Disclaimer: This post is based on the first two seasons, which I saw.
“The Wire” (2002-2008) was a police show on American television that viewed the city of Baltimore from a different angle each season:
- Drug dealers
- Dock workers
- Politicians
- Schoolteachers
- News reporters
Left out: Television screenwriters.
In each season the police work on a related criminal case. Each one-hour episode is like a chapter of a book, giving “The Wire” the depth of a novel.
The show is largely the creation of David Simon and Ed Burns. Simon was a news reporter for the Baltimore Sun from 1982 to 1995. Ed Burns was a Baltimore police officer for 20 years and then a schoolteacher.
The show is based on years of research and their White middle-class experience of West Baltimore, a poor Black neighbourhood, during the height of the Crack Epidemic.
Realism: Drug dealers, news reporters and police officers (at least some of them) say it is pretty true to life. It was shot in Baltimore, using Baltimore actors for lesser characters, like Prop Joe. Some characters, like Bubbs and Omar, are based on real people.
Institutional dysfunction: A huge theme is how institutions – police departments, schools, labour unions, newspapers, governments, drug gangs – are self-preserving, even to the point of undermining their stated mission (law and order, education, profits, truth, etc). They protect themselves against those who want to change things for the better. They are creatures of the status quo and help to preserve it, no matter how screwed up it is.
Race: In addition to White characters it has plenty of fleshed-out Black characters, complete with home lives and moral complexity. They even talk to each other about something other than White characters! This puts it leagues beyond most of Hollywood.
Stereotypes: Yet all this wonderful realism, research and writing is used to pump life into stereotypes: Black males as violent, armed drug dealers, Black women as baby mamas and strippers, a small Black middle-class that is noble but boring, etc. Most drug dealers and drug users are – Black.
White gaze: The only Blacks who matter are those who matter to Whites, like criminals, students and co-workers. Writer Ta-Nehisi Coates grew up in West Baltimore at the very time Simon and Burns were there. But since he did not shoot people, have trouble at school or live in poverty, he would never appear on their White radar of Black dysfunction.
Colour-blind racism: “The Wire” views West Baltimore through the four frames of colour-blind racism:
- Abstract liberalism – racial equality as desirable but unattainable.
- Minimization of racism – Whites and their institutions as well-meaning or just indifferent. Institutional dysfunction rather than institutional racism. Little to nothing on, say, racial profiling, police brutality or the mass incarceration of Black men.
- Cultural racism – Black pathologies as the main thing that screws up Black people.
- Naturalization of racism – racial segregation as natural, no one’s fault, no other way it could be.
In short, despite its apparent realism and sympathy for Blacks, “The Wire” confirms rather than challenges the racism of most White viewers.
See also:
- The Wire, Season 4
- The Wire, Season 5
- colour-blind racism
- Black pathologies
- stereotypes about Black people on American television – “The Wire” uses many of them
- Compare and contrast:
- Dances With Wolves – yet more “stereotyped realism”
- American Violet – “The Wire” done right
- Crooklyn – a Black ghetto as viewed through a Black gaze
- Claudine – a Black ghetto as viewed through a White gaze. Like “The Wire” it practises “stereotyped realism”.
- Idris Elba
I actually never got around to viewing this show. I will however, make it a point to begin to watch the 1st season. So how do you fell about the wire overall, abagond? You approve or disapprove?
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I dunno man, I’m not black, granted, but your main point above seems to me to be misguided. What you are doing is essentially the same as criticizing Dickens for not giving equal time to happy, well adjusted English working class people and instead fostering the stereotypes of working class wife beaters, thieves and drunkards., You are expecting “The Wire” to be more than it is, which is a work of fiction. Period. It doesn’t owe the world anything more than that.
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I actually have to take the time to rewatch this.
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@Sondis….. You will like it! I missed the boat when it was on tv but watched it all back to back 6 months ago and could watch it all again! Fantastic Show!
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Clarke Peters was recently interviewed on Question Time UK – short but good! Loved his character in The Wire!
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I keep saying i will get this on Netflix i have yet to do this. Now that I see fine Idris, i will check it out for sure.
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I found the show to be very sad because it’s my understanding that it is realistic.
The black characters are not one-dimensional thugs, they are complicated human beings and you get to understand why and how they get to where are. Take the middle school kids who end up selling drugs on the corner, well we are shown how they essentially have no choice, it’s their only means of survival. Ergo they are not thugs or evil or anything the Fox News crowd fears, they are rational human beings.
The white cop turned teacher is, I grant you, in the mould of a Sandra Bullock from The Blind Side character in that he probably warms the hearts of white viewers with all his altruism and sincere desire to help his black students, he’s “a good guy” in the show, though I imagine people like him do exist. The show features plenty of white racist cops though there are even apparently racist black cops, too!
It’s not the show’s job to offer solutions to the plight of the characters. It’s just a fascinating insight into a world that I am thankful not to be a part of. I mean, I did change the way I might look at a bunch of kids congregated on a corner during school hours, maybe I’m more compassionate than I would otherwise be.
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Ishmael Reed described his disdain for the show and its creators as only he could. I think he had some fair points though I initially liked the show. Once you step back from the apparent oddity of actually seeing black people have interesting complex personal lives on TV, there are still some problematic depictions/assumptions.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2008/03/15/faking-the-hood/
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I’ve never seen the show (I don’t like police series), but almost everyone I know who has seen it sings its praises. What’s funny is that many people I know who have never been to Baltimore but have watched the Wire think it is an accurate representation.
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@resw77: if you’ve never seen the show – and therefore not seen how it depicts Baltimore – why do you find it funny that people who’ve only seen Baltimore via the show think it’s accurate? 🙂 I mean, I wouldn’t find it funny if you had never been to Sweden yet thought the general atmosphere there to be accurate after having watched the Wallander series. Baltimore is not seen exclusively as a rotting corpse of a city, it shows the swanky parts as well.
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constantly:
“@Sondis….. You will like it! I missed the boat when it was on tv but watched it all back to back 6 months ago and could watch it all again! Fantastic Show!”
Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll watch it back to back as well. ^_^
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Another interesting post, Abagond. I don’t watch much television these days, but I need to watch ‘The Wire’ to connect the dots. Once again, thank you!
