In retrospect, The Sopranos was kind of racist
- Thread starter I Really Mean It
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Mike the Executioner
What went on up there? Poppers and weird sex!
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 beingabout 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.
Yeah, "Unidentified Black Males" is a really important episode not just because of what you mentioned, but because we find out why Tony feels so guilty about Tony B going to prison. He blamed him missing the job on two black guys jumping him, but in reality, he had a panic attack that night. It also shows how sad Tony is as a character. He carried that guilt with him for years when Tony B didn't give a shyt about him missing the job, and he let it cloud his judgment which eventually led to the war with New York. All because he came up with a racist excuse and he couldn't own his feelings, which Dr. Melfi criticized him for.
Billie Jean
everything I did wrong...worked.
Trash ass show
Black Mamba
Superstar
The sky is blue
Toe Jay Simpson
Searchin’
Never saw the critical appeal of this show. It’s Sons of Anarchy level to me
Cac fans of Sopranos love saying "Jamal Ginsberg" whenever they get a chance
Mike Nasty
Veteran
I was the n word with the hard R, and it was a line directly from the book.Never understood how any Black person could like this or the godfather. I remember one of them had a scene where one of those greaseballs mentioned not using the drugs they sold and it was for the Blacks
I must've seen it on TV or something
NZA
LOL
i've gone back and forth on this issue but lately i see it as everybody is an idiot on that show but it's about the mob, so the italian americans get more screen time to show they have other dimensions outside of their dumb criminality. the random black or jew criminal that shows up is just a bit player, so the idiocy is all you see from them.
Kind of?
Show was very racist
Show was very racist
i was a huge fan of the sopranos, as i’m sure many of you were and still are. it was the gangster angle, stories of the mob being the chinese food of television and film, along with this series’ darkly comic take on the genre.
but in an era of heightened racial awareness, you tend to inspect the media you consume more closely - at least, i do. going over each season, i’m hard pressed to find a single positive depiction of a black person.
the gangster rapper who tried to extort hess.
the crooked reverend who profited off the anger of his followers.
the self absorbed tragic mulatto who played meadow (and probably messed with her roommate).
the pigheaded cop who had a chip on his shoulder and was disliked by everyone.
the community activist who conspired to speed up gentrification in black neighborhoods.
the bumbling hitmen who botched the hit on tony.
the gangster rapper who asked bobby to shoot him in the ass.
the bed wench who laid down with a geriatric jew.
the crackheads squatting in the houses.
the young kids hired to scare away said crackheads.
and, yeah, i guess you had one or two who weren’t bad in any obvious regard: the caretaker who looked after olivia; the father and daughter who invited jackie into their apartment when he was on the run.
they were barely on the screen, though. hell, olivia implied the caretaker was a thief; even if she was lying, the implication was enough to color your impression of the character.
just something to think about.
I agree, but I think that was David Chase' exact intent.
Also, many of the Black characters in the Sopranos were actually portrayed as stand up individuals (The Roc's character, forgot his name - he played the cop with integrity). In my opinion, the cop was portrayed in a completely positive light. He refused to compromise his integrity and take a pay off. The only people who didn't like him were CROOKS!
Bokeem Woodbine's character exposed the exploitation of Black artists by Jewish record label execs.
The old man Tony visits, who served in the military and carried himself in a dignified manner.
One of the scenes, where a white family gets carjacked - the white father yells out the "N" word, when the wife tells him to chill he doubles down on the N word and says "who else is responsible but them" (meaning who else is responsible for carjackings and crime, besides Black people). The very next scene, Tony is looking at photos of the vehicles he commissioned to be stolen. Chase was literally showing how even though the media puts a Black face on crime, often times it's non-black people orchestrating it and benefitting.
Many Sopranos fans lost their shyt with Many Saints of Newark, not realizing there was also a Black Cultural element portrayed in the TV series. Chase wanted to show how full of shyt the italian criminal world was and he's on record saying it pissed him off that the more degenerate he made Tony, the more the fans loved him.
And in Many Saints he portrayed the Black lead as an intelligent gangster who outsmarted the Italians.
There's a few more I left off the list. Also, Chase played a lot of music created by Black artists on the show.
Also, who gets into a TV series (or movie) about the Italian Mafia and not expect to see racist!!!
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A good example of this is the episode when when the 2 black guys carjack the white family and the white dad scream out the N-word making the wife scowl him for using the word, to defend himself he says "who else" meaning you don't see besides blacks stealing cars but the screen quickly jump to Tony holding pictures of cars that his crew send black people to steal.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
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.
I'm a fan of the show but all the people in the show where pieces of shyt and no one in it really looked bright or had redeeming qualities which I think is the point.
The only thing I didn't like about the show was the Mob guys fake confidence to do certain things in certain situations, like when Chris was in a crowded hood restaurant saying racist shyt, he would have got his ass beat in any hood I know of. Or when Paulie was in jail full of blacks running the phones and the Tv.