Why do a blaxploitation spoof?
White: Well, I love the ’70s — the movies of the ’70s, the music of the ’70s and on top of that, the blaxploitation era meant a great deal to a lot of people at the time. You know that word — blaxploitation — I don’t like very much. There’s this negative connotation that goes along with it, even though these movies that starred black superstars at the time saved Hollywood — they saved the whole studio system. They found there was a revenue stream and people would frequent these movies over and over again, not only blacks but whites who wanted to live vicariously through strong alpha males like Shaft, Super Fly, The Mack. They were really good movies and there was nothing exploitive about them. They only became exploitive when Hollywood realized they could make these cheap movies and put very little effort in advertising and everything else — then it became exploitive. So to me it’s unfortunate for the first time we [blacks] were seen as more than pickaninnies, bellmen and maids … and a