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the baraka piece is a bit bitter. talking about stats and whether a non-member of the black community can write and populate a story with black people, and not balance it with white junkies? i understand the stereotype argument; but i found the portrayals of dealers, junkies, and fiends to be rather accurate. the abandoned houses, all that.
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correction: reed interview piece, specifically pt. 2
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I think I missed a lot with this show. At most, I saw the equivalent of a full season. The grimy hardness and the sleazy politicians, all provoke a visceral response.
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@ Shady Grady
Thanks for the Ishmael Reed interview. He sums up my own thinking when he says:
Kevin Costner did the same thing in “Dances With Wolves”, painstakingly creating an “accurate” picture of a stereotype.
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@ sondis
“The Wire”, as television, is probably one of the best shows ever. I hope to see the the other three seasons. I recommend it at that level. But, as Peanut and Shady Grady say, its picture of Blacks is highly problematic. But you can judge that for yourself.
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@ Trace Ordiway
“The Wire” is fiction. The trouble comes when its supporters say it is realistic and so White viewers conclude they have an accurate picture of Blacks based on it. At best they have an accurate view of Black drug dealers. What if I judged White people the same way? It would be a ridiculous travesty.
Unfortunately, for people of colour living under white rule, like in the US, stereotypes matter, their misrepresentations in the media matter. White Americans seem to get a huge part of their picture of Blacks from television.”The Wire” may have humanized thugs but it confirmed the idea that most Black men are thugs.
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OK, I have to give you that. On both your points.
The argument now becomes “Does the artist have an obligation to his community to think twice about how his art might be incorrectly received by the community before making it available?”
Can we really argue that Simon & Co. were socially reckless when they released that show?
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In short, despite its apparent realism and sympathy for Blacks, “The Wire” confirms rather than challenges the racism of most White viewers.
This is why whites and their admirers adore this show. I tried to watch it, flipping from season to season to see if I would like it better as it progressed. Aside from Idris Elba, I didn’t.
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@ Abagond:
It’s strange that you appear to think the only notable black characters in The Wire are thugs, dealers and junkies. Some of it’s best major characters are black police (Daniels, Kima, Carver, Bunk, Lester, Bunny).
@ Herneith:
So you are saying that whites “and their admirers” (?!?) adore this show because it confirms rather than challenges their racism? So it has nothing to do with characters, plot, or dialogue?
Your comment basically boils down to “I didn’t like it because I thought it was a bit racist, so everyone who does like it does so because of racism”.
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No, I didn’t like it because I thought it was a lot racist. As to what anyone else thinks, I don’t care. I can see you are a big fan of this show.
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@Abagond, No problem!
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@Phil
People I know who have never been to Baltimore but have seen the Wire often think it’s as bad as the show portrays it regardless whatever “swanky” parts of town may be shown from time to time. I know Baltimore well and think highly of it, so yes, I do find it funny that this show has put a negative image of the city in the minds of many of its viewers.
And many people, especially in Baltimore, would agree that the show has done more harm to the city’s image than good.
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It seems we get too much misinformation from TV as to how real life is. Too many of us don’t question why that is so, or who’s behind it. We watch this kind of programming without a second thought to realize that’s most of the content we see in television owned by white males.
When you have people who watch shows like “The Wire” and other programs that highlight black criminality most or all of the time religiously, they will act surprised when they see black people in the hood that’s not engaged in criminal activity. This is especially true for those who had little to no contact with black people. But this is true for even black people, including those living in the hood who watch those programs and have fears about their own neighborhood.
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First season is some of the best tv I’ve ever seen, but the rest is overrated IMO.
@Eurasian Sensation
“It’s strange that you appear to think the only notable black characters in The Wire are thugs, dealers and junkies. Some of it’s best major characters are black police (Daniels, Kima, Carver, Bunk, Lester, Bunny).”
My thoughts exactly.
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@ Eurasian Sensation
Not sure where you are getting that “only” from. The post states that some of the Black characters are co-workers and students.
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@ Herneith:
Yes, I think it’s arguably the best TV drama ever created. And I’ve heard many intelligent people, black and otherwise, say much the same thing. So it’s interesting to hear your claim that the only reason we like the show is that it confirms our racist attitudes towards black people.
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Ishmael Reed:
Except the show isn’t about “black life”. It’s a crime drama. Therefore, one expects that the focus would be on criminals and their environment. How is that not obvious?
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@ Randy
“The Wire” does not present itself as a mere crime drama but as an all-embracing, realistic look at urban America.
David Simon said the show is:
It has been used to teach a course on urban inequality at Harvard:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/10/AR2010091002676.html
Jonah Goldberg at the National Review certainly sees it as more or less realistic, using its minimization of racism to minimize racism:
More:
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/174250/conservatism-and-wire/jonah-goldberg
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@ Randy
Some Italian-Americans, I gather, aren’t fond of “The Sopranos” because it casts their ethnicity in cliched, criminalized light. However because Italians in the US are not racialized, I wonder whether the impact of those cliches and stereotypes are as far-reaching and negative?
Yah, so The Family, kill, but they are Our Family. We still love ’em.
Tony Soprano is a murderous brute, but he has mental health issues!
Being an Italian Criminal has humanity and lov-a-bility, even sex appeal.
They, as “Italians”, have the most interesting sauces, and finely malted balsamico — cuisine being only one such contribution to world culture.
Think of the very great Christopher Columbus…the list goes on.
Not like black thugs, or Latino hoodlums.
Vito Corleone had gravitas and old-time values, let’s not forget.
Now, I don’t mean to say that Italians in the US don’t have a history of disadvantage, suffering, struggle, or that Jews don’t, etc.
But please don’t tell me that blacks share the acceptance as part of the US’s idea of what Our Family looks like, or is. I don’t live in US culture, but from afar, I do not get that impression at all, at all.
I would not claim to know much history about Italian Americans, but from what Abagond has written and other snippets I have picked up along the way (mostly from European Italians), there was only a “problem” for Italian-Americans when they got too close to black Americans. Any closeness to the black people that were in the same boat as them came with a heavy price.
