Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller’s “Live From New York: An Uncensored History of ‘Saturday Night Live,’ as Told By Its Stars, Writers and Guests” initially hit the shelves way back in 2003, but a recent update to cover this past decade has exposed the behind-the-scenes history to a bevy of new readers — and surprisingly, it’s not the material covering Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, or Jimmy Fallon that has “SNL” fans reeling.
Instead, it’s an old passage on an ugly truth that alerted some redditors to the fact that white privilege affects everyone, even famous actors like Eddie Murphy.
“I fly to New York to meet with Eddie, who’s a baby, like nineteen, whatever, and we come down onto Fifth Avenue and he said, ‘You have to get the cab, because they won’t stop for me,’” John Landis (“National Lampoon’s Animal House,” “Beverly Hills Cop III”) said.
“We always had to go down and get cabs for him at two in the morning, because no cab drivers would stop for a young black man,” “SNL” writer Margaret Oberman continued. “Not even him.”
A black man being unable to hitch a ride is certainly nothing new — heck, “Gary Coleman” even sings about it in the musical “Avenue Q” — but Murphy’s story seemed to resonate with readers because the actor was already famous from “SNL” and “48 Hours,” yet he still had to rely on white coworkers to hail him a ride home. White privilege, ladies and gents.
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