Movies we love that just ain’t right: Coming To America
by guest contributor Andre Banks, originally published at WRITE WHAT I LIKE
Though hilarious, creative and often insightful, in hindsight sometimes the things we love just ain’t right. This series is my attempt to unearth the glories and woes of iconic moments in Black popular culture.
If you haven’t seen Coming to America, open a new tab on that browser, go to netflix and get involved. This iconic Eddie Murphy film, directed by John Landis premiered when I was the tender and impressionable age of 10 and remains one of my favorites…. even though it just ain’t right.
The first paragraph of the wikipedia synopsis says a lot in itself:
Akeem Joffer (Eddie Murphy), the prince and heir to the throne of the fictitious African country Zamunda, is discontented with being pampered all his life. The final straw is when his parents (James Earl Jones and Madge Sinclair) present him with a bride-to-be he has never met before, trained to desire mindlessly obeying his every command.
To make short work of the summary, Prince Akeem comes to New York looking for a bride he can both “love and respect,” chooses Queens as an obvious destination and takes a job at the Black-owned fast restaurant, notably named “McDowells”.
So, um, this film is hilarious. There are moments of absolutely mind-numbing Black camp humor that are truly amazing. I’m waiting for a film that can deliver a moment half as transcendent as this one:
But beyond the jheri curls and other tragic tackiness of the 80s, this film introduced another powerful image to its audience. And that joke, it seems, was on Africa.
In the Africa of Coming to America, kings rule and servants serve, but the primitive truly reigns. Even as a bookish and curious kid, the image of Africa in this film that I loved and watched too many times to count was, for a time, the most vivid painted for me of modern Africa.
And friends, that just ain’t right.
Bu as I re-viewed this movie as a grown-ass man, something else stood out for me. Nude “bathers” servicing the king and prince each morning? A bride so subservient she barks like a dog on command? There’s a thread of “afro-patriarchy” that manifests strongly here and, oddly, makes Black American patriarchy seem normal by connecting it to a wholly mythologized and sexualized vision of primordial African civilization.
Oh yes I went there, but I’m prepared to stop (though I could go on). I trust that you’ll get down in the comments section and tell us all about the parts you loved or they thought just weren’t right with reverence and revulsion for this complex comedic masterpiece.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
JustPlainOl'Me wrote:
When I started reading this post, and thinking about the fact that it was on Racialicious, I expected criticism about Eddie Murphy playing the role of an old white man. Then I thought about the positive portrayal of Africa as this place of riches and wealth, where blacks ruled the nation and could throw highly elaborate parties and weddings with singers and dancers and fanfare (and there was no evidence of genocide or severe government corruption). I guess I took away more good from the portrayal of Africa than bad.
(And doesn’t it say something that Eddie’s character was trying to find a woman who would not play such a subservient role.)
Posted 12 Sep 2007 at 8:11 am ¶
deb wrote:
CTA is one of those movies I can watch again and again. One of my favorite scenes is when Prince Akeem and his attendant Semmi interview women, looking for a potential wife for the Prince. Arsenio Hall’s dresses as a female candidate who growls to the Prince: “I’m going to tear you apart. And your friend too!” at which point Semmi sprays his drink in disgust/terror.
I like that Prince Akeem’s money has his picture on it. (While US currency, as Dave Chappelle says, looks like ” baseball cards with slave owners on them.”)
I also like that Prince Akeem is honorable, unlike Lisa McDowell’s juicy-haired fiance, Darryl.
Oh, and two words: Soul Glo!
I wasn’t feeling the part when the Prince commands a potential wife (played by Vanessa Bell Armstrong) to hop on one foot, and bark like a dog.” But, as JustPlainOl’Me said, Eddie’s character isn’t looking for a “subservient” wife.