Yep. The Italians/Sicilians/Sardinians HAD TO fall in line or else the lynchings — and other violence — for their affiliations with blacks would continue. That was part and parcel of becoming part of hte Whie Club.
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Correction *the White Club
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Side note:
Mario Puzo (author: “The Godfather”), supposedly based his novel on the true story of the so-called “5 families”. The history of it went that it was the 1940s drug trafficking became big, and the black communities were singled out and targeted as the main buyers of the product.
(It’s been said often enough that the deliberate introduction of narcotics was one reason for the destruction of what was inevitable black progress in the US…)
Anyway. One of the crime bosses in the book, Joe Zaluchi, explains how he “accommodates” himself to involve his Family in these operations.
I can’t find the clip, but in the film the speech goes like this:
”
―Giuseppe Zaluchi
{my parentheses, emphasis.}
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After first reading the original post I was a bit shocked, because I’m a great fan of the show. I didn’t know the show was used to base college classes upon and used in political discussions. That’s obviously very probelamtic. It’s a story, and while less stereotypical and more realistic than most shows, it’s still a simplification of reality. And given that it was created by white people and within a white-dominated society it would be amazing if it hadn’t racist traits.
But as previosly has been stated, it’s possible effect of strengthening racist opnions is less the fault of the show but of the context it’s watched in. Whites probably expierence confirmation bias when watching the show: the black criminals are seen as blacks, the white criminals as criminals.
I think the discussion says more about american society than about the show. The comparison to The Sopranos is great, you can also compare it to Breaking Bad. The Sopanos stereotyped italians as criminals, but they don’t face much discrimination today, so only few people got agitated. One could argue that Breaking Bad stereotyped Anglo whites as criminals, but because that stereotype isn’t present in the american society, nobody thinks about it that way.
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Oh, George. You haven’t seen “I, Claudius”.
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This show may make for great television, but it still sells black pathology on a silver platter.
Ishmael Reed wrote an article about the business of black pathology. I used his article to reference my own on Rippa’s blog. Here’s a piece of what he wrote:
Black pathology is big business. Two-thirds of teenage mothers are white, two-thirds of welfare recipients are white and white youth commit most of the crime in this country. According to a recent survey, reported by the Oakland Tribune, the typical crack addict is a middle-class white male in his 40s. Michele Norris of a has cited a study that dis- covered “no significant difference in the rate of drug use during pregnancy among women in the public clinics that serve a largely indigent population and those visiting private doctors who cater to upper-income patients.” Yet in the popular imagination blacks are blamed for all these activities, in the manner that the Jews took the rap for the Black Plague, even in countries with little or no Jewish population.
So, is there any wonder why so much programming is geared towards ratchetness? This explains why Maury Povich is still on the air and why Bill Cunningham, a conservative racist, got his own talk show where both programs have guests that are mostly black and dysfunctional, especially when it comes to relationships and reproduction while the white male host sits and gloats.
The issue is, if it was anything but an advertisement for black pathology, would anyone, including black people watch it, even if it is well written and created? Part of me says yes, but the network will – after catching wind of how great it is – may find ways to undermine its success.
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Abagond:
It’s not surprising he’d say that.
Who wants to bask in the praise of creating merely a good “crime drama” when you can bask in even broader praise. That’s ego for you.
Regardless of Simon’s inflationary self-adulation, The Wire is a bullets-and-bad-guys show where few opportunities for characters to visit misery upon themselves and others are missed.
Abagond:
Two points:
1. Goldberg earns a living as an ideologue, so it’s not surprising he’d find some “red meat” in a popular show like aThe Wire to feed to subscribers.
2. While it’s inherently risky to base real-world arguments on fictional depictions, there is a particular nuanced case where you could argue that it’s conditionally valid:
if you exist in a sharply defined “left-right” paradigm like Goldberg and other pundits, and the “left” has supposedly embraced a fictional depiction as being real, then perhaps it’s somewhat fair to argue against it, since the other side accepted the initial premise that the show was realistic.
There are several potential fallacies to that approach, but logical congruity doesn’t seem to be a requirement in the world of punditry.
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Bulanik:
To Ishmail Reed’s point (which I recognize that you yourself didn’t make) I don’t see anyone claiming that The Sopranos is a “depiction of Italian-American Life”, and so there is little traction to the criticism of it as such. It’s a mafia story and everyone knows it.
More to your point, I don’t think that the ultimate “impact of those cliches and stereotypes” is actually relevant. Who can measure such things anyhow?
What’s trenchant is how the broader culture reacts viscerally to such depictions.
There’s little expressed concern over Italian or Irish stereotypes. It’s more or less been decided that those ethnicities can be mocked without consequence. Nobody loses their job over a “drunk Irishman” joke or speaking in a stereotype Italian accent.
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Bulanik:
I actually had the opposite reaction to the show.
That the characters come from a some-quarters appreciated (and occasionally mythologized) cultural background doesn’t redeem them because of that, but rather refutes the very idea that family-centricity and other such cultural characteristics is a necessarily-redeeming quality.
I think that both of these TV shows argue that monsters can have feelings too, but that it makes them no less monstrous.
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Kiwi:
You’re half-right, but for the wrong reason.
Colbert’s joke would only be effective if viewers saw the offensiveness of the comparison. Since few people are offended by anti-Irish jokes, using the Irish wouldn’t have worked.
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Randy,
In order for me to reply, please could you be so kind as to say what you mean in a clearer away.
I’m struggling with:
“… What’s trenchant is how the broader culture reacts viscerally to such depictions…”
and:
“..in some-quarters appreciated (and occasionally mythologized) cultural background doesn’t redeem them because of that, but but rather refutes the very idea that family-centricity and other such cultural characteristics is a necessarily-redeeming quality.”
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@ Randy
Do you mean there are no stereotypes about Italian Americans in US media?
I’ve enjoyed the work of Marty Scorsese, films like “Mean Streets”,”Casino”, “Raging Bull”, “Goodfellas”, and as well as films of Francis Ford Coppola, because they show aspects of their Italian-American culture.
In interview, both film-makers have said that their work has reflected aspects of Italian acculturation to American life, even if a few edges to it aren’t the most flattering or representative of the whole. In fact, Scorsese’s films explores his ethncity and presenting a public front and how that “performance” conflicts with the private self of an ethnic group, like Italians.
