In retrospect, The Sopranos was kind of racist

boskey

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It was just bad writing. The black characters were all one dimensional and poorly written except for Lord Jamar when Tony was in the hospital
 

Black Hans

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Bokeem Woodbine's character wasn't trying to extort Hess, he told Hess in so many words, he was going to repay that black talent he exploited back in the day.

But I thought that was one of the major points, to show the Tony and them as racist. Uncle Junior staged a hit on Tony by trying to make it seem that brothers were trying to hijack Tony for his SUV, Tony and Carmela being :mjpls: about the mulatto dude Meadow was dating, the carjacking scheme being ran by Tony, killing Jackie Jr. in the projects, etc.

If you think the Sopranos was meant to show the characters as racist, then you'd be correct. If you think the show is racist, you couldn't be more far off. David Chase was trying to show how things blamed on black people was usually a white person behind it. Even had the episode, Two Black Males or something like that to hammer this point.
 
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DaddyFresh

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Of course. It would not be realistic if they were not.

They were deplorable humans. Murderers. Cheaters. Scammers. Liars. Rapists. Felons. Drug Dealers.

We really think they would be all of that but not be racists:russ:
This. Italians are notoriously racist. If you can’t separate art from your personal feelings you just a huge snowflake lol
 

Mike Nasty

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Are people actually reading what the OP wrote? He’s not complaining about the Soprano family being racist, he’s complaining about the way Black characters were portrayed and written.

I feel like most of you aren't reading the OP.

He's not saying he just now realized the characters are racist....he's saying he thinks the depiction of black folks on the show was racist.

Fred.
Fair point, but that's American Cinema.
 

Mike the Executioner

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That cop was one of the few people that applied pressure to Tony and Tony couldn't get to him in any way. He tried charming him, using his connections to get out of the ticket, tried bribing him. The cop didn't sway and remained with his principles intact. The episode makes the point that Tony felt bad about getting the cop in trouble at his job, but the cop didn't care about Tony's guilt or his attempts to fix things. He still had to work and carry on with his life, and he'll always be a better man than Tony will.

Then there was that coffee shop manager who told Patsy and Burt that their extortion attempt was stupid. If they break a window, corporate won't care because they can just replace it. The manager himself is aware that he can be replaced at any time and everything goes through corporate, so he has no reason to feel threatened by the mob when he has other things to worry about.

Looking at the show as a whole, 95% of the characters are idiots, psychos, hypocrites, liars, cheaters, etc. I could understand if the black characters were portrayed significantly worse than everyone else, but even Tony himself has almost every negative trait you could put into a human being. The genius of The Sopranos is that we still see these people as human beings and enjoy watching them in spite of how awful they are.
 
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