Posted 12 Sep 2007 at 8:55 am ¶
Andom wrote:
As a first-generation American born to Eritrean parents, my perspective has always been very pan-African, with immediate links within the African diaspora and permanent ties to the motherland. Coming from my situation, I was always hurt to see the tensions between African (and even Caribbean and Afro-Latino) immigrants and African-Americans. With American culture becoming increasingly globalized, it seemed as if Africans bought into the stereotypical images of black America propagated in the media more so than even whites did, and, upon latter immigratin to the us, carried these perceptions with them. While this situation is very unfortunate, I am much less forgiving of African-Americans who, with all the knowledge about foreign cultures available in this country, continue to portray Africa in a monolithic fashion reminiscent of colonialism. Coming to America and actually a lot of Eddie Murphy’s comedy exemplifies this sad truth. As a youngster I used to love Eddie, but after revisiting some of his “work,” I couldn’t believe I once used to like this guy.
so sadd when Africa is needlessly the butt of jokes, but especially when it comes from a black person. Eddie Murphy has done nothing to squash the foundation of racism and stereotypes of Africa thru his comedy. rather, he has reduced our diversity and mocked us in a fashion that i would only expect from someone with no connection to blackness
Posted 12 Sep 2007 at 9:39 am ¶
gatamala wrote:
First, THERE IS A REAL McDOWELL’S. It’s in Santo Domingo, DR. Yes, it appears to have golden arcs. Yes, Mickey Ds has tried to shut it down. One of these days I will upload this pic!
This movie is a classic.
The rough super…their faces when the apartment door opened.
“She is the queeeeen to beeeeee”
“Let your sooooulll gloooooow”
“His mama called him Cassius, Imma call him Cassius!”
Sexual Chawklit!
*stretches out arms, drops mic, points & walks off*
I need to get this on dvd.
I’m glad you did go there, Andre.
Posted 12 Sep 2007 at 9:39 am ¶
Kenny wrote:
I love this movie! The girl who played the sister of his future wife was great .I wonder what happened to her. The scene at the game when she slipped her hand under Eddie’s Jacket and the vendor kneeling to him in the rest room were hilarious!
Posted 12 Sep 2007 at 10:10 am ¶
deb wrote:
Sexual Chawklit!
*stretches out arms, drops mic, points & walks off*
Love it! He stomps his foot a couple of times for emphasis (or is it because the audience just ain’t showing him love?). Funny!
It seems like you can find CTA on tv at least once a month.
Posted 12 Sep 2007 at 10:16 am ¶
Luke Pharma wrote:
I still like this film for the rich parts it afforded underrepresented Black character actors. John Landis, in his best work, plays cultural humor anthropologist, mining a sense of place for details for the inherent humor, not vice versa.
What will always leave a bad taste in my mind: that this project required the theft of another’s property. Recall all involved (Paramount, Murphy, et al. knowingly involved in the script development) *stole* large portions of the idea and script from Art Buchwald (Austrian-American descended humorist with a long career of satire against elites) without credit.
Recall that when Buchwald sued for credit and compensation– then a rarity against a studio, they accused him of racism among other things.
See the landmark case “Buchwald v. Paramount Pictures” [13 U.S.P.Q. 1497 (Cal. Super. Ct. 1990) ]
Buchwald won his claim thatComing to America” was based on a story idea that he developed and pitched.
The second part [90 Daily Journal D.A.R. 14482 (Cal. Super. Ct. 1990). ] was significant because the Court ruled against the ” net profits” formula in Buchwalds contract (then standard in all studio arrangements), finding it “unconscionable” (good thing regardless of color).
Buchwald only received $150,000 for his four-year legal fight in the decision, which cost $2.5 million. Now how much did “CTA” rake in?
Saving grace: Paramount didn’t waant to chance an appeal and was freaked out by the message of “nconscionability” ruling. They settled with Buchwald, but only if the “unconscionability” aspect was chucked under the settlement terms.
So funny film. Just wish it didn’t require underhanded means to produce it. That’s not good humor.
Posted 12 Sep 2007 at 10:34 am ¶
Ron wrote:
I think Eddie Murphy, Iman and Michael Jackson single handedly have made up for their transgressions by doing that Michael Jackson video ‘ “Remember the Times.” THAT WAS THE MOST POWERFUL VIDEO EVER OF AFRICAN REPRESENTATION OF EMPOWERMENT.
