Tony Soprano’s Critique of Identity Politics

Tony Soprano, the eponymous fictional antihero of HBO’s iconic collection about organized crime syndicates in northern New Jersey, tends to evoke pictures of cigars, strip golf equipment, and guys getting their tooth bashed in, and even “whacked,” as a result of they disrespected the spouse or daughter of a “made man” or handed in an envelope deemed “mild” (on money). However most episodes supply one thing deeper than a violent Italian-American cleaning soap opera. 

One episode specifically that basically resonates in the present day is Season 4, Episode 3, “Christopher.” That episode barely portrays the character Christopher Moltisanti though the actor who performs him, Michael Imperioli, co-wrote the story and authored the teleplay. Quite, the storyline revolves round an American Indian protest of the Columbus Day parade in Newark, New Jersey. Critics panned it as one of many worst episodes of the collection however possible as a result of it was forward of its time (late September 2002) politically and culturally.

The episode opens with Tony’s crew discussing the upcoming protests exterior of Satriale’s Pork Retailer, certainly one of their predominant hangouts. Many of those sensible guys are upset as a result of they determine as Italian and take into account Christopher Columbus an Italian hero. The one character within the dialog truly born in Italy, Furio Giunta, complicates issues by stating that Columbus was from northern Italy, the folks of which disdain southern Italians and Sicilianos like him.

Tony’s consigliere (quantity two) Silvio Dante, and a number of the crew combine it up with some Indian protestors and get routed when the police don’t intervene on their aspect as anticipated. Tony chastises Sil for disturbing their “enterprise” and shedding face however agrees, at Sil’s request to indicate some management within the matter, to dealer a deal behind the scenes.

As a part of that effort, Tony results in a horse barn the place two of his prison associates, a Jewish character named Hesh Rabkin and a personality named Reuben “the Cuban” nearly come to blows regardless of having been buddies for many years and sharing an abiding hatred of Columbus. Reuben, you see, made the error of equating Columbus with a sure quick, brown-haired and shirted, Austrian-born fella, the one with slightly mustache and a booming voice who tried to annihilate all of Hesh’s “folks.”

Hesh however units up Tony with the chief of the fictional “Mohonk” tribe and CEO of its giant on line casino. The chief guarantees to squelch the protest as a result of, like Tony, he sees it as dangerous for enterprise. Lots of his prospects hailing from east Boston and Windfall determine as Italian. When Sil informs the chief that he doesn’t appear like an Indian, the chief responds that he had a “racial awakening” when he realized that his “grandmother on my father’s aspect, her mom, was 1 / 4 Mohonk.” (In different phrases, he’s about as a lot Indian as Elizabeth Warren.)

It seems, although, that the chief doesn’t management the protestors and that Sil’s backup plan, to “expose” Iron Eyes Cody as not-a-real-Indian gained’t work as a result of no person cares, identical to no person cares that actor James Caan, who portrays Sonny in The Godfather, was not Italian. The unstated irony in all that is that the household of Cody, who was born in Louisiana as Espera Oscar de Corti, got here from Sicily and southern Italy!

Ostensibly to make amends, the chief invitations Tony, Sil, and Christopher to his on line casino totally free eats, drinks, and playing. However the entire thing was a ruse to buttonhole Tony into urging Frankie Valli to sing on the chief’s on line casino for per week.

All of this units up the climax of the episode, the drive again from the on line casino. Sil and Christopher turn into upset after they understand that whereas taking part in blackjack they missed the Columbus Day parade, which the Indians efficiently disrupted. When Christopher means that they simply “whack” the Indian protest chief, Tony goes off on a superb expletive-laden rant.

You possibly can learn it for your self right here, however the gist of it’s that we’re all Individuals and that being an American means being, like Gary Cooper, a “robust, silent kind” who “did what he needed to do” as an alternative of whining that he got here from some “poor Texas-Irish illiterate background or no matter.” 

Tony then explains that the dangerous issues that occurred previously are all sunk prices, water underneath the bridge. It doesn’t matter that Sil’s grandparents “received spit on” as a result of they hailed from southern Italy. Sil has a great life, a scorching spouse, a thriving enterprise (the Bada Bing), and “a sensible child at Lackawanna Faculty” not as a result of he’s Italian however as a result of “you’re you, ‘trigger you’re sensible, ‘trigger you’re no matter.” The great things in life “doesn’t come from Columbus, or The Godfather, or Chef … Boyardee.”

Typically, Tony Soprano isn’t any position mannequin for traditional liberals as a result of he made a dwelling by extracting economics rents by fraud and drive. However on this scene he reminds Individuals that they’re particular person human beings first, Individuals second, and who actually cares about the remainder? As I confirmed in The Poverty of Slavery, everybody on earth is descended from at the least one slave, and at the least one slaveholder. What our ancestors did to one another is clearly no fault of ours. All that issues is how we deal with one another in the present day, and that would use so much of enchancment.