Member-only story
Maybe Tyler From ‘Boomerang’ Was Right: Everything Is Racist
Thirty years ago, I rolled my eyes at the trope. Now I don’t.
When Eddie Murphy’s rom-com Boomerang premiered in 1992, the critical reception was lukewarm at best, but over time, the film earned its place as an underrated ’90s classic. Arguably one of Murphy’s best films and the launchpad for several now-familiar Black entertainers, from Halle Berry and Tisha Campbell-Martin to John Witherspoon and Chris Rock, the movie portrays a vision of Black culture that was probably over the heads of most movie critics of its day.
One of the film’s most interesting characters is Tyler, the best friend to Marcus, Murphy’s character. Portrayed by Martin Lawrence, Tyler is a Black man who sees racism in every aspect of his daily life. He makes seemingly outlandish observations of systematic racism throughout the film — which he sees everywhere — from shopping for clothes to a simple game of billiards. “The white ball dominates everything, right?” he explains.
