Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes

…(Watermelon Man, 1970), drama (Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes, 1974), and, by far the most-popular subgenre, action (Shaft, 1971). But from the outset, African American critics found the stereotypes made possible by the behaviours of the heroes and heroines of the films—which often included drug dealing, violence,…