How NAACP SLAMMED Blacks in Hollywood
In a video by Buzzfeed, 24 Questions Black People Have For White People, white people were asked, “Why do you have a problem with a Black James Bond?”
If I may speak for white people, I suggest they don’t have a problem with a black James Bond. Regardless, the better question at this time in American history might be, “Would ‘you people’, that is to say black Leftists have a problem with a white guy playing Shaft?”
Remember the Blaxploitation films of the 60’s and 70’s?
Blaxploitation is a term coined by the Los Angeles NAACP in 1970’s. The term referred to movies like Shaft, Cleopatra Jones, Superfly, for example. These films cast mainly black actors, and featured Funk/Soul soundtracks.
The NAACP called these films racist, because “rich white movie producers” were making money from movies about black issues.
The films were set in urban neighborhoods and characters were mostly criminals. Roles were often about “getting back at the man”, usually condoning the illegal activities prevalent in black communities. Drugs and prostitution were prominent themes.
As Complex wrote of Blacula,
When news circulated early last week about Spike Lee’s new (and hopeful) $1.2 million Kickstarter project, to fund a movie about people “addicted to blood,” we immediately felt the urge to revisit that 1972 cult classic Blacula. You’ve never seen it? Rectify that immediately. As the film’s original poster declared, actor William Marshall’s undead ladykiller is “deadlier than Dracula,” not to mention that before he died and became a creature of the night, Blacula was an African prince who called upon Count Dracula to help him end slavery.
Who better to end slavery than a 400-year-old Transylvanian monarch?
In blaxploitation films, white people were referred to as “Honkies” and “Crackers”. Generally whites were portrayed as either the bad guys, and of course the obligatory white woman who played the part-time paramour of the black protagonist. In other words, the film had to have a “brotha” exploiting a white woman sexually or why bother.
Black people flocked to these films. So in effect, Hollyweird gave black audiences exactly what they wanted. Yet, the NAACP conveniently overlooks this aspect of the industry at the time.
Moreover, what of the priceless opportunity afforded blacks to rise from the ashes of the Civil Rights Era, and thus attain influential roles in Hollywood?
The NAACP stopped the blaxploitation films, and relegated almost entirely black casts to “bit parts” in “white” films. And what roles did blacks get in those films? They played criminals, mostly pimps, prostitutes, and drug dealers.
Contrast the blaxploitation era actors of yesteryear with the great black actors of today. Outside of Pam Grier, most of those actors fell into obscurity. However, what about Denzel Washington. Has Denzel missed his opportunity? Halle Berry? How’s she living?
What of Samuel L. Jackson? That Negro should own a studio by now, as he is “that Negro” in practically all films these days.
Thus, the NAACP stopped post-Civil Rights Era blacks from succeeding in Hollywood.
Apparently, the NAACP thought that Blacks being paid a fortune was “meaningless” if the guy/gal who signed the check was white. So in their view the actor who played Shaft was just another “House Negro.”
Fast-forward to 2017, and the NAACP engendered “#OscarSoWhite”.
Because Hollywood is still racist, right? Blacks “aren’t represented” in Hollywood, at least according to Will and Jada Smith. But have any of these black belly-achers started their own studio? Are they afraid of being blacklisted? Or are they far too comfortable with white men signing their checks?
As in the post-slavery days, blacks were given the opportunity to thrive in Hollywood post-blaxploitation. Ironically, the race pimps of the 70’s prevented that evolution from occurring. How many jobs did they NAACP cost blacks in Hollywood? Who knows.
How many amazing stories went untold because of these crybabies. The progress for blacks in Hollywood likely would have occurred decades sooner, without the race-pimping tactics of the NAACP. Leftists have no one to blame but themselves for any lack of progress of blacks in Hollywood.
Hearkening back to the blaxploitation films, Complex continues,
Indeed, it was a wild time, an era of anti-establishment filmmaking that split viewers down the middle—some found praised these movies for promoting black empowerment and breaking down racial barriers, others felt they harmfully fed into white people’s various prejudices. Today, three decades removed from blaxploitation’s initial prominence, the films are something else entirely: entertaining, one-of-a-kind time capsules for the days when Dolemite and Super Fly would’ve pimp-slapped Madea on sight.
I’d pay to see that!
