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Hasn't South Boston suffered enough at the hands of Hollywood?

Apparently not. Deadline.com reports Robert DeNiro is producing a cable series, called "The Fourth Reich:"

It is a high-octane crime thriller delving into race, religion, and politics through the lens of a dogmatic faction of the neo-Nazi movement in South Boston.

Old-timers may recall Boston actually did have a neo-Nazi skinhead who wanted to kill Jews and blacks, but he lived in the North End, at least until the federal government provided him with alternative lodging.

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Comments

"South Boston-based neo-Nazi"

Come on. This is just gratuitous piling on to milk the current everything-is-about Boston theme. You want scary neo-Nazis? Drive through any small town in Idaho with an Obama sticker on your car. It'll quickly make you recall the scene in Blazing Saddles when the good folk of Rock Ridge realize who their new sheriff is.

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He's in prison now.

What made him really notorious is his real background, which he hid from the other white supremacists. His father is in fact black Jamaican [I believe a cab driver in Toronto, and his mom was an ex-Catholic nun, but her background is Jewish. She divorced his father when he was very young, came out as lesbian, and raised Felton in an all white Maryland suburb with her lesbian partner.

Is Deniro going to keep his character true Felton? I seriously doubt it. We all known it's going to full of ridiculous stereotypes with loud 'Irish' guys, blond hair, blue eyes, the whole nine yards.

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I know Leo Felting well. He's a good hearted man and maybe this show, if done accurately, can clear up some misunderstood aspects of his character. He's a Mensa member and graphic novelist. He's an artist and authored books. He is not a joke or common criminal.

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Have Neo-Nazis in the early 90's, but not Southie!

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The Governor's budget has new restrictions on the money the Commonwealth contributes to TV and movies because it was costing the state too much money. (The program gives 25% of every dollar spent back to the production company in cash.)

Hopefully, it's the beginning of the end for junk like this.

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This will definitely help the "Bostonians are racist" image.

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Agree - if they must follow this angle, couldn't they at least set it during the busing riots to put 'Boston racism' in context? Although a large number of working-class Irish punks in Southie may be and may have been racists in a misguided attempt to protect their neighborhood from 'troublemaker' African-Americans (but perhaps no more so than any other working-class American neighborhood would have been at the time IMHO), I have never heard of it being a hive of Jew-hating white-supremacist activity (and God knows I've been to a few Dropkick Murphy concerts). It would have made more sense to set the series in someplace like Skokie, Illinois or other areas in the Mid-west...where there really was a sizable history of American Nazi activity - but it just doesn't make sense here (though I'm not saying it couldn't happen here). Sadly, the (to me) unfair characterization of today's Boston as a 'racist city', stemming in large part from the legacy of the riots, make Nazis in Southie seem credible to people less familiar with the city, like Mr. DeNiro it seems.

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I agree. It's so frustrating. Boston is no more racist than any other major city in the US. Ridiculous.

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Just wait until some TV show portrays Boston the same as Baltimore in The Wire.

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