The appearance of contemporary ghetto settings in the late 1960's emerged at the same time as the civil rights movement took to the cities. Throughout the 40's to 60's civil rights activists focused primarily on changing the attitudes in the south, most importantly the issues of integration such as desegregation. In the late 1960's however the black power movement turned their attention to the cities, the ghetto's. The media and television created a negative, violent and destructive image of African Americans with story's of blacks looting neighborhood stores. The combination of televised news of urban uprisings in the ghetto's and the black militant resistance fueled white middle-class opinions of blacks as violent people. "Where white suburban America saw violence and destruction, black audiences saw resistance to specific wrongs of the inner city, disenfranchisement, poverty, decay and unchecked police brutality" (Massoood 81.)
The Black Panthers
Originally named The Black Panther's Party for Self-Defense was a group of notorious revolutionary activists founded in 1966 by Heuey Newton and Bobby Seal, shortly after the death of Malcolm X. They separated themselves from the passive efforts of the late Martin Luther King, and primarily intended to protect black neighborhoods from oppression and police brutality. They condemned black nationalism and followed a socialist viewpoint, they created programs such as the "Free Breakfast for Children" program and armed citizen's patrols evaluated police behavior in black neighborhoods. Their social programs to support the black community were however overshadowed by their violent and supposed criminal reputation for violent militant behavior towards police. I feel that perhaps the Black Panthers may have been a necessary part in the fight for civil rights and if not, should have at least been expected. Their demands were entirely reasonable and equated to just wanting the black community to be treated in the same way as the white community in America, such as employment, education and not being beaten up and killed all the time. If the black community was treated right in the first place there would be no need for a them to come together in a militant fashion and it is only after decades of peaceful protests that someone thought maybe its time to take things a step further, because no one's listening. |
Click the picture to visit the Black Panther's website
The black Panthers were known to wear black uniforms and a back
beret, they were also famous for their black power salute where they raise their right arm above their head and make a fist wearing a black glove. |
Blaxploitation Cinema
Blaxploitation films came into circulation around the birth of the 70s and were originally made by African Americans for African Americans, though their popularity soon crossed ethnic boarders. The term "Blaxploitation" was not coined by the people making the films but by the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) in the early 1970's. They believed that the images presented by blaxploitation films were detrimental to the black community by reinforcing white negative stereotypes of black people. Another socially significant part of these movies was their alignment with the black power movement, Sweet Sweetback's BaadAsssss Song (1971) became compulsory viewing for the Black Panthers.
Blaxploitation films came into circulation around the birth of the 70s and were originally made by African Americans for African Americans, though their popularity soon crossed ethnic boarders. The term "Blaxploitation" was not coined by the people making the films but by the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) in the early 1970's. They believed that the images presented by blaxploitation films were detrimental to the black community by reinforcing white negative stereotypes of black people. Another socially significant part of these movies was their alignment with the black power movement, Sweet Sweetback's BaadAsssss Song (1971) became compulsory viewing for the Black Panthers.
"Rated X By An All White Jury"
Sweet Sweetback was rejected by Hollywood but broke Box Office records. For the first time it showed a black man winning against the white establishment and proved that films with black themes and stars could be commercially successful. It began the era of the Blaxploitation movies and every independent American filmmaker should owe some gratitude and respect to Melvin Van Peeples, who wrote, directed and starred in the movie. It remains on Variety's All-Time Top-Grossing Independent List. When writing his script Melvin wanted to accomplish something, this was in his own words to "Take another step towards getting the Man's foot out of our collective asses" By making this film he wanted to instruct the black community, "The biggest obstacle to the Black revolution in America is our conditioned susceptibility to the white man's program. In short, violated confused and drained by this colonization... from the brutal, calculated genocide, the most effective and vicious racism has grown and the intention is to reverse the process" (James. 5) Melvin intended to tell the black community that they shouldn't have to put up with the for lack of a better word, bullshit that was being thrown at them. The half black crew that was working on the film ironically were arrested because the police thought they had stolen all the camera equipment. When making the film Mervin decided he had to make it seem like he was creating a soft core porn movie, so that it could fly unnoticed under the censor's radar. The thought process was that if the censors thought he was just releasing a soft core porn they would not take notice of its political agenda. It was eventually released under an "X" certificate that marked its doom and was initially only released in two cinema's in the entire U.S. The board of censors that decided the "X" certificate were of course all white. After it came to the attention of the black panthers however its popularity grew exponentially and it sparked the beginning of the Blaxploitation era with popular films such as Shaft (1971) and Superfly (1972) following its lead. |
James, D. (1995). That's Blaxploitation. New York U.S.A: St. Martins Griffin.
Massood, P, J. (2003). Black City Cinema. Philadelphia U.S.A: Temple University Press.
Denzin, N.K . (2002). Reading Race. London U.K: SAGE Publications.
Massood, P, J. (2003). Black City Cinema. Philadelphia U.S.A: Temple University Press.
Denzin, N.K . (2002). Reading Race. London U.K: SAGE Publications.