Blaxploitation is more than just a genre of movies. It is a part of a whole movement that shifted how America viewed African-Americans in cinema. In the '70s, over 200 movies would be made that fall under this genre were made. Some of the more notable films include "Shaft," starring Richard Roundtree in 1971, "Superfly," starring Antonio Fargas in 1972 and "Foxy Brown," starring Pam Grier in 1974.

Although the term blaxploitation is viewed by some as derogatory, the movies nevertheless enabled African Americans to progress from the traditional roles of cooks, waiters and servants to prominent roles in movies in which the entire cast was black. Some people might not understand where the term came from and what it means. It was coined by the press to describe the movies because they predominately portrayed African Americans as cold-hearted heroes, gangstas, drug dealers, pimps and thugs. However, during the '70s, African-Americans were being depicted by the media as revolutionaries and militants due largely to the violent race riots and the Black Panther movement. So, in light of the social strife, black people were in desperate need of heroes and this is ultimately what blaxploitation provided.

In 1971, blaxploitation was born from the movie "Sweet Sweetback's Badaaasss Song," which was, written, produced and featured black actors and director Melvin Van Peebles. This marked the end the real "exploitation" of African Americans in film. In the early 20th century, racism in film was overt and perfectly acceptable to society.

These were films like "The Wooing and Wedding of a Coon" and D.W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation" where all white casts put on makeup to do blackface instead of casting black people to play the part of black people.

Even in old Warner Brother's cartoons, blackface is a common occurrence as is widely characterized by that the wide flat nose and overly exaggerated thick lips. Black men were seen as huge and muscled from working out in the field or meek and submissive to their white massas. Whereas light-skinned black women were seen as sexual creatures and dark-skinned black women were depicted as Mammy: large, submissive and always singing and cooking for white folks. These are the imagines our society had of African-Americans in film before the Civil Rights movement ushered in a new genre of film: Blaxploitation.

African-American women in films before the '70s had two types of roles: the sultry, light-skinned sex goddess who had predominately white features and the Mammies, the large, jolly women who were seen as being as sexually unappealing as possible. With movies like "Cleopatra Jones" and "Foxy Brown," we finally see black women in leading roles, and although Foxy Brown is as sexual as possible, she is the heroine and focus of the movie. In "Cleopatra Jones," African-American women have a role they can truly cherish and look up to. Inspired by the early James Bond movies of the '60s, this movie stars 6-foot-2 Tamara Dobson in the role of an international spy fighting against "The Man" all around the world while wearing the outrageous furs and clothing characteristic of the glamorous '70s.

This was finally a role where African-American women are allowed to express themselves.

Music is a huge part of African-American culture, and blaxploitation provided a way for artists to gain exposure to a larger market. Artists like Curtis Mayfield, Quincy Jones and Isaac Hayes all composed soundtracks for blaxploitation films, while Arethra Franklin, Gladys Knight and the Staples Singers performed hit singles for the films. When Isaac Hayes won an Academy Award for his innovative theme music for "Shaft," it was a major step toward gaining respectability and access as artists. The soundtracks of the blaxploitation movies often contained many chart-topping singles. The music by James Brown and others reflected the social strife African Americans were dealing with and conveyed a serious political message.

The term "blaxploitation" has been a subject of debate for 30 years. Originally, it was coined by the black press to talk about the roles that black actors took in the films. It was not met to mean that black people exploited by the Hollywood executives when making the movie. However, Richard Roundtree in particular harbors animosity toward the term and refuses to discuss the subject.

Not everyone feels the term is derogatory, indeed Rudy Ray Moore, star of the not-quite-as-acclaimed-as "Shaft" movie "Dolemite" embraced the genre and felt it was more of a cultural movement than just a type of film. Indeed, there were great developments to spring forth due to blaxploitation movies as well as some negative affect. The mere name blaxploitation contributed to its downfall. The thought of exploitation with black on the front of it stopped appealing to people after a decade of movies that became progressively more formulaic. However, the damage was done, as in African Americans have gone on to gain more respect in acting, ultimately coming together at last year's Academy Awards. The ceremony was a long overdue celebration of African Americans in film where Sidney Poitier was awarded an Oscar for his lifetime of achievement and Denzel Washington and Halle Berry walked away with Oscars for Best Actor and Actress respectively.

African Americans have come a long way in the past century, especially in the media and film. From being portrayed as animalistic, violent and overly sexual, subservient creatures to eventually the roles of blaxploitation roles that allowed African Americans a chance to play the hero and heroine. We have progressed and people like Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett and Halle Berry are household names.

This change our society has slowly seen has brought us a long way, however there is always room for improvement. Hopefully we will not have to wait over 35 years for the next time an African-American man gives a performance that deserves an Oscar; it was the first time an African-American woman has ever won the award for best actress. I trust this is the beginning of a trend in society to reward African-Americans for excellence in fields outside of sports. We already dominate those — at least the important ones anyways.

The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Christopher Cooper is "bad motha" MIS major and can be contacted at cooper.42@nd.edu.

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