Excellent!!!
7
"Shaft" wasn't just an early blaxploitation movie that gave the black community a hero like them.
John Shaft was a critical heroic character to white kids like me who grew-up in the all-white suburban Massapequa on Long Island. "Shaft" helped prevent us from becoming racists and to teach us a bit about what life was like "in the city" only 30 miles but a world away from the one I inhabited.
I consider myself lucky to have escaped a racist fate because of Norman Lear sitcoms and because of "John Shaft", Bill Cosby, Flip Wilson, OJ Simpson, Dr. J., Hank Aaron, Bob Gibson, Cleon Jones, - the black heroes of my youth that, fortunately, my parents never tried to dissuade me from admiring.
I teach the young (even yesterday) that they should watch "Shaft" and understand what an important cultural milestone it was. Maybe this way I can help prevent the creation of another MAGA-hat voter or white nationalist.
25
@VH Wow that is cool.