Blaxploitation

Blaxploitation (or "blacksploitation") is a film genre which emerged in the United States circa 1971. These exploitation films were made specifically, and perhaps exclusively, for an urban, black audience. The word itself is a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation," and was coined in the early 1970s by the Los Angeles NAACP head, and ex-film publicist, Junius Griffin. Blaxploitation films were the first to feature soundtracks of funk and soul music and they featured a primarily black cast.[1] Variety magazine credited Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, released in 1971, with the invention of the blaxploitation genre whilst others argue that the Hollywood-financed film Shaft, also released in 1971, is closer to being a Blaxploitation piece; and thus is more likely to have begun the trend.[2]