Blaxploitation

Or Black·sploi·ta·tion

[blak-sploi-tey-shuhn]

noun

(often lowercase)

1. a subgenre of American cinema in the 1970s featuring Black protagonists in exploitation films intended to appeal to African American audiences.

blaxploitation

/ ˌblæksplɔɪˈteɪʃən /

noun

1. a genre of films featuring Black stereotypes

Word History and Origins

Origin of blaxploitation¹

Blend of Blax (respelling of Blacks ) + exploitation; coined by Dr. Junius Griffin (1929–2005) of the Beverly Hills/Hollywood NAACP in 1972 in response to the movie Super Fly (1972)

Word History and Origins

Origin of blaxploitation¹

C20: from _bla ( _ck ) + ( _e ) _xploitation

Example Sentences

“Fight Night” flirts with a variety of styles — blaxploitation, police procedural, social drama, the buddy-cop movie — which are successful on their own terms but don’t easily cohere.

From Los Angeles Times

“A lot of the movies we would talk about were movies of the ’70s and blaxploitation.

From Los Angeles Times

Richard Roundtree, who played one of the first Black action heroes in the blaxploitation '70s era of film, died at 81 of pancreatic cancer on Tuesday in his Los Angeles home, his manager said.

From Salon

The blaxploitation films were primarily aimed at the African American audiences.

From Seattle Times

In a Variety interview about Black Noir Cinema, one of the film’s producers looked beyond the echoes: The initiative is about creating “Black folk heroes,” not recreating the blaxploitation genre.

From New York Times