Blaxploitation 2 Review

Time Out Chicago / Issue 104: February 22–28, 2007 Review Blaxploitation 2: You Know How We Deux

MPAACT at Victory Gardens Greenhouse. By Inda Craig-Galvan, Kevin Douglas, Carla Stillwell. Dir. Terry Cullers. With ensemble cast.

Shepsu Aakhu’s backdrop of blackface images, recreated from turn-of-the-20th-century advertisements, sets the tone. The second round of comedy sketches from the team behind Blaxploitation: The Remix visits the expected themes, but with a heavy emphasis on internalized racism—the ways in which old-time minstrel show stereotypes have been incorporated into modern African-American culture. There are indictments of BET and reality television, and there’s plenty of material about the black community holding itself back by supporting the wrong elements. The enemy these days, the authors seem to be saying, is more often ourselves than The Man. One extended bit has spin doctors touting a politician named Doger (hint: rhymes with Stroger) insisting that he’s fit to hold office even after an accident leaves nothing of him but his big toe. Another finds a hypocritical DJ caught on tape buying crack at the Bud Billiken parade, and the caller who condemns him is vilified as a race-hating lesbian for not “supporting our folks.”

Not all of the material is so on-the-nose; some sketches are more abstract, like the woman who’s afraid her man is “on the down-low” and wishes she’d been right when he turns out instead to be a “plushophile.” The six performers are engaging and almost frighteningly committed, but when the material goes over the top, it’s unnerving. Sure, we’re wincing at Flavor Flav in his VH1 stage, but did Chuck D really just order his execution?—Kris Vire