Blaxploitation :: Bittersweet

It’s Easter Sunday and your family is enjoying dinner. Everyone’s around the table, passing side dishes - smiles, laughter, and loud talk abound. Maybe there’s even some old school playing in the background. This is the kind of dinner that you wished your family had more often. Off in another room, you hear a yell, and a crash. The table falls silent. There could only be one culprit. That person is Uncle Fred. His pants are pulled high up above his bellybutton and secured firmly in place by a belt. He’s wearing gator shoes, a hat of some sort, and glasses from the 70’s. He yelled because one of the younger kids spilled his fifth drink. You then remember why your family doesn’t have dinners like this more often.

Looking at the Blaxploitation genre, it’s easy to give it the same sentiment. You look at the corny dance moves and lines, the horribly acted karate/action scenes and can’t help but grimace. I get that same feeling of mild embarrassment when I see MY family’s Uncle Fred start cutting the rug at the reunions. I also can’t help but look at people that would have been out of work had it not been for the very genre that played up their stereotypes, and smile. When Uncle Fred starts to tell us about back in “his” day I get that same smile.

Blaxploitation is a bittersweet indulgence. I want to pull my hair out over the unceasing plotlines that revolve around pimps & drugs, yet I cannot turn my back on something that is so influential on my culture. Hip Hop culture. Black Culture. Who is anyone to say that Blaxploitation is any less legitimate than a Martin Scorsese flick? The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences? Roger Ebert? Me? Did we listen when our parents told us that Hip Hop wasn’t “real” music?

So if you’re a youngin, like me, but interested in having an old soul, also like myself, then ask your parents about the following flicks…Maybe they have a copy you can watch. You’ll also be able to catch many pop culture references, like Dave Chappelle’s “Player Hater’s Ball” or even lines/clips used by your favorite rapper in these very films.

Remember – as tacky as they may be, your family is where you come from!

(In no particular order)

1. Willie Dynamite: He’s a pimp living “the life” at war with other pimps. Ride or die (literally) ho’s in his stable. Again, oh so tacky, yet truly entertaining.

2. Shaft/Shaft in Africa: A classic in its own right. Garnered a short lived television show as a result. He’s a bad muthaSHUT YO MOUTH! Not to mention a smooth movin lover-man. He's not a pimp in the movie...he just has pimp tendencies.

3. The Mack: The film centers a pimp named Goldie who has several people trying to force him out of the game, including his brother. Also starring Richard Pryor.

4. Coffy/Foxy Brown: Same movie. But, you’ll see why Pam Grier was ever relevant. She plays a nurse set out to take revenge on a drug lord in both films.

5. Dolemite: Another classic in the genre that has attained a cult like following. You might have caught parodies of this film on MadTV. It’s about a pimp that is truly unique about his diction.

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