Well as we can see from the other Mafia topic, the big buzz discussion at the moment is the idea that we are going to have a Black protagonist in a series that has traditionally focused on the Italian Mafia.
This discussion has focused on three points:
● That it does not make sense to have a black protagonist in such a series.
● That the themes handled in the Mafia series cannot be adequately handled by focusing on the Black Criminal Underworld.
● That historically it would not make sense to have a black man so intimately dealing with the Italian Mafia, especially in light of their extreme vitriolic racism toward this same community.
I'd like to expand this discussion with a primer on some of the history involved, and perhaps get a more in-depth conversation going focused on this issue and the mistakes people are making when dealing with the subject.
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Videogame Context
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First, it's important to understand what the game is actually attempting to do.
IGN said:
Organized crime has always had its go-to goons. The wise guys with slicked back hair, wingtipped shoes, and suits impeccably pinstriped. That romanticized imagery has been the well-tread territory of the Mafia series so far, but thats changing with the arrival of Mafia 3.
Set in 1968, Mafia 3 stars a brand new protagonist, Lincoln Clay. Hes half-black, half-white, which matters since his story unfolds in the deep south of New Orleans, where outward, violent racism was a part of everyday life at the time. Clays got it tough, because he also grew up an orphan, constantly looking for family, which he found in the army during the Vietnam War. Suffice it to say, hes seen some things.
Organized crime has always had its go-to goons. The wise guys with slicked back hair, wingtipped shoes, and suits impeccably pinstriped. That romanticized imagery has been the well-tread territory of the Mafia series so far, but thats changing with the arrival of Mafia 3.
Set in 1968, Mafia 3 stars a brand new protagonist, Lincoln Clay. Hes half-black, half-white, which matters since his story unfolds in the deep south of New Orleans, where outward, violent racism was a part of everyday life at the time. Clays got it tough, because he also grew up an orphan, constantly looking for family, which he found in the army during the Vietnam War. Suffice it to say, hes seen some things.
Mafia 3: Announcement Trailer
03:58
Lincoln Clay isnt the most well-adjusted man, but its hard to blame him. After returning home from the war, and finding a new family in the Black mob, he once again loses it when the Italian mob wipes them out, shoots Clay in the head, and leaves him for dead. And he takes all these anti-hero ingredients and plays the part brutally well, unleashing a rampage of pissed-off vengence that devastates the Italian Mob and creates a power vacuum for organized crime in the city. A space Clay is more than willing to fill.
But theres a lot of groups vying for power in New Orleans. For all the brutal, unflinching violence he doles out at the end of his army-issued combat knife, hes actually got a knack for bringing people together. As Clay youll be able to bring several gang leaders into your fold to serve as lieutenants in your budding criminal empire. Cassandra and her Haitians, Burke and his Irish, and the protagonist from Mafia 2, Vito Scaletta, who lends his faction of Italians. These three lieutenants will grant you special abilities and unlocks if you show them favor, or bicker and betray if they feel youre giving away their piece of this new crime pie.
Facts:
1. The Irish Mob, Haitian Mob, Italian Mob and Black Mob are all essential components to this series. They're vying for power in New Orleans. Remember, the series is called "Mafia", not "White Mafia." This series is actually expanding the scope of its analysis of Mafia groups.
2. The Italian mob, specifically the one Vito from the series past is apart of, has
wiped out the Black Mafia. Presumably, then, this story will partially be one of revenge.
3.
The New Orleans crime family was one of the oldest and most powerful in the country.
4. One of this games theme is ending the romanticizing of the Mafia image. One of the more powerful ways of doing that is to analyze is complex and richly racist history, as well as its delving into the world of hardcore illicit drugs like heroin.
This last point is important.
This interview highlights the heart of it:
"In our minds, it is the end of kind of the romanticized view of the Mob. We're no longer seeing the mob or viewing the mob as the old boy's club or social club. It's really by the late 60s had been exposed as this criminal organization that has done really heinous things. And a lot of that has to do with the influx of heroin and other thing's going on... and you also had obviously Vietnam and you also had the civil rights movement going on as well. And all those things pointed us to a protagonist like Lincoln who is mixed race... but we do have a line in the game if you look black, you're treated as black."
Firstly, there's no reason not to trust the devs when they say they arrived at their choice naturally. But secondly, if they're dealing with this, it makes tons of sense that they went with who they went with. And I'll touch on that a bit briefly in the next section.
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Historical Context
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One of the thing's that keep getting mentioned in interviews is the Mafia heroin trade. One of the crucial components of that was the way in which the Italian Mafia often trafficked these drugs through other organized criminal elements, which frequently included the
Black Mafia (who was primarily centered around Philadelphia, but stretched out their tendrils in smaller groups around the country). One of the reasons they did this was because they wanted to remove themselves from the stench of dealing these drugs at the street level: it was against their outward code of honor, at least as far as the top level went.
So to effectively make bank without having that image problem, they let other criminal groups deal it out. And because they had such racist views of the Black Community, they often felt this was a perfect business partner for their drug trade.
