The Blatant Sabotage of a Man Trying to Help His People

Eddie Murphy at 60th Academy Awards

Muhammad Rasheed - Interesting. And the next year Hollywood treated Harlem Nights like it was the worst movie ever made, and tried to humiliate him for directing and writing his own film that was full of black people.

Muhammad Rasheed - I loved Harlem Nights. I didn't find out the critics said all those things about it until just a few years ago. Gene Siskel said it offended him. How, I wonder? 

Danny Bronson - Awesome movie! 

Raymond Gardner - You're absolutely right -- they couldn't wait to pounce on him for Harlem Nights. It was world class Nigger-breaking and I don't think he ever directed again. But to nearly every black American, Harlem Nights is a classic! 

Ricky Mujica - Harlem Nights was funny! A classic! 

Muhammad Rasheed - I don't think he's ever been as confident as he was in this clip again. He probably seriously started doubting himself after the critics, and his billionaire "friends" that he respected so much, ripped into his so-called "vanity project" film to break him from his ambitions. They didn't want their cash cow going anywhere.

Eric C. Martin - What the hell?... Muhammad, Harlem Knights was sooooooo disappointing. It should've had tons of laughs, instead it was just MEH. I was so upset. I loved Foxx, Pryor, and Murphy and I barely chuckled at it.

What does being "full of black people" have to do with anything?

Muhammad Rasheed - I thought it was awesome, and as the other thread posters before you mentioned, they also thought it was awesome. It WAS full of tons of laughs and was chock-full-of-quotable moments, and everyone I knew from my neighborhood in Detroit loved it, too.

Being "full of black people" is important in an industry that traditionally underserves the black community. Usually, more often than not, "black roles" are stereotypical roles created by white writers, where they treat being a black American as a stock character, like "the gangster," or "the bank teller," so the black character is always the same 3-4 archetypes from the stereotype playbook. Consequently, actors who don't fit easily into what white casting directors think is "really black" often find themselves rarely acting. The solution is for blacks to be in positions of power so we can make our own platforms. Eddie tried to do that for his people when he found himself in the role as "biggest box office draw," and the people closest to him in that world --who either didn't get it, like you seem not to, or wanted to discourage the competition -- burned him for it.

Muhammad Rasheed - Eric provide some insight into why you think Gene Siskel was offended by it, please.


See Also:

What's a "Vanity Project?"

No Room for You at the Top