And, are you saying that of the negative stereotypes that exist, no one takes notice enough for it to count?
I thought there was some objection to “Jersey Shore” (among other depictions on tv of Italians) because it conforms to negative stereotypes about Italian Americans and their supposed criminality and general lack of elegant reserve. (I haven’t seen the series myself.)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/24/italian-americans-protest_n_369482.html
From the way you talk Randy, anyone would think Italians had ALWAYS been white in America.
When the Italians started immigrating to the US, especially the darkish ones from Southern Europe, they weren’t “white” like they are now.
That’s been said quite frequently. Do you know otherwise?
I also wonder about your saying what I say is irrelevant. How are you the arbiter of that?
As for The Sopranos being about crime and only, and everyone knowing that, I wonder, because family values, food, style, the role of the Catholic priests, and more — seemed to come up as themes. There’s even family cookbook to go with the series:
(http://www.amazon.com/The-Sopranos-Family-Cookbook-Compiled/dp/0446530573)
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I don’t claim to well-know the context this refers to, but I can assure Randy that the Irish, in Ireland, do not take kindly to anti-Irish jokes, and nor would they respond well to those that would say they are only a “few people”.
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Bulanik:
You wondered about the impact of Italian stereotypes since Italians weren’t “racialized”.
I suggest that it doesn’t really matter, since measuring the effect of stereotyping is an impossible task. What counts more is how people react when they see stereotypes.
The consequences of stereotyping different groups varies depending on the group. For Italians and Irish in America, there appears to be no significant negative consequence for enacting stereotyped depictions of them. There’s no press conference, no boycott, and nobody gets fired.
Regarding The Sopranos, from my standpoint their charming sauces did nothing to make them less monstrous. If anything, it showed that lovable family men can be complete monsters too.
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Bulanik:
That, or else nobody cares. It’s acceptable in the culture to tell Italian people to “get over it”.
Bulanik:
The white / non-white dichotomy seems incomplete. I grew up in an area that was almost exclusively European immigrants. Nobody ever talked about being “white”.
The Irish discriminated against the Italians, and neither group trusted the Polish. My grandfather struggled to get a job because the Irish wouldn’t hire Italians. The Irish didn’t talk about being “white”, they talked about being Irish.
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Oh, George. You haven’t seen “I, Claudius”.
I second that!
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@ Randy
It’s not about tomatoe-based sauces, though, is it.
It’s not a cookery programme.
My first thought was that Italian-Americans are “white”, because they had to de-came de-racialized — officially. You seem to be saying they can’t complain because they’ve reached whiteness. Yet, they aren’t Protestant enough to really be the 100% article.
I noticed this about Italians in Northern Europe. Italians were still “Italians”, and even if they were intermarried — their “Italien-ness” was still looked for…
The more I think about it, the more I realise that saying Italians were “not racialized” was too swift a conclusion. They haven’t been fully assimilated into whiteness, only acculturated. That’s the difference between being fully absorbed and appearing to conform to the dominant culture — it’s the latter that seems more of a fit. There are grades and shades of assimilation among white groups. They may divide themselves along “nationality” or ethnic lines rather than racial ones, it seems…because they are still White.
When I looked up “Jersey Shore”, the name “Guido” – slang term for Italian-American male — appeared. I had never heard of it before.
It’s a pejorative, like the words “w0p” or “sp1c”, which I have heard of, and wonder about…
I was watching “Friends” once and someone watching with me said about Joey, the Italian-American Friend: “He’s so typically Italian”.
What did she mean?
Apparently this was so because he was earthy, slightly dumb, and visceral to use your word from earlier. It’s stereotyping, isn’t it?
As an Italian, his character was “ethnic”.
By the same token, Ross and Monica are “ethnic”.
Rachel and Phoebe were vaguely Jewish, but, my viewing-companion concluded that their ethnicity was “smudged” (probably by cosmetic surgeries on their faces and being definite blondes) and this allowed them both to step over the white line a bit more. Chandler was well over the finishing line.
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@ Randy
Because research into the psychological and social effects of “ethnic racism” is thin on the ground, and any examination stereotyping relating to Italian Americans is apparently nonexistent, it doesn’t mean that the effects don’t exist.
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yea ok dude i learned how to smoke crack in a house that got blown up by a bomb, have a nice day, maybe some of us lived that life?
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I think what most people here are wondering is why can’t there be a show that positively portrays black Americans outside of the usual ghetto/crime-ridden drug haven environ. Couldn’t you have a TV drama following the path of five black American college students as they navigate their way through a HBCU? Or a drama showing the positive attempts of the black community to improve their neighborhoods? And couldn’t we get all of this without the paternalistic touch offered by some white screenwriters, directors and producers?
As far as socially permissible stereotyping goes, it’s only the black community whose entire image is always distilled down to some ideal that’s firmly and permanently ensconced in the “ghetto” or “hood”. Italian and Irish descended peoples suffer a bit of ribbing, but their own visage isn’t permanently tainted by stereotypical depictions of themselves and their culture. In the unlikely event that it all becomes too much, they can always either run into the bosom of whiteness for a thorough washing or trek back to their native homelands and embrace the culture there.
Black Americans, cut off from their own native cultures and shut out of the warming embrace of whiteness, are stuck in a sort of cultural and societal demilitarized zone where white society can take as many pot shots at them as they please while actively denying them the opportunity to leave.
Thus, mainstream America indulges in the Wire as a voyeuristic look into what they believe the urban black environment is like and black Americans are stuck fighting against these fictionalized images and the pot shots that come from them.
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@ Kiwi
I don’t know exactly about the situation in France, but I think you’re not completly right. Other europeans certainly benefit from an international white privilege or a “fellow european privilege” and over the course of a few generations they can buy into the “local whiteness”, i.e. “germaness”, “britishness” or “frenchness”. But if you look at the eastern european or italian immigrants in UK or Germany you’ll see they are not seen as “belonging here”. Besides muslims one could argue that eastern and south eastern immigrants are the most despised and pathologized, more than chrisitan african immigrants.
