One of the first instances of violence in the film is when Sweetback repeatedly stabs two policemen with a set of handcuffs. In a symbolic sense, handcuffs serve as a modern equivalent of the shackles enslaved people were forced to wear. Sweetback is retaliating against the institution by weaponizing one of its instruments of oppression. This imagery of shackles is brought back later in the track, "Wont Bleed Me."
Sweetback and Mu Mu hide out and play billiards in an old shack after a run in with a biker gang. In classic 1970s fashion, the cue is held in such a way that it resembles a phallus.
The commissioner gives a half-baked apology to two black officers after using anti-black slurs during a meeting. In reality, the commissioner doesn't care about whether of not he offended them, he just wants to keep them compliant. "You guys could be a real credit to your people," he says, referring to their assistance in the capture of Sweetback. The American flag pictured behind him hammers home the message of this scene: No black person, no matter how upstanding according to white sensibilities, is safe from The Man's reign of oppression.
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