Weeds

I've been watching the seasons of Weeds the past few weeks and I think it's a great show. It's interesting how they have taken the stereotypical drug dealer and turned him into a white suburban mother (Nancy Botwin). It kind of shows one of the real reasons people start doing illegal things such as this, out of honest, desperate need for money. Her husband died suddenly and she found herself with a ton of bills, two kids, and no money to pay them off with, so she began dealing drugs.

The show does have some of the typical stereotypes. Nancy Botwin's partner is a black man (Conrad), and she works with his aunt (Haylia) and cousin (Vaneeta). Vaneeta is a young, single mother and Haylia is a big, loud, opinionated, black woman. Conrad is an honest and reliable man, but he has counterpart, UTurn. UTurn is a "Thug," ready to screw over or kill anyone who gets in the way of his drug business. There are also a few Hispanic drug gangs, and they are just as unsavory. There is also another group, I think they are Ukrainian. I'm not sure. But they are just as bad as the others. Race is very important in this show, and people of the same race stick together (even if they stick together within their different crews). Almost everyone makes it a point to make sure Nancy knows she is white. A gang member even brings Nancy along with him to a meeting because he says, "No one wants a dead white lady on their hands." He assumed that if he (being a black man) had a white lady with him he would be safe because no one would want to cause that kind of trouble. For one episode there is a group of white bikers who deal drugs, but no one will buy their weed because it sucks.

So far, one of my favorite scenes is when the group is forced to move their grow house to Majestic, part of the suburb that Nancy lives. Haylia and Vaneeta are walking down the sidewalk and all the white people who are out at the same time are SUPER nice, saying "Hi", and "How are you today!?" in big, cheery voices. Vaneeta comments how nice these white people are, but Haylia shuts her down immediately saying, "they say good morning. but what they're really saying is... I'm not racist." I love that, because in this small community, she was probably right.