Wikipedia said:
Allegedly formed in September 1968 by Samuel Christian, who later adopted the name Suleiman Bey under the Nation of Islam, the Black Mafia was heavily involved in a large part of drug trafficking in Philadelphia during the 1970s, with heroin being the most trafficked drug. Christian, a former Black Panther with an extensive arrest record, was an imposing man: 5'10' tall and described as a "thick-necked, 215-pound bully." Additional founding members included Ronald Harvey, Henry Dabney, Richard "Pork Chops" James, Donald "Donnie" Day, Clyde "Apples" Ross, Robert "Bop Daddy" Fairbanks, Craig "Heist" Jones, Walter Hudgins, Robert "Nudie" Mims amongst others. Nearly all of the original members eventually became Nation of Islam members or converted to Islam, giving the organization the nickname of "the Muslim Mafia" or "the Muslim Mob."
The Black Mafia gained power in local neighborhoods by intimidating people to prevent anyone from reporting the group's activities to the police. Because of this, police had incredible difficulty taking any action on the gang or any of its members for years after their conception. Members participated in holding up crap games and extorting drug dealers, working as numbers men and illegitimate businessmen. Over the course of their control, the Black Mafia was responsible for over 40 murders and countless other crimes. Each founder had extensive arrest records, with most cases involving violence. Law enforcement officials had difficulties prosecuting members of the group, however, because witnesses would rarely cooperate, fearing retaliation, and cases were dropped more often than not. This not only permitted the offenders to continue their criminal activities, but also allowed their reputations of being "untouchable" to flourish, thus enhancing their influence on the street.
More archival material here
The main historical change seems to be upending the Black Mafia from its Philadelphia roots and having a significant element in New Orleans (before it is slaughtered by the Italian Mafia). But this is a relatively minor change in the context of the things the series has changed before about the Italian Mafia, and it also makes sense. I suspect they did this because the Italian Mafia had a massive presence in New Orleans, but so did other Mafia groups like the Haitian Mafia and the Irish Mafia.
It seems that they wanted to try to find a city that most closest meshed all these Mafia groups together, and so they simply edited history a bit to locate the Black Mafia prominently down there as well. And it makes sense because if you're going to start de-glorifying these groups, you need to focus on their relationships with the community... and how much damage they have done to it. One compelling way to do that is to shift perspectives to the Black Community and the Mafia's cynical dealings within it.
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Thematic Context
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Stump made a great post about this, and I believe it's instructive to read what he had to say about this subject.
Stumpokapow said:
Goodfellas is a story about a guy who wants to make something of himself, but that drive leads him to become something of a monster and lose much of what he cares about. The characters are Italian-American. Scarface is a story about a guy who wants to make something of himself, but that drive leads him to become something of a monster and lose much of what he cares about. The character is Cuban living in America. I think both do a good job of telling a very similar story in a different way, and I don't see any reason why only Italian-Americans can satisfy the same kind of story. In the Black Donnellys, the character is Irish. In both the Black Donnellys and the Godfather, the character at the center of the story actually doesn't want to get involved with organized crime. But when you lay down with dogs, you get fleas.
The reason why Italian-American organized crime is compelling is because of the rich history; immigration, facing discrimination, ethnic self-segregation (and imposed segregation) in neighborhoods, poverty causing people to seek opportunities outside the law. It's not hard to imagine that a game about a biracial guy during the civil rights era could hit those notes.
I've noticed that many Mafia stories are basically westerns in that they portray a world on the cusp of changing and people who don't want to change with it. One popular setup is that "the old ways", the "code of honour" replaced by new, somehow worse things; unrestrained use of violence; trafficking drugs or prostitutes. You see this in the Godfather and in Goodfellas and the Sopranos as well. Here is this icon of conservative institutions facing a changing world. Clearly this is a premise this game can explore; first, if as it seems in the trailer that the organized crime people are the bad guys, a move from traditional crime families to individuals. Second, the changing demographics of society. Maybe even black nationalism in the wake of the BPP and disgruntled Vietnam veterans. Lots of ways they could take this.
Finally, one of the most common tropes in crime stories is "one last score". Characters that would have made it out alive if only they could have just settled for what they had instead of pushing for more. That escalation is what undoes them. This is most palpable in Heat, but also To Live and Die in LA, Dog Day Afternoon, The Wild Bunch (also a western crime film, another connection between the genres), The Score, to a lesser extent The Town, you could probably even stretch this to something like Miller's Crossing (also Irish rather than Italian), Blow (also an example of the first thing I mentioned about the man of humble beginnings who becomes a successful monster through his ambition, also not Italian-American). It's easy to imagine how the quest for revenge depicted in the trailer will lead to a very similar conundrum. Do I let the guy get away, or really try to have revenge, even if it's my own undoing?
I think anyone immersed in organized crime films and organized crime books could look at the tropes and expectations of the genre and recognize that this game's setup could fulfill them, even though the dude is not Italian.
Link
In the end, it's important to understand that just because popular culture likes to focus on the Italian Mob, does not mean the goals of the Mafia series are not being met in this approach, nor does it mean that the same precise reasons people enjoy watching Italian Mafia media cannot be the same exact reasons people enjoy a game about the Black Mafia.
But more than that, this game is not just about the Black Mafia. It still IS about the Italian Mafia... and the Irish Mafia...and the Haitian Mafia. It's about MAFIA organizations in general now, but it's clear that Vito and his Italian Mob play a pivotal role in how this all plays out.
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Discussion
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So with all this in mind... why are you disappointed in this direction? Why do you like this direction? What would you change? How would you handle such themes in the future if you disapprove? How do you think the developers of Mafia III mishandled the approach to this subject if you are on that page?