@ Mack Lyons
To create a show about and with blacks without stereotypes shaping it or at least its perception is entirely impossible. Even if you challange some of the more obvious stereotypes, you would still reinforce others or create new ones. The only way you could do that is if everyone involved with the show (cast, creators and audince) is black and not affected by internalized racism.
I don’t think american whites can just go back to their ancestral european homeland, every German American or Italian American would be perceived as american here.
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@ Mack Lyons: Well said. Good points.
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I think the Wire is the most interesting show I’ve seen on TV. At the time I didn’t think about what it had to say about race. I was just intrigued to see characters who broke the law and were also three dimensional.
Thinking about it in light of this post, two things occur to me:
1) Season 1 is very different to the other seasons. It’s the only one that’s based on “real life” experiences (of ’80s Baltimore, apparently). All the others are 100% fiction, and for me have a more theatrical, less interesting tone.
2) I need to re-watch it, but my recollection is that Season 1 is a well intentioned account of a white policeman trying to describe the problems he sees from his perspective.
I think the Wire isn’t really conscious enough of race to say anything intelligent about it. It’s really about institutional malfunction, as this post correctly points out. Race is incidental to its theme, when it should be a central part of it. It fails then, but it’s still miles ahead of most TV.
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Hm, I guess it really is different in France or my few of Germany and UK is mistaken.
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@ Kiwi,
Italians in France, not a huge difference at all, I’d agree there, and certainly about the people from the African continent.
The difference I saw in perception came from the continental Germanic countries, especially if those Italians in question were from the South of Italy, rather than the North.
When you say “Southeastern European Muslims were accepted as fellow whites”, which nationalities do you mean? Albanians?
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“I think the Wire isn’t really conscious enough of race to say anything intelligent about it. It’s really about institutional malfunction, as this post correctly points out.”
*************
Sometimes things are conscious even when nothing intelligent is said about it.
For instance most, if not all, of the crimes focused on in that show were street level drug/violent crimes, committed by the local (bottom echelon criminals) thugs who are black.
Even though this showed highlighted some blacks having a direct hand at importing drugs into their own markets/territories, we all – pretty much – know it’s not black people who profit the most from the importation, money laundering and criminalizing of “illegal” street drugs.
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The Wire, while I think it’s one of the most brilliant shows I’ve ever seen for its bravery in tackling the issue of institutional dysfunction which is inherited from one generation to the next to no avail, still, the show actually falls into many common holes that any other cinema/television does when it comes to dealing with African Americans.
It’s interesting that non dysfunctional families are not really showcased in the series, but Jimmy’s more conventional attempts at family is. There are no love scenes between African Americans, Black s*xuality is presented as base, and the Black body is fetishized and animalized from the party scene where African Americans can be seen engaging in hedonistic orgies, to the liberty of having an erect dildo used as a prop which an African American actress can be seen performing oral s*x on in another scene. These are liberties I don’t believe I’ve ever encountered in terms of extreme simulated s*x on TV, and they’re liberties that none of the White characters on the show engage in. White audiences also complained about the excessive gratuitous nudity that the show seemd to be obsessed with portraying for its African American characters. I’m still in shock that they hired a Black actress to suck off a dildo. There’s even a scene where a Black man can be seen performing oral s*x on a White man during a bar scene. It’s ridiculous. We even see Omar p*nis. They didn’t do this with any Black characters. And I noticed they never took the time to show Bunk’s family with him, despite him being a prominent character.
It makes me sad that in order to enjoy the truth being touched on, I also had to watch some of the most dehumanizing representations of people of Black origin that I have ever seen.
I dunno. . . you get used to it, I suppose. Is what it is.
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@ Matari:
Even though this showed highlighted some blacks having a direct hand at importing drugs into their own markets/territories, we all – pretty much – know it’s not black people who profit the most from the importation, money laundering and criminalizing of “illegal” street drugs.
Season 2 revolves entirely around the importation side of things and it’s clear it’s not black people doing it. The show also makes it pretty clear about the role of white people like Levy (the Barksdale lawyer) via Omar’s courtroom quip “I got the shotgun, you got the briefcase.”
It’s interesting that non dysfunctional families are not really showcased in the series, but Jimmy’s more conventional attempts at family is. There are no love scenes between African Americans, Black s*xuality is presented as base,
Most s*x scenes in The Wire involve McNulty and they are almost always trashy, so one could just as easily make the case that white s*xuality is presented as base.
Bunny Colvin and his wife, and Cedric Daniels and his wife (even if they later split up) are examples of conventional black families. In truth very few characters have much of a light shone on their family lives, so it’s a small sample size.
In terms of love scenes, there is Kima and her partner, Omar and his partner, and Stringer and Donette. Omar’s relationships (with maybe three different men over the course of the series) may not be “conventional” but they are presented as tender and affectionate, in comparison to McNulty’s selfish and haphazard approach to relationships.
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Yeah. Like I alluded to weeks ago on the Open Thread, “The Wire” depicts Black life as generally depraved and worthless. That the storytelling of such depravity is well executed and/or gives the supposed depravity of Blackness a more three dimensional rendering does not change the fact that Black people in “The Wire” are depicted as being especially depraved in the first place.
We can forget about the rhetoric concerning classism, as many non-Blacks make little or no difference between impoverished Blacks and solidly middle- or upper middle-class Blacks. You will even find Blacks who resent class distinctions amongst Blacks, and pretend that they do not / should not matter since middle- to upper middle-class Black have historically lived amongst their more improverished brethren anyway.
As a life-long Black person “The Wire” does not speak to my experience or to the experience of any Black person of whom I am personally acquainted. However, that there most definitely exist Blacks who live such debased lives is no more of a reason for their showcasing over the similarly debased lifestyles of generic, so-called “whites”, Asian Americans and Latino / Hispanic Americans. Where are the near 3D renderings of their stories of depravity pray tell? And please, if someone does manage to come up with a show of the magnitude of an HBO / Showtime series, let’s make certain that race /ethnicity is highlighted as being just as much part and parcel of these other peoples’ stories in the same way “The Wire” has done for Black folk.
The Wire was little more than an horrific and disgusting assualt to Black Americans as a group as far as I am concerned. I do not care how “well written” it supposedly is (…a Black woman at party sucking on a dildo?! C’mon now! Whoever thought that up needs to put down the crystal meth, as Blacks in general are actually much more conservative than racists might imagine).
