Tower Heist Acclaim Reveals Hollywood Racism

November 15th, 2011 by Guest Contributor

Whatever the reason(s), it is embarassing for Hollywood and its “critics” to continue to be so ignorant. Eddie Murphy called out the movie industry’s racism at the 1988 Academy Awards during his presentation of the Best Picture award: “I’m going to give this award, but black people will not ride the caboose of society and we will not bring up the rear anymore. I want you to recognize that.” Two decades later, Murphy finds himself riding the caboose, furnished by the creators of Tower Heist.

 

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Posted in black, celebrities, exoticisation, hollywood, movies, race & representations, stereotypes | 9 comments

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  • http://profiles.google.com/dancolliergay Dan Collier

    Add in that Gabourey Sidibe plays … natch, a maid.

  • http://aalbc.com Troy Johnson

    Welcome to America Caroline, Welcome to America.

  • http://soyluv.wordpress.com/ soyluv

    Also, did anyone catch his recent Rolling Stone interview? It was really a fascinating read on many levels. In there, he notes that his idea for Tower Heist was different–rather it was supposed to be “an all-star cast of black comedians playing inept thieves trying to rob Trump Tower”, where Eddie envisioned a cast filled with “all the funny brothers on the scene.”  I would have liked to see that movie, myself!  Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/eddie-murphy-the-rolling-stone-interview-20111109#ixzz1dnUUcc75

  • http://commentarybyvalentina.wordpress.com/ Val

    “Two decades later, Murphy finds himself riding the caboose, furnished by the creators of Tower Heist.”

    True but Murphy will need to have that talk with himself since he is the one who came up with the concept for this film. Which isn’t surprising coming from a guy that created the film Norbert and the character Rasputia. Which was an outrageously stereotypical character that mocked Black women.

  • Fafou Dabou

    Denzel was awarded his first Oscar for Glory. He got it as a Best Actor in a  Supporting Role. He got his second Oscar but his first for a Leading Role in Training Day.

  • Claude

    Denzel Washington won his first Oscar in 1989 as Best Supporting Actor for his role in Glory. 

  • Smandisa85

    Exactly!!

    I was so frustrated. And the Jamaican accent-totally gratituitous on the creators’ part-just another way to stereotype immigrant black women. To be clear, Im not saying that a Jamaican woman shouldnt be represented, but this was clearly used as another way to exoticize Gabourey Sidibe.

  • Rebecca A

    I was excited for this until I realized the plot is exactly like Horrible bosses! A few witty white guys ( in tower Heist it’s two and a Hispanic) hire a black criminal (Jamie Fox and Eddie Murphy respectively) to stick it to there all white bosses ( or boss). This enlightenment just makes it more appalling to go see. Murphy is too smart to do something like this.

  • bigscreenkid

    The only thing that I thought was slightly interesting about both of the black criminal roles is that the white characters (SPOILERS) assume that their crimes are much greater than they actually are. In fact, Jones’ (Jamie Fox) crime is incredibly tame and amazingly common among all races these days (illegally downloading films… a far cry from murder). Even though these movies weren’t great, I kind of liked how the willingness of the more privileged characters to believe their crime consultants were capable of the worst allowed them to be duped… although it worked better in Horrible Bosses than it did Tower Heist. Although I suppose tricking white people out of their money could be racist? I don’t know… this site makes me question everything. Love it.