Melvin Van Peebles’s Hara-Kiri Tale(s) of Sex and Race

Abstract: This article endeavors to demonstrate that Melvin Van Peebles’s writing style was influenced by his collaborations with Hara-Kiri cartoonists. His contributions to the “stupid and nasty” quality of the newspaper, including such columns as “The chronicle of the guy who knows what he is talking about,” exemplify the absurd humor he developed as a member of the editorial team. Hara-Kiri allowed him to experiment with a new type of political art, which fed into the subversive making of Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song ! (1971) on his return to the US.