of people being exploited since blacks were given a chance to make their mark on a wide American audience that was accepting them mostly and they were reaping in profits from it. The audience was not being exploited since the movies were for the most part clever and entertaining even for today’s standards. The directors were not exploited because as stated earlier, the movies were bringing in massive profits. Everyone that was involved was benefiting and even the generations to come benefited from its fresh ideas and characters and its use of African Americans in major lead roles. If anything the time period was a ground breaking cinema era that saw the end of many cinematic-racisms and brought about many new positive roles for African Americans. The characters were relatable for the audience, while being likable and dreamy if not anything
else. As the time went on in this class we saw the development of African American films and we saw the changing nature of cinema and how it effects the opinion of the population. While it’s hard to say which era was more groundbreaking for this class out of all of them, if I had to choose it would have to be the Blaxploitation Era. It seemed to throw away all the past stereotypes and negativities that America had become accustomed to seeing involving African Americans and instead replaced them in what is now the basis for films we see today. The independent black films became the ground work for not only modern African films but also for the general cinema that we see today. I see the Blaxploitation being the framework for the strong leading role that is not constricted to just one race or one gender. Without Blaxploitation it would have taken much longer to get the advancement in cinema that we see today where we can have any ethnicity or gender on the screen playing any role they want. Blaxploitation opened the doors for variety, queer cinema, female-lead cinema, modern African cinema, and other ethnic lead cinemas. Blaxploitation showed America that anyone can have a lead role if they can play their part well, and it did not have to restrict to a white male. That’s why I believe this is the most important cinema era we have covered and I found it to be the most interesting and entertaining to watch.