The Blaxpoitation film genre emerged in the 70s as a result of many militant movements in the 60s. During the late 60s African American culture re-emerged and slogans like “Black Pride, Black Power” and “Black is Beautiful” helped fuel the fire for the Black Nationalist movement and forceful change. During the 60s a prominent black actor by the name of Sidney Poiter, portrayed a peaceful and educated African American. For the young and angry generation, this was an outright embarrassment and the opposite of what the Black Nationalist movement had tried to achieve. There was a demand for a different type of African American portrayal on the big screen. The black audience got what they wanted in the form of a movie called “Sweet Sweetbacks Baaadasss Song” a film that was made by an African American filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles. This movie followed the life of a “streetwise hustler, sexual stud, and a white cop killer.” The film was a huge success amongst urban black theaters.
Of course, because of its huge success, Hollywood had to get its hands on a piece of the pie; hence the birth of the Blaxpoitation genre. Several Blaxpoitation movies followed, but were mainly written and directed by white men. Even though most of the films produced within the genre were written and directed by white men, the genre did create many new opportunities for black actors, writers, directors and musicians; but not without controversy. These films exploited blacks by taking the money out of the community and putting it into rich white Hollywood people’s bank accounts and by continuing to further ignorance of black people by using stereotypical characters such as the pimp, hustler, prostitute and drug dealer. The NAACP and other civil rights groups attempted to form a committee against Blaxpoitation films, but it was short lived, because these films also supported many blacks within the film industry. 
Which arises the difficult question and debate about whether or not African Americans should take roles that portray certain negative stereotypes of African American life. I think the movie “Hollywood Shuffle” does a great job at addressing this difficult issue through its use of satire and over exaggerated sarcasm. This movie shows how ridiculous some of the blaxpoitation film stereotypes are and even shows that they still exist. In this movie, the main character has to struggle with the issue of whether or not he is willing to take a role that contains negative stereotypes, in order to pursue his dream of becoming a famous actor. Towards the end of the movie he realizes what a negative influence his movie character is on his little brother who looks up to him. That is a big part of the issue with Blaxpoitation films. They glorify these negative stereotypes, and as a result, little kids idolize them, and white people tend to think that every black person acts that way. The debate is that on one side when blacks take these roles they reinforce the negative stereotypes, while on the other side; sometimes, black actors have to accept these roles in order to make a living. Even though I agree with the side that believes accepting these roles can reinforce these negative stereotypes, I personally do not judge anyone who does accept a certain role in order to make a living. I think it is so easy to judge someone with out knowing what it is like to be in their shoes. However, if that person doesn’t financially need the money, but is accepting the role out of greed or love of money, that is a completely different thing. 
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