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It’s interesting you should say that, as Breaking bad dealt with crystal meth, a drug that is associated with working class Whites, but guess what? Almost all the villain drug dealers were. . .. Hispanic or Afro Hispanic!
I grew up in a pretty rough neighbourhood where I did see the cyclical nature of failure from institutional dysfunction a lot, (though not the level of depravity shown on the show), so the seasons with the kids and showing how normal human beings fall to the only economy they can find really touched me. They’re human stories we don’t hear, we’re just told they’re the unwanted because they’re outcasts, not how they got that way. I’ve never seen any show or movie display the humanity shown with the kids towards the end, it made films like Menace to society look like a mockery.
I’ve got the boxset so I watched it all the way through.
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@Eurasian
I’m not one for debating with Abagond’s resident “not really” posters, so I’ll agree to disagree here.
Bunny and his wife are not shown until towards the end, and I’m not talking about lusty one night stands when I said base, I’m talking about the orgies, the 0ral s*x between crackheads and dealers on the street. The show spends a great deal of time with Jimmy tackling attempts at family life in contrast to a never ending stream of the base displays of Black s*xuality on the show. I found it interesting that there were not love scenes between characters like Bunny or Bunk and his wife to balance out the extreme gratuitous s*x scenes depicted of African Americans.
It’s not something I’ll debate on, but I noticed it early on and as I said, many White viewers also complained about the shows consistent use of nudity and base s*xual encounters between AA. I think it’s telling that they never went as far as to show a White actress performing 0ral s*x on an erect dildo throughout the show.
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I would have to disagree with the notion that the show didn’t explore institutional
racism. In the very 1st episode McNultys superior Rawls scolds him for interfering with the case against the Barksdales by plainly stating “why is the Deputy ops complaining to me about some project ni**er i never even heard of?” In one scene he shows he would rather have an easy day at the office than do actual work, his career being of the only importance to him & not wanting to deal with criminals who he thinks are beneath him simply because of their race. This is someone with legal, political & intangible power in charge of decisions that a mostly black police force will execute in a mostly black city & yet their very existence disgusts him. In other words, institutional racism.
The Wire displayed it well, they just weren’t heavy handed about it. They simply laid out the facts without much exposition. The failed cop turned teacher who had hopes of truly helping kids only to find out that the schools were more interested in high test scores than actual teaching. The children who received said education going on to become drug dealers, stick up kids, junkies, scholars, i.e. the young versions of the well established characters who we came to know in the first 4 seasons. The dock workers who struck deals
with Euro gangsters to bring the drugs into the country & not a single black face involved in said transaction yet blacks always being the sole group victimized & blamed for the drug trade. All these things showed you the problem are not blacks alone, the difference was they didn’t say it, they just DID it.
Up until this point the only mainstream entertainment we’ve had that claims to deal with race issues have been unrealistic & heavy handed nonsense like the film Crash. I’m sure that as a white man, David Simon has his own personal blinders on which made the translation to screen somewhat rough.The real answer to this problem is to ultimately have stories & networks created &
owned by blacks where we tell our own stories so that roughness can be smoothed out with our authenticity.
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Reblogged this on Mbeti's Blog.
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Abagond I’m from Baltimore. The city this show was filmed in. Full of stereotypes. Shows like this
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I don’t know about that. Given your metric for dysfunctional families, McNulty’s family was just as dysfunctional: a philandering, alcoholic ex-husband, an exasperated ex-wife and two kids trapped in the middle of life after divorce (but at least with semi-amicable custody arrangements). His attempts to patch things up were akin to him finding the front door keyhole while skunk drunk. Sure, he tried to “start over” with Beadie Russell, but the show hints at him messing that up, too.
Most of the other relationships on the show were more or less “troubled”: Kima and her partner had an unconventional but loving relationship that was further complicated with a child. Cedric and his wife had a troubled separation, but it was never dysfunctional. Bunny Colvin and his wife were shown as a loving couple in spite of his attempts at helping the community backfiring on him. Despite being just as much of a philandering drunk as McNulty (but less of a terminal screwup), Bunk Moreland was shown as a loving father to his son – but not much else is known his family life.
If anything, Pryzbylewski was the only one who had anything approaching a “normal” relationship.
The only truly dysfunctional families (that were showcased in depth) are those of Dukie (an entire “family” of drug addicts), Michael (drug-addicted mother and pedophilac step-father) and Namond (with a selfish mother pushing him into a life that got his father locked up for life). To say that the show solely showcased dysfunctional black families is a bit of a misnomer.
Which is what I was trying to get at with my last post. But now that Corporate America’s made clear it would co-opt any effort to create major networks that do just that, the black community might just have to start grassroots efforts at the ground level, using unconventional means to showcase its stories.
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I’m talking about season 2’s displays of White people in comparison to the stream of scenes like Black orgies, extreme depictions of simulated s#x between AA, and scenes depicting a woman on the street blowing a dealer for crack, or the episode involving the case of a Black man having s#x with the body of a dead Black woman. The extreme depravity depicted of AA in comparison to cheating White people cannot be compared in my opinion. We’ll just have to agree to disagree.
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??!! I hear this far too often about The Wire: The same tired complaints that it perpetuates racial stereotypes, makes Baltimore look bad, fails to address institutional racism, etc. Clearly, you would have to be not paying much attention at all, and / or not watching past the first 2 or 3 episodes, or both, to come to such a conclusion. Or suffering from a particularly American form of ADD. So disappointing!
First off, The Wire is not about wholesome middle class AA life in PG or Baltimore County or NWDC. If it were, I’m sure the sex scenes would’ve been more pedestrian, but it’s more focused on how a disparate array of human beings navigate the terrifying landscape of perhaps America’s most broken, corrupt, and backward city. Despite having a few “swanky” areas, it really is the shattered corpse of a forgotten city. I live in Baltimore & constantly explore it, so don’t try to front like it’s a functional city, please.
