Yesterday I heard from a feminist PhD candidate who is looking into the history of black actresses in porn.
To my amazement, she'd discovered that a million years ago (1986!) I'd written a story about the phenomenon of "black and inter-racial" videos in the porn biz for Adult Video News. She asked me if I could dig up a copy from my pre-Internet porn archives.
In traditional porn parlance, "inter-racial" used to imply "Black And White." Period.
Before the 90s, you didn't have any such thing as "multi-culturalism" in porn. There weren't any scenes with a Latina actress/Asian actor— or a bi-racial triad. This was before the amateur explosion, before the Internet, before DVDs.... you know, the Jurassic Age. "Black" sex movies were a tiny niche that were primarily sold to regional markets; no one talked about them.
All the directors of these films, at that time, were white— often people who dreaded their assignment:
Drea remembers her astonishment when she found out that a lot of her viewing audience assumed that she was black. In fact, Drea is a blonde who grew up in a segregated Chicago neighborhood. She remembers, "When Harold Washington first got elected (Chicago's first black mayor), my father was going to get a gun and shoot himself."
"After every black video I'd make," says Drea, "I'd always say, 'I'll never shoot another Black video again. Never.'"
In porn starlet interviews from these early days, they'd pose questions like, "What Won't You Do on Camera?"
The most common reply from a blond ingenue would be, "I don't do anal, and I don't do blacks." Instead of greeting that statement with laughter or disbelief, everyone would just say, "Oh yeah, of course."
As for black actors, the situation, as you'll read in my story, makes Blacksploitation film look like William Lloyd Garrison's Liberator.
And... the real treat in all this, if you hunt around, is the single "Black Power" porn film that was made in 1974, called Lialeh. It was produced by Aretha Franklin's drummer at the time, Bernard Purdy. Purdy furnishes a soundtrack that puts most porn films to shame, as you can imagine. (See video clip here). Classic Woodstock Soul Meets The Panthers! I can watch this cult classic today and still get the biggest kick out of it.
When I started researching the story, I was taken aback by the prejudices and superstitions in the business. Everyone was so frank about their own racism, frustration, and cynicism. Porn biz people were outspoken about what Hollywood people had learned to keep to themselves, and off the record. If any of it blows your mind, don't imagine that these industry diehards were exceptional!
In 1987, no one wrote about porn for the mainstream press. I was the first to interview many of these people on any topic, let alone politics. AVN was produced in Pennsylvania at the time, just a small operation, and they were horrified by what I turned in. They killed the original story, and ran an aborted-version instead. It's a trade magazine, designed to promote and champion the industry— they weren't interested in critical views. I was... 20-something, naive, crushed.
So here it is, the quaint original... I hope you'll forgive my youthful stylings and typewriter errors, but it sure has a lot to savor:
Susie's Penthouse Inter-racial and Black Porn Exposé Continues HERE
To read the rest of Susie's old-school porn history, check out:
Available at Amazon, B&N, & Smashwords. Here's the whole Table of Contents.
