History Repeating Itself

In class, this Monday was the first time that I ever heard of the term “blaxploitation.” After thinking about the meaning and about how cleverly coined the term was – I started thinking about how this word referenced the exploitation of African Americans in the 1970s, but I didn’t quite understand where the exploitation lay. At first, I thought it was a way for African Americans to work the system to their advantage – to make a place for themselves in society. But now I think that interpretation is not fully accurate. After reading the chapters provided in the book “Street Players” by Kinohi Nishikawa I am starting to understand why the answer is more complex. Blaxploitation also helped make white men richer because of the business and potential it held. Disappointed, yes. Surprised, no. However, I admit that it can honestly be both reasons working together. According to Nishikawa, despite the fact that Los Angeles was located in California it still behaved like the south. It might not have been the “in your face” racism that it was notorious for, but it still was reminiscent of what life was like during Jim Crow. Years of racism doesn’t just get healed quickly, in fact, I think the hateful culture of that time adapted to keep the same harmful beliefs forced on the people of today for an agenda. Today’s exploitation just wears a different mask for its masquerade. I would call this mask the fake woke era. As Nishikawa puts it, “masquerade was the object of readers’ fascination: a performance taken up by urban black man…to make a way out of no way…[and] was a way for white man to see themselves as black.”  I would argue that the era of blaxploitation is an example in our history repeating itself in today’s fake woke era – creating another mask to keep up with the test of time. I couldn’t help but think of a rap song that gained popularity in 2021 called “Fake Woke” by Tom MacDonald. He states,

They never freed the slaves, they realized that they don’t need the chains
They gave us tiny screens, we think we’re free ’cause we can’t see the cage
They knew that race war would be the game they need to play
For people to pick teams, they use the media to feed the flame

Noir is a portal to what life was like in our history. Some of Noir, or more like most of Noir, had moments that didn’t age well. Through Noir, other genres were created and others were able to be defined. Blaxploitation entered the stage through films like Sweet Sweetback’s badass song and was made for primarily black audiences, but just like all good things, it gets corrupted when money, power, and hate get involved. I think that blaxploitation was created for African Americans to make a name for themselves but was exploited by others for money. Now doesn’t that narrative sound familiar to today’s woke culture? Woke culture was created as a way to be alert to any form of discrimination. Anything good created has an opposite. So as a result the discrimination became like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. There’s a movie on Netflix that is a good example of “fake woke” called “Do Revenge.” (Highly recommend it) The fake woke era is just our history repeating itself. We have blaxploitation as our reluctant teacher.