THE AMERICAN MYTH

Whilst the organizers of the Black Lives Matter movement have made incredible strides with their organizing and activism, everyone should recognize the ignominy of asking for Black lives to simply matter. How awake are we as a society where this is the ask?

- SOLEIL NATHWANI

Axel Foley sold me on America. He was the cool, hip, sunny, funny, fast-walking, smart-talking, no shit-talking, a crime-busting Black cop played by Eddie Murphy in the Beverly Hills Cop franchise that made Murphy, already a revered standup comic, a household name and a

bona fide movie star. I was not yet a teenager in the eighties when I wore out my brother’s VHS tapes of the Beverly Hills Cop films, despite their R ratings, in a win at blindsiding my parents. Foley, a rebellious Detroit cop, goes to Beverly Hills, under the auspices of taking a vacation, to investigate the murder of his (White) childhood buddy. Initially a thorn in the side of the Los Angeles Police Department, he wins them over with his smarts and charm as they give chase to him around LA’s ritzy, palm-lined boulevards and enticing, seedy joints. The film, initially written to star Sylvester Stallone, was so winningly played by Murphy that it became the box office hit of the year. America loved it. But what Americans loved most was buying into the myth that a Black man can walk with ease in the California sun, get the bad guys, seduce the police and come out a hero. It was another just another smoke screen.