The Scholarly Wire Realized

Dark Matter 101, an online journal of cultural criticism based in Britain, has released a special Issue about The Wire.

Here is a taste from Ash Sharma's introductory article:

Although racism is endemic to neoliberal governmentality, The Wire recognises that anti-racism is hegemonic now. This is no mere superstructural or ideological rhetoric, but present, if unevenly, in the discourses and practices of institutions and society more generally. If in the analysis of race we examine the representations of the black characters in the series we get very quickly get caught in an undecidable bind: arguably the series shows a diverse and complex range of African-American characters, yet the depictions are reducible racial stereotypes (positive or negative). The limitations with an analysis of the politics of representation is that it remains confined to a struggle over media representation. In this approach, television series are analysed as texts that are politically interpreted in isolation of the matrix of social affect, information and desire. ‘Realism’ and ‘authenticity’ become the only sites for debates over racial meaning and power. The affective dimension of race in the circuits of knowledge and information across the series and audiences; for instance, in the grain of the voices of the Baltimore accents or in the coded communication of the street corners, need analysis.

Ash's work is some pretty heavy lifting for those not versed in cultural studies and the jargon of that tribe, but it's well worth the effort. I appreciated his attempts to move beyond a duality where The Wire is either a racist appropriation of urban black life featuring modern minstrelsy or it's an authentic view of West Baltimore life, told to a part of America that never sets foot there. Instead, as Ash argues, race is located "within the structures of the series" to "understand the racial logics of neoliberalism and contemporary institutions of power and control." His essay and others in the journal constantly ask (after Sudhir Venkatesh's Freakonomics interviews with 'Real Thugs'): "If the gangs were white, what would be different about the show?"

I definitely invite you to check the other articles (one on Bubbbles and intertextual space), post some comments here and there, and keep the conversation going.

Treme Is Coming

David Simon's new miniseries, Treme, has just finished shooting in New Orleans. I can't tell you how excited I am for this show. What could be better than a David Simon produced drama about jazz musicians set in New Orleans? The fact that Wendell "Bunk" Pierce and Clark "Cool Lester Smooth" Peters play leading roles. I'm not sure when it's set to show, but there will definitely be a viewing party at my house and you're invited.

Update: 4/20/09: The Thugz might be watching too.

"Real Thugz" Make a Return!

The Wire is long over, but Sudhir Venkatesh has brought back his sounding board from the streets (as opposed to The Street) to take on the current economic crisis via open letters to Treasury Secretary Geithner. For those that missed it, Venkatesh wrote several great books on his experiences shadowing a drug dealer and gang leader in Chicago's public housing projects. Venkatesh now resides in NYC and has come to know several former members of that city's august underground. He watched the fifth season of The Wire with "The Thugz" as they liked to go by, and reported their reactions in the freakonomics blog. I would often bounce some reactions to these blog posts on my blog.

The first open letter suggests that the problem of the Treasury was not letting the losers lose. Apparently, capitalism is fun because we get to watch economic losers crash and burn in a public forum. By making every bank, good and bad, take TARP money, the treasury broke the first rule of the streets, "losers must die in full view." Maybe a little harsh, but then, so is the streets.

The second open letter is much more interesting. In this letter, the thugz argue that the folks still around now are "the killers" and they are worth keeping around for when the times get good again. Those that are a dime a dozen, have already jumped ship so the bonuses are only going to the most important people to keeping the business afloat.

So this is the Hip Hop Party that Michael Steele keeps trying to reach out to... It's going to be off the hook.

What city is the Economist writing about?

I was excited to see a recent article from The Economist (h/t) on Baltimore. In much of its analysis, The Economist provides a deep look at political, social, and economic forces which shape global society and newsworthy happenings. However, this article makes it seem like Baltimore is enjoying the "New Day" that The Wire joked was coming soon. For readers of Baltimore Crime, the cities streets don't look a whole lot safer (although the 28% Murder reduction is a serious success). While statistics may paint a rosier picture, they didn't dry a Baltimore Circuit Court Judge's tears:

Something is wrong... But one of my favorite movie lines is where Jack Nicholson says, "You can't handle the truth." And I just think in many ways, we are ignoring the truth that's as plain as the noses on our faces.

And so what this case represents to me was -- and I don't doubt that Nakita is an intelligent young woman -- but what it points out to me is the crying need for early intervention. I reviewed the psychological report. I reviewed the court file. I reviewed the report in her prior case. This young and gifted young lady has needed help for a long time and not gotten it.

