Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song: “I’m Gonna Say a Black Ave Maria For You”. “My mother was not having it. Still not having it. Her memories of being dragged to see Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971) by my father (of course) remain quite visceral, and I adore her attempt to sleep it away. For many, the film is still difficult to process, and that may very well have everything to do with its seemingly irreconcilable assertion of both revolution and pornography. Arguably, the film—and all Black films, for that matter—may be best appreciated with a deliberate suspension of authenticity fantasies or demands for definitive answers about Black life. Black film criticism needs more productive ambivalence than truth claims or approaches strictly governed by Sociology 101. Messy and riveting, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song’s style and politics continue to compellingly challenge assumptions about the idea of Black film and American film history. The film…