>The comparison has been made before, but I’ll make it
>again: How is it that the Mafia, America’s über-criminals, get
>such empathetic film treatment — think Tony Soprano’s therapy
>sessions and Ray Liotta’s ruminating voice-overs in GoodFellas
>— and black criminals get squat? The only answer is that black
>criminality needs no explanation, just some celluloid to blow
>it up to 1,000 times its actual size.

It's been shown that films about criminals, the underworld, and despicable characters can still have some redemptive value and novel insight into our society, and especially the characters themselves. But generally when it's black criminals, even when they're the central characters they're still completely flat.

And it should be pointed out that while this author is accurately pointing out a problem in Hollywood, every argument here should be amplified x1000 times and repeated ad nauseum in regards to the current video game industry. Grand Theft Auto has started a toxic "real crime" trend that has resulted in lots of video games where the players control black thugs, running around killing, stealing, and having no reason or remorse for any of it. There's something like 4 or 5 titles that are basically just GTA -- only more hood-ified! coming out this Christmas. It's despicable. The rampant racism and sexism in the video game industry is largely ignored b/c liberals don't play the games, but I'd say video games have an almost equal effect on our culture as film nowadays.

Shit's depressing...