Initial Broadcast Date: May 8, 1972
30 minutes -- Color
“Positive Images for Black Children” Undetermined by Hollywood
“Blaxploitation” – the exploitation of the black community through low-grade movies – has lined the pockets of white motion picture companies and major corporations who continue to damage the black self-image by giving hero status to pimps, prostitutes and dope pushers. So charges Tony Brown, executive producer of “Black Journal” on the program, “Blaxploitation.”
“There seems to be no end to these so-called films with their super heroes and super-powers in the name of ‘Shaft,’ ‘Super Fly,’ ‘Nigger-Charley,’ ‘Black Caesar,’ and most recently, ‘The Mack,’” Brown says.
Brown reports in Black Journal’s evaluation of black films that despite an outcry against films glamorizing black drug pushers, and other undesirables, Hollywood has continued to undermine black youth by providing sequels to the controversial productions, including “Super Fly in Africa.”
Brown, a member of the “Coalition Against Blaxploitation” – a nationwide organization of blacks who are urging the movie industry to offer more relevant black films and more black employment – says that blacks today constitute nearly half of the nation’s movie-going audience.
On the program, Brown lauds the movies, “Sounder” and “Black Girl” as films “representing alternatives dealing with black problems – for real black people – solving their problems realistically and winning.”
“Black Journal” is a production of WNET New York.
Executive producer: Tony Brown
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