Baltimore is a vast majority AA city, with a small & mostly white minority hoarding all the money & resources, while the rest of the population enjoys 3rd World style poverty & marginalization. This is not a new revelation. Wherever poverty is most extreme, the more so-called crime & depravity you will see in the streets, while those with status & power are able to hide their atrocities behind closed doors & carry on with total impunity. I think this was more than adequately conveyed on The Wire (if you were paying any attention at all).
Also, like no other series I’m aware of, it does in fact portray folks in the ghetto largely as great people who are forced by a broken society to survive by any means at their disposal. Yes, there are some straight-up evil characters, but most of them are white cops or white politicians or white mafia sleazebags. In fact, nearly all of the most heroic characters on the show are AA cops, teachers, community activists, children, etc.
Nit-picking & grasping at academic straws to find racism in every little thing is counterproductive. While you were doing that, I’m sure some legitimate racism found its way into your reality without you even knowing it.
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Please skip the attitude because as far as I know, this is a blog where people are free to bring their own points of view to the table, some of which may be contrary to yours since we’re not a monolith.
Secondly, I was the one who recommended The Wire to Abagond in high praise of it as a groundbreaking partly non fiction piece of cinematic achievement, and labelled it one of the best shows of all time.
Lastly, my complaint was not just out of some fairytale desire to see it stray from dark reality to romantic comedy territory when tackling s-xuality, it’s about an example such as, the shows extremely depraved depictions of s-xuality from its Black characters even compared with its poor White working class criminal characters in season 2. The simulated s-x going to new extremes and the full frontal nudity was brought to an extreme that even caused White audiences to question whether or not the show was treating the Black body like brute, fetishized meat. The Sopranos was graphic in its display of encounters between the mob characters and the strippers/prostitutes, but not even The Sopranos went as far as to show a woman on her knees simulating a bl0w job with an wearing an erect dildo.
If you don’t agree with someone’s views there’s nothing wrong with that, but to get insulting is completely unnecessary and childish. Please don’t waste your time engaging with my points if you’re unable to do that as an adult because it’s a sign you’re obviously not able to converse in an adult conversation at all.
Ridiculous!
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@Ebonymonroe
I should clarify that my rant was actually not directed at you at all (it just happened to fall right below your last comment), but rather at the numerous people hurling blind accusations at the producers of The Wire, as if it was nothing more than another insidious attempt by Hollywood to portray AA’s as savage, oversexed, criminally-inclined brutes. My intent was not to insult anyone, but rather to point out that The Wire, however imperfectly, shed some much-needed light on a dire situation & that it shatters alot of monolithic racial stereotypes like no other program has done before, and that institutional racism is vividly portrayed all throughout. AA’s ultimately come across as an incredibly diverse array of people, many of whom show a great deal of courage, intelligence, integrity, vision, and character despite the odds being stacked so heavily against them (including many of the ‘corner boys’). It seems that anyone who was paying attention could have at least gathered that much from it. The notion that Mr. Simon & Co were assembling all these esoteric forms of racism into a confusing piece of racist propaganda (this would be the ‘nit-picking’ I was referring to) seems really absurd to me. That’s all I was trying to say.
There are many valid criticisms one can bring forth, such as yours concerning the sex scenes which, while I don’t fully agree, seems perfectly reasonable & intelligent. So let me reiterate that I was in no way attacking you…I was simply responding in frustration to some of the other comments above.
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@ Ebony
I honestly don’t remember the oral sex scene from S2 because that may have been my least favorite. What I do remember generally speaking was that the animalistic & trashy sex scenes were almost always performed by the criminals, The girl who died in S1 who they had sex with & threw her body away was done by a criminal, it would in the context of the show make sense to have the villain do well, villainous things.
As has been pointed out before, almost all of McNultys sex scenes were trashy as can be, he even had sex with a prostitute during a raid in S2 remember? You’re correct in that it still wasn’t as debased as the sex scenes w/ the criminals but as I pointed out the goal was to portray them in a negative light since they were the bad guys. I don’t think the issue is so much what was portrayed as what whites & non blacks think of blacks seeing such a display. Upon hearing that this show was “so authentic” of a portrayal of inner-city life scenes like the ones you’re referring to would confirm the stereotypes of blacks they already possess. But if they as individuals already possess these beliefs before viewing, then isn’t that half the problem itself?
I think point of view is everything. As someone that didn’t grow up in the nicest neighborhood, many things on the street side were authentic and confirmed what I saw growing up. I didn’t look at the dope fiends trading sexual favors for drugs as a shot taken at blacks, I thought it was meant to show how harsh addiction is & what it would compel someone to do.to appease it. Though I’ve never sold a drug in my life, from what I’ve been told an addict trading sex for drugs is relatively common.
Also take note that the drug dealers & street characters come and go throughout all 5 seasons by way of death, being locked up or pushed out of the game and leaving the city out of fear of the first 2 repercussions. By contrast, all the police & law characters who are mostly black stay along with us consistently from their point of introduction until the end of the series. That actually gives far more character development to the good guys than bad. The corrupt, racist or lying police and law characters (Rawls, Valchek, McNulty in S5) by contrast are mostly white. The only dirty black character on the side of the law I can remember was Burrell.
And though they didn’t show their family lives as much, the show is still a police procedural with the age old “cops vs criminals” at its core even if it gave you more nuance than a show of this nature typically would. No matter how often family is shown for either race this is still the core conflict & where we as the viewers were meant to spend the most time. I agree the show isn’t perfect but it never came across as this problematic to me.
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I haven’t read the posts after my last one yet, but I had to rush back to my computer after thinking over mine. I sounded terribly harsh and didn’t mean to come off that way, I was being a defensive big baby. My deepest apologies. Totally uncalled for. Been meaning to get to my computer to say that all evening. Sorry again.
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@A
The simulated 0ral s-x using a dildo scene was between a rich African American politician and his African American secretary, not drug dealers. Season 2 dealt with the White working class.
It may be that because I’m a Black woman, not a man, I am more sensitive to how far things were taken with the Black female body in comparison to s-x scenes with White female characters, and the fact that there were no love scenes of what I consider to be a non sensationalist perspective. (Eg. Jimmy and his ex wife).