Note: the West African / East African (Somali) connection.
Posted 12 Sep 2007 at 11:02 am ¶
LOL wrote:
Um I am an African, whatever that means, I do love Coming to America but I am also highly offended by it. It’s hilarious but so wrong on so many different levels, then again it’s a hundred times better than that mess of a movie with Monique.
Posted 12 Sep 2007 at 12:16 pm ¶
sev7en wrote:
African here as well. I was offended by a f ew parts of movie. I honestly thought it would have a *reasonable* portrayal of Africa. Okay, creative licence, but seriously, why not make it somewhat realistic? Giraffes wondering about the “palace”? The prince was also unbelievable. Since when are African upper-class people so clueless about the West?! haha, the upper-class are usually more traveled and educated than the American upper-classes. Overall the movie was stupid and I cannot bring myself to watch it again :p
Posted 12 Sep 2007 at 4:13 pm ¶
merq wrote:
I was practically raised on this movie, and I still laugh my ass off at certain parts of the movie — I find myself yelling “sexual chawklit” every now and again (and yes, I too stomp my feet for emphasis), and “Soul Glo’” has been my ringtone for the last 3 months (the only non-generic ring I care to have).
However, as I grew older, I came to loathe certain elements of this movie. The “primitive opulence” theme was so aggressively portrayed, I doubt anyone could possibly miss it. Like someone said upthread, between this and his stand-up work, I learned to look at Eddie “bush bitch on a giraffe” Murphy in a very different way.
Posted 12 Sep 2007 at 6:47 pm ¶
tasha wrote:
Oh Sev7en, I don’t think the portrayal of upperclass Africans was supposed to be realistic. If anything, the Zamundan royal family was supposed to elicit a “Prince and Pauper/ clueless elite” stereotype seen throughout literature and film. The idea is that the royals live in gilded cages and are so wealthy and cloistered that they don’t have to leave their surroundings. So of course, they wouldn’t know about what’s going on in the rest of the world. That was part of the joke. Think of Hillary from “Fresh Prince of Bell Air” or the kids in that movie “Clueless”.
My favorite clueless elite tale was “A Little Princess” by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It’s a riches to rags tale, but unlike a lot of the clueless elite stories where the royalty evades the castle guard to escape palace boredom or experience life among the commoners for sport, Burnett’s heroine, Sara Crewe, became orphaned and destitute overnight, as an eleven year old child. She was then subjected to the mercy of her school’s evil headmistress and was forced to earn her keep serving the girls she once attended class with.
CTA holds a special place in my heart because it was the first R rated movie that my mother let me see. I love that movie!
Posted 12 Sep 2007 at 6:56 pm ¶
Mike wrote:
I loved this movie but have never looked at it from Andre’s perspective. I deffinitely see his point, but it is a comedy.
JustPlainOl’Me echoed my thoughts with “Eddie’s character isn’t looking for a “subservient” wife.” I thought the movie was trying to teach a lesson against the ideas of a suserviant wife, but not as far as to challenge “afro-patriarchy”. And as far as the image of africa can you honestly say that it’s worst than the images we were getting from the media as kids than never mind what were bombarded with now. Back then it was starving kids, big bad south africa, tarzan, national geographic and the animals. Now it’s blood diamonds, civil war, genocide and child soldiers. Yeah it’s wrong but it’s not the worst.
Posted 12 Sep 2007 at 9:49 pm ¶
The Joy Princess wrote:
Sigh, I also had issues with the way the darker skinned sister was portrayed versus Shari Headley’s character outside of my general disgust with Eddie’s attitude about Africa in his stand up comedy.
But that movie (and Boomerang) just keep the lines coming!
“Hello, Babar”
Get’em Dottie!!
That ain’t nuthin’ but a ultraperm
Man, you ain’t NEVER met Martin Luther the King!
