"Episode 45 "Everybody Hurts"" The Sopranos. HBO.
I chose this episode of the Sopranos because it portrays two rival ethnic groups in a struggle to express what they both think is right.
The story starts with a group of Native Americans planning to disrupt the Columbus Day parade in an undisclosed northern New Jersey city. Soprano family Consigliore Silvio Dante, rallies a group of fellow made men and Vesuvio restaurant owner Arthur Bucco in an effort to stage a counter protest. The two rival ethnic groups clash and the Italian faction is driven off. One of the group members receives a severe head injured from a thrown beer bottle.
The episode reminded me of Chapter 3 of Ronald Takaki’s “A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America.” In the reading Takaki outlines how the upper class managed to pit the lower classes against themselves, specifically the black slaves and the white non-property owners. Although the book makes a direct connection between the manipulators and the manipulated, the episode is without a direct higher power “pulling the strings” of the two groups. Both groups do indeed exist under an unnamed upper class that benefits from class rivalries and keeps the groups distracted and thusly unable to turn their attention to challenging the power of the upper class.
Zinn made the strong case that Columbus couldn’t really have “discovered” America if the Native Americans were already here, but the holiday is really only meant to celebrate the origins of our nation much like Independence Day. Both groups have warped the definition of Columbus Day into something it was never really meant to be. The Italians have in recent years made Columbus Day into a uniquely Italian holiday, much like the Irish have made St Patrick’s Day a uniquely Irish holiday. The Native Americans seem to have made Columbus Day into the anti-Native American holiday.
Interestingly the episode doesn’t just highlight rival ethnic groups, but it also details some inter-group prejudices. While the mobsters are formulating a strategy for confronting the Native Americans, they launch into a diatribe about Northern Italian people. The mobsters express their distain for the Columbus because he was a northerner.
Overall I am quite impressed by the scope and breadth of the ethnic issues portrayed in the Sopranos episode. The writers certainly made insightful observations not present in regular television programming. In regards to the issues raised in the episode, both groups should take a step back and understand that the celebration of our countries origins is not meant to honor or dishonor any particular group. All of the participants (except Furio, a native of Italy) were born in this country and share the title of Americans.
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