I did not see Jimmy’s pen!s no matter how much s-x he had, but I did see Omar’s. I also feel scenes depicting Black gays and lesbian s-xuality seemed to be somewhat fetishized and exploitative. The show just so happened to always avoid going to the extremes it did in the area of nudity and simulation it did with its White characters in comparison to its Black characters. It happened far too frequently and the difference was so pronounced at a certain point that it could no longer be classed as coincidence.
One of the creators of The Wire (his name escapes me at this time), is featured in a documentary on the war on drugs titled “The House I Live In.” Despite the documentary’s revelation that drug use and its distribution has always been equal among all communities, but over 90% of convicts are Black, and this creator’s stated opinion that it has nothing to do with race, but rather class, is an indicator that although the show’s creators were wonderful in their intentions and almost triumphed flawlessly, that doesn’t mean they’re above not being able to see beyond the usual fog and distance that they have ultimately as White middle class Americans, which is quite understandable, and almost goes without saying.
It’s the nuances in a few aspects of the show that showcases the distance for me, one of which I pointed out. The shows depiction of the Black body and Black s-xuality as something violent, brutish, hedonistic, overs-xed, and an object of curiosity for its viewers to behold; this was not confined to one gender of the Black community in my opinion however, far from it.
I believe these are the nuances Abagond is touching on.
Ultimately we’ll all always have different perspectives, it’s only natural. I was just engaging with the topic of the post on one of the most brilliant shows I’ve ever seen, but also being honest by bringing to the table my grievances with it.
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^^^
*the fact that there were no love scenes from
*at a certain point
*this creators’
*the shows’ creators
It’s late in the UK, too late to proof read.
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Boring middle class blacks? I’m sorry, if you find Kima and Bunk boring, then your life must be that of Black Panther from Marvel Comics. The whole off Season 4 and 5 is basically a testament to Lester Fraemon’s awesome skill as a detective (ex: Season 4 episode “Soft Eyes”), without whom,mostof the caseswould have been cold.Also doesn’t Lester count as a “black saviour” for taking in the go-go dancer?
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I would have been happy had they shown Lester and the ex go go dancer a little more throughout the show to show a little more normality in Black family life.
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But wouldn’t that go against what the show set out to accomplish, ie; highlight the way unfettered capitalism corrupts and destroys social institutions? David Simon sees unfettered capitalism instead of racism. You have a problem with that , make your own show. You and Abagond say that the show should have shown/focused more “normal Black families.” Why? If any of us want to see normal Black families, all we need do is go outside. No one watches TV shows to see normal. Normal, especially in an ensemble cast, is boring. Can you imagine the “The Fresh Prince of Belair” without the Fresh Prince?
Yes the Prison-Industrial Complex, rampant police racism, segregated housing, the impact of charter schools on poorer school districts are all issues that need to be taken seriously via great works of cable drama. The problem is, Th eWire is not that show. And you cannot blame the The Wire for not being that show, because it never promised to be that show. What it set out to do, it did well. It showed:
– the importance of Father Figures in young boys lives, and how they can help to break the a vicious cycle – or reinforce it (Chris for Michael, Bunny for Namond, The Sergeant for that young guy whose black foster Mom got burnt out, the hobo for that last young man, and in a way, Lester for Shardeen ),
– the impact of addiction on a family (notice the drunkeness pattern after McNulty gets clean?),
– the fluid, liquid nature of unfettered capitalism (The Greek personifies this this, through his willingness to give up his name – something even Wee-Bey and Marlo would never do.) etc. You want a show that deals with issues highlighted on your blog, well…..
There seems to be a need to portray Black people as being decent , civilized and humane, to the very white people who for various reasons portray us otherwise. And if we are not depicted as jolly, decent middle class people, with internal struggles, then we get upset. But why? Who are these stereotypes affecting? Do black people see Wee-Bey and Omar and say, “Yeah, that’s me !” Do white people look at Bunk Moreland, or Lester Freamon and then say, “Wow, those characters are boring, just like my black co-workers!” I think not.
It seems to me that the real issue with a lot of these blog posts have to do with how middle class black wish to be perceived by whites. Black people who watch the show will see something different from what white people see. Thus, the main source of anger does not seem to be that black people will be negatively affected by stereotypes, but that white people will be. I mean most of these posts boil down to “you see what the white people think of us – they don’t respect us wah!!” and who really cares ? They’re not going to give us any reparations, so it doesn’t matter.
The lessons that The Wire has, should not be ignored, just because some white people will ignore the one of the basic lessons of the show – that any attempt to change powerful institutions is hubris (Carcetti,et al ), and that the family is the only institution that matters, biological or otherwise (Cutty, Bunny etc.). And then maybe we can make, or better yet, find out why shows like Moesha, Thea, Roc, New York Undercover, Living Single and South Central aren’t made anymore.
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I’m watching The Shield which I find thematically roughly comparable to The Wire. That show has not that many characters and a larger portion is white, but race is discussed more often. How do you think that show compares?
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So I finally had time to sit and watch The wire. I really forgot how good this show was. Also had to get in my Pulp Fiction.
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User name got put in incorrectly.
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I usually don’t ask for spoilers, but please tell me that stringer gets caught for his part in the murder of D’angelo. Please tell me Avon finds out.
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Now with this conflict in Baltimore this show is getting talked about. I will have to put it in my Netflix cue.
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It is interesting that they were able to “years of research” and miss the level of abuses that a Federal investigation was able to notice in a few weeks.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MokHqgQS8Zo)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HyKlFUMBiA)
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I started watching the series earlier this year and I’m now partway through season 3 (so I haven’t Abagond’s your S4 & S5 posts yet).
I can appreciate how it’s problematic when it comes to racial stereotypes. The show seems to play to stereotypes of corrupt cops, dockworkers, politicians, as well, but those are maybe perceived more as “edgy” than problematic… I don’t know. I see the entire show as a tragedy. There are no “good guys” and “bad guys” at all. That may be the only truly realistic thing about the show…Every character is relatable in some ways while simultaneously being offensive in others. Aren’t we all like that? It’s not the usual “escapist” TV that whisks you away to a world of good vs evil where good always prevails because in The Wire, no matter how things change, they always stay the same and no matter who “wins” it counts as a tie.
“I got the shotgun, you got the briefcase.” – Omar Little
Hands down, my favorite character on the show right there.
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