I saw bits and pieces on TV waaaaay back

At the time, she was no longer with Eastwood.

Ratboy was made apparently as part of a long-litigated deal between Locke and Warner Bros. who promised Locke the ability to make her own features as part of a palimony settlement with Eastwood, but as it turns out Eastwood basically paid WB to refuse any script or project she brought them. When it all got worked out, WB did end up backing a few of her projects, this being one of them.

All I can see is a director telling him to "act more black" thanks to Hollywood Shuffle and all that.

Also I had completely deleted this movie from my memory.

I saw this when it first hit VHS and from it's presentation and style, I assumed it was intended to be some kind of social satire, kind of like John Sayles' "Brother from Another Planet" where it was played as a kind of fish-out-of-water/heartwarming story but in a purposefully ironic way.

Once you see it, though, it's confusing if that was Locke's actual intention or what. Probably not.

Yeah, I was very young at the time but I remember it feeling pretty sincere, I think the presentation may have been the studio just trying to make some sense out of how to market it.