Blaxsploitation

Blaxploitation and the White Backlash (Six Degrees of Song of the South, Episode 5) by Karina Longworth

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Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts

Song of the South’s most successful re-release came in 1972, at a time when Hollywood was dealing with race by making two very different kinds of movies: Blaxploitation films, which gave black audiences a chance to see black characters triumph against white authority figures; and movies like Dirty Harry, which were emblematic of a concurrent cultural and political shift away from the Civil Rights Movement and toward Reagan-style Republicanism. 

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Music:

The music used in this episode, with the exception of the intro and outro, was sourced from royalty-free music libraries and licensed music collections. The intro includes a clip from the film Casablanca. The outro song this week is “Pusherman” by Curtis Mayfield. 

Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode:

Serene Pastoral Folk Blues - Alexandre Stephane Rusian Toukaeff, Baptiste Vayer
Cotton Flower - Paul Martin Pritchard
Yacht Club - Alain Francois Edouard Bernard
Whimsicality - Laurent Dury
Reflections Underscore - Jack Richard Pierce
Converted Livestock Farmers - Baptiste Francois Guillaume Thiry
Hanging Tree - Wayne Anthony Murray, Tobias Macfarlaine, Elmore King
Rattle Them Chains - Wayne Anthony Murray, Tobias Macfarlaine, Elmore King
Free Stylin - Daryl Neil, Alexander Griffith
Memory Echoes - Hiroki Ishikura
Foxy Brown - David Oliver Rieu
Black Gumshoe - David Oliver Rieu
Blue Sophisticate - Marian McPartland
Ain't No Money in the Blues - Eric John LaBrosse, Jason Michael Carter, Joshua Phillip Cass Matthew Robert Danbeck, Adam Patrick Tremel
Gumshoe Blues - Paul Martin Pritchard
Nightly - Ilan Moshe Abou, Thierry Oliver Faure
Monsieur Taxi - Renaud Vincent Garcia Fons
Fancy Footwalk - Daniel Horacio Diaz
South Border - Olivier Jean Roger Samoillan

Credits:

This episode was written, narrated and produced by Karina Longworth.

Editor: Andi Kristins.

Research and production assistant: Lindsey D. Schoenholtz.

Social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.