Blaxploitation In Movies

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ruled against discrimination based on race, color, religion, or sex. During the decade of the 1970’s, the concern of race and bigotry was still occurring throughout America despite the fact that it was after the Civil Rights Act was passed. Media had a ton to do with the racism that was going on in the country. The source of media that had a major impact was motion pictures. The African American community were hardly pictured in movies nor were they given the lead role. Which then lead to the time period that was know as the blaxploitation era. Blaxploitation was a genre of movies where it was nothing but an all black cast and soundtracks of soul music would play. The genre was originally produced for a black audience …show more content…
The reason that this was an immense deal during this time period is because this was the first time a black superhero had been the protagonist (Demby par. 23). The Black Panther and Falcon failed to have their own lead role, but Luke Cage did not. In “Hero for Hire Volume No. 1” created by Archie Goodwin in 1972, Luke Cage was an inmate at Sea Gate Maximum Security Prison who was convicted of a crime that he did not commit. While in prison Cage had encounter multiple racist characters including, Captain Rackham and the guard Quirt. Both who shared a strong animosity toward Cage because of his skin color. During his time behind bars, he is almost beaten to death, he signs up for a special experiment, and he is almost killed. Luke Cage’s battle through racism was controversial at the time. Comic books should not be applied to the curriculum and education because they teach students about racist acts which can lead to replication of these acts amongst the readers which is clearly depicted in the comic “Hero for Hire Volume No.1” starring Luke …show more content…
Which can be controversial if comic books are given to children to read in school. The comic shows stereotypes through the appearance of Cage and how he is illustrated. It also shows racism in the characters that Cage has to encounter. Racism was major problem during this era and should not have been shown to children at such a young age. Comic books should not be taught in education nor should be added to the school curriculum because they promote racism to a younger target audience and due to age, children may imitate these