Black Actors Blast Civil Rights Groups Over 'Blaxploitation'

IMDB.com ^ | August 13/2002 | IMDB staff

[Hazzardgate]

Some of the top stars of "blaxploitation" movies have condemned civil rights organizations for undermining a nascent black film thirty years ago and putting hundreds of black actors, directors and crew members out of work. In the documentary Baadasssss Cinema, debuting Wednesday night on the Independent Film channel, Fred "The Hammer" Williamson, who starred in such films as Black Caesar, Bucktown, and Hell Up in Harlem, says angrily: "NAACP and CORE - they're the ones who created this terminology: black exploitation. That has to be clear, on the record. It came from them. It didn't come from the white press. ... Who was being exploited? All the black actors were getting paid. They had a job. They were going to work. The audience wasn't being exploited. They were getting to see things on their screen they'd longed for." Likewise Pam Grier (Coffy, Foxy Brown) recalls black critics saying "Oh, my god, we shouldn't show pimps to white America. ... They'll think we're all like this." The documentary ushers in a series of blaxploitation "tributes," on IFC, including Foxy Brown on Wednesday, Superfly on Thursday and Shaft's Big Score on Friday.

[antivenom]

Anyone for some "skrimp" on the barbie???

[rdb3]

Yeah. And some wallamelon.

[RWG]

name 2

[ErnBatavia]

I've heard several whites say "ax" instead of "ask," too.

Yep - pretty common in Joisey or Yonkers!! (That Curtis Slewa kind of accent)

[rdb3]

Name two? Sure! Like I asked to get the names of those whites who said "ax" when they meant "ask."

That's stupid to even request.

[ErnBatavia]

Athleke -

[rdb3]

East Coast? Fuhgedaboudit. You will hear anything from that region. At family reunions, I still can't understand my cousins who grew up on Staten Island.

[grumpster-dumpster]

Do these actors realize that their whining is about 25 years too late?

I must respetfully disagree with you. Remember, at the time these movies came-out there were relatively few "black" actors working on a regular basis in the movie industry. The exceptions being Sidney Pottier (sp?) and a relatively small group of "character actors."

I see these actors "protest" as a good thing... They are saying (if I read it correctly) that they were forcing "Hollywood" to acknowledge that there was a "black-audience." Now, the NAACP would like to re-write that history, and would seem to want to condemn those actors for breaking new ground.

BTW, (also IMHO) all those movies stunk... but you can't expect first-efforts at anything to be masterpieces.

Regards.

[G-Bear]

"here's the only one I could find in which she's not topless:"

And the other pictures would be bad because........?

[Austin Willard Wright]

Coffy is even more enjoyable and, on the whole, a better film.

[FITZ]

A lot of whites say "worsh" instead of "wash", even saying "Worshington DC".

[Austin Willard Wright]

Believe or not, there are some rural Southern white folks who also say aks. Actually, most of so-called Ebonics mostly originated as part of Southern dialect.

[Charles H. (The_r0nin)]

Close. There is a Southern connection to "Ebonics." Thomas Sowell and others have done a very good job pointing out that Ebonics is, in fact, ... [drumroll, please] ... British!

Seriously, the dialect in question comes, not from West Indian slaves, but Appalachian wage-slaves. The basic language/vocalization changes apparent in black English (as folks like John McWhorter like to call it) originated in poor areas of England. A few of the lower-class dialects of England merged (though they weren't always "lower-class," observe that Chaucer spelled ask "axe" in the Canterbury Tales, strong evidence as to the pronunciation at that time since Middle English spelling tended to be phonetic) and were carried to the US by poor immigrants.

The people that blacks in America were most likely to be associated with at that time were poor whites in the South, where many of these English (and also Scot-Irish, adding a different flavor of verbal drift) immigrants settled. By the time of the linguistic shifts toward black English, most original African influences in black's speech had been lost. Making, ironically, Black English more closely related to the Queen's English and classic English literature than anything in Africa.

[cmsgop]

Oh Yeah Baby!!!!!!!!

[cmsgop]

I think we should start a Dolemite ping list!!!!!

[KS Flyover]

[arm958]

A lot of whites say "worsh" instead of "wash"

You gotta love regional dialects, and regional variations in grammar. BTW, when I went to school you would never say "the car needs washed" or "the dishes need cleaned". Now I hear such grammar all the time. Is it now considered correct? I hope not. "To be" or not "to be"?

[rdb3]

Making, ironically, Black English more closely related to the Queen's English and classic English literature than anything in Africa.

Wachoo tawkin' 'bout, Willis?

Seriously, I see your point. That's totally new information to me. Very interesting.

[arm958]

Making, ironically, Black English more closely related to the Queen's English and classic English literature than anything in Africa.

I would hope so, considering that none of the blacks brought over as slaves from Africa spoke English as their native tongue.

[RWG]

Rush Limbaugh is one. I've helped you get halfway there. Do you have another polite response?