Arsenio killed me trying to put that chicken wing bone in the donation basket at the Miss Black Awareness rally and then holding that paper plate, eating greens in the barber shop… too funny.
@Kenny: I know someone who worked with her “recently.” Said she was a very nice woman.
Umm, can we get a deconstruction of The Golden Child next?
Posted 13 Sep 2007 at 8:17 am ¶
Carmen Van Kerckhove wrote:
The Joy Princess
omg I loooooooved The Golden Child!
Posted 13 Sep 2007 at 8:46 am ¶
gatamala wrote:
i i i i i i i i i want the kniiifffe
I can never, ever be anywhere near one of those wheels for that reason.
Posted 13 Sep 2007 at 8:49 am ¶
Kenny wrote:
Thanks for the info Joyprincess
Posted 13 Sep 2007 at 10:34 am ¶
makethelogobigger wrote:
The rough super…their faces when the apartment door opened definitely, but then after they see the outline on the rug:
“It’s a shame what they did to that dog.”
His barber shop scenes in-character are good too, although I hate actors in make-up and fat suits, etc., something Murphy is living off of WAY too much these days. He doesn’t need that stuff.
Barber Shop seems to have taken those scenes to another level. (Not good or bad, just sayin.)
Oh, and Arsenio should have his SAG card revoked for crimes against acting.
Posted 13 Sep 2007 at 2:34 pm ¶
FrancesM wrote:
-Hey Stew your rents due mother fu*#er! Don’t be pulling that falling down the stairs shit. Are you conscious?
-My name is Peaches and I’m the best. All the Dj’s want to feel my breast.
-I was Joan of Arc in a former life.
-Freeze you diseased rhinoceros pizzle!
These and many other lines are ones I’ve repeated over the years with glee. My high school best friend & I watched this movie so many times that we have to this day the entire film memorized.
I never gave a thought to it being bad. Maybe seeing it in ‘88 when it came out & me being 13 at the time had something to do with it never giving me pause.
I own it & watch it at least a few times a year & will have to see how offensive it is now that others have brought this to my attention.
But I still want that Soul Glo ringtone!
~F
Posted 13 Sep 2007 at 6:04 pm ¶
yableka wrote:
It’s so hard when a ‘classic’ film is revisted and we realize there’s more to it than we originally thought (especially if you were a kid when you first watched this like I was). I definitely see the perspective of people concerned with the portrayal of Africa. However, the whole movie is over the top–including its portrayal of the people in Queens like the landlord and SoulGlo family.
As much as Eddie Murphy keeps doing things that should make me hate him (all this avoidance of his new baby, pouting at the Oscars and the marriages etc), nothing can ever really take away from the brilliant moments in films like CTA and Trading Places. He was *such* a solid comedic actor in the ’80s and his performances really hold up in the good ones.
ps: Has anyone watched the 2 stand up shows recently (Raw and Delirious). I grew up watching those and thought and still do think for the most part that they are hilarious…but man…there’s some serious homophobia and misogyny going on in those!
Posted 14 Sep 2007 at 7:00 am ¶
Revolution wrote:
Good Gawd, thank you for taking on this movie. From my perspective, as a Zimbabwean who lived there for 17 of my 25 years of life, I have no love for Coming To America, and think its position as a quasi-iconic cultural artefact is a sad indication of the vast ignorance that separate Africans from African-Americans. Its prominence is tragic.
Posted 14 Sep 2007 at 8:44 am ¶
cw wrote:
The part where Darryl tells Akeem to take care of his milkshake. The disregard as Darryl tosses the beverage and the reaction on Akeems face at being made insignificant. That part bust me up every time.
Posted 16 Sep 2007 at 11:11 pm ¶
1985supastar wrote:
The last time I watched this movie I with a group of my friends all college aged Africans
(2 Nigerians , a Sierra Leonean, an Ethiopian and a Liberian) I was the only one (plain black) who did not want to watch it , I hate Eddie Murphy…I rather watch THE LAST DRAGON
Posted 20 Sep 2007 at 12:51 pm ¶