Entry · catalog no. 9208
blaxploitation
/ /ˌblæksplɔɪˈteɪʃən/ /blak-sploy-TAY-shun
noun · Los Angeles and New York (1972) · 1970s
✓ Verified
1.
A genre of 1970s American films with Black casts and settings, centred on heroes who beat the system, often with funk and soul soundtracks. The name is a blend of 'Black' and 'exploitation'.
“Shaft and Super Fly are the blaxploitation films everyone knows.”
Origin & Attribution
Junius Griffin, president of the Beverly Hills-Hollywood branch of the NAACP, coined the term in 1972 to attack the films for reinforcing stereotypes of Black criminality. The genre dates from the late 1960s and early 1970s; Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971) is often called the first, and Shaft (1971) and Super Fly (1972) were among the biggest. Many fans and filmmakers have since reclaimed the word as a proud name for the era.
1971
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song and Shaft released
1972
Junius Griffin coins the term
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
Los Angeles and New York (1972) · 1970s
Spoken by
Film critics, filmmakers and fans, Black and not
$BLAXPLThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady54 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
40/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1972
in the culture
Recorded here
2026
point of first record
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)
film
■
Shaft (1971)
film
■
+ Cite a sourceWikipedia, 'Blaxploitation' (Griffin, 1972); secondary
web
See also