This blaxploitation film depicted the shooting and murder of an African American by law enforcement which has plagued the African American (and later the Hispanic) community along with racial injustice. (See also Sweet Sweetback's BaadAsss Song released a few years earlier.) Some researchers consider this film's plot similar to the real-life shooting and deaths of African Americans by law enforcement which the Black Lives Matter movement has exposed systemic racism when it concerns African American males and law enforcement--the shooting and death of Trayvon Martin in 2012, years after the film was released, is deemed as life imitating art.