How To Eat Your Watermelon in White Company and Enjoy It

The film How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company and Enjoy It is both informative and highly entertaining. Interestingly, the subject matter had little to do with the title; though Marvin Van Pebbles did give an anecdote about watermelon. How to Eat Your Watermelon also referenced the correlation between Marvin Pebbles film Sweet Sweetbacks Badass Song and the emergence of Blaxploitation films. Commentators posited that Blaxploitation films were fashioned after Sweet Sweetback; however, they lacked the content. White film directors continued to churn out films such as Superfly and Foxy Brown. Such films glorified negative stereotypical behavior and was not reflective of every day Black life. Perhaps the glorification of stereotypes is one of the distinctions between Black films and films that merely feature Black actors. The intent of producers and the impact of the film is a major factor in deciding if a film will be classified as a Black film.

Pebbles was very critical of Blaxploitation films.  When speaking of such films he said, "You didn't make a Black film. You made a White fantasy film you hoped Black people would take." In How to Eat Your Watermelon, Blaxploitation films were referred to as, "The bastard child of sweetback." Though the films glorified negative things such as selling drugs, it allowed Blacks to see themselves on the big screen; furthermore, Blacks were gaining acting roles.

Though Blaxploitation films are no longer being produced, such stereotypical roles still exist. Pebbles made it clear that Blacks in the film industry are responsible for making change. Actors must turn down roles that are stereotypical. I recently saw an interview that Denzel Washington did. He was discussing a role that he turned down for a character he referred to as, "the nigger who couldn't die". The character was put in the electric chair for raping a white woman; however, he didn't die. When Washington discussed his turning down the role, I had a new found respect for him. It is important that African Americans in the film industry are conscious of the type of projects they take on.