For a Judge who has seen it all, a case of Middle Schoolers beating a fellow busrider really got to him. While many might think its ludicrous that David Simon chose middle schoolers as the age where kids might turn bad, here's a case where elementary school was the critical age. You can read more about the case from Jean Marbella.

So while the article is correct that Baltimore has improved its policing efforts, clearly many steps need to still happen. It also misrepresents The Wire as presenting a solely negative Baltimore. As anyone who watched the finale knows, Simon loves focusing on Baltimore's beautiful spaces. From the Inner Harbor to the Cylburn Arboretum, plenty of beauty can be found among the "distressed" areas.

Finally, the quote by Sheila Dixon, current mayor of Baltimore sounds ridiculous:

Ms Dixon, the mayor of Baltimore, dismisses this idea. She pins her hopes on development. The ghetto is shrinking. The city's largest private employer, the Johns Hopkins hospital and university, is expanding into the eastern district, bulldozing derelict blocks to build nice homes for biomedical researchers. It will be an economic engine for the area, Ms Dixon says.

As Robert O. Self and Tom Sugrue have written about in their studies of post-WWII deindustrialization (American Babylon and The Origins of the Urban Crisis, respectively), urban poverty cannot be solved by moving it around. The underlying factors behind the poverty- lack of jobs, de-funding of education, de-funding city services are partially a result of the movement of capital to the suburbs, the decline of heavy industrial jobs, and the rise of the service sector. Ultimately, it is not bulldozing and urban "renewal" which improves neighborhood conditions, but an investment in that communities existing structures. Whether this means FHA style loans to improve dwellings (not just for purchasing new homes in the suburbs), investing in quality education, or financing improvements to infrastructure that bring outside investment, simply bulldozing troubled areas and throwing up middle class housing for bio-tech workers will not decrease overall poverty.

I will admit that this is a step in the positive direction for increasing the City's tax base. Between JH increased revenue and middle class researchers moving into the city proper (particularly areas where many abandoned buildings once stood), the City promises to make a pretty penny. Assuming that some of the increased taxes go towards helping the poor who were just forced out of their homes, this could have a net positive effect. But to say "the ghetto is shrinking" does not communicate what is really going on here.

Wire News: RIP Ashley, Savino Stabbed, the Academic Wire

Some may wonder why I continue writing about The Wire even though it ended weeks ago. Well, stuff keeps happening, and I'm pretty sure TVonDVD will extend the show's life by about a decade. Also, I have more to say. So that's that.

In the stuff keeps happening category: My deepest condolences to the family of Ashley Morris. Ashley was one of the fine writers at Got That New Package, he also started SaveTheWire.com, which may have even helped convince HBO to re-up for a fourth and fifth season. His death was all too sudden and surprising, he will certainly be missed. Even David Simon surfaced to give his respects. The man left a wife, three kids, and a New Orleans community which will surely feel his absence. If you feel it's appropriate, I encourage you to donate here.

In other news, Christopher Clanton, aka "Savino", was stabbed at a Baltimore party. While he thankfully seems to be recovering, the problems of Baltimore continue. I do think that introducing so many great Baltimore actors to mainstream film is one of The Wire's more important legacies, but for every Idris Elba or Robert Chew, there is a Christopher Clanton (who did really great work). I think this aspect of the show is best illustrated in a DVD commentary by the "four kids" from Season Four. Instead of commenting on the show, they spend more time discussing "the craft" and lamenting a lack of work for black actors. It's pretty 'meta' and I encourage watching/listening to it.

Finally, Harvard is hosting a symposium on The Wire (hat tip: A Thousand Corners). I think this is just great. I kid that I will eventually write my dissertation on The Wire, but in all seriousness, I think it can support such academic rigor. Certainly in the world of Pop Culture Studies, it's high art compared to Pro Wrestling (no offense to you Hulk-a-Maniacs out there). Though Simon often joked he would end up teaching screen writing at a community college, I think it's interesting that he has ended up at Hahvaad.

Clark Johnson, director of the Wire's bookends (pilot and final episode) and the actor playing Baltimore Sun editor "Gus" has also gotten into the academic game when he appeared at the recent Organization of American Historians conference. He participated in a session entitled "Film, History, and the African American Experience." In the American History world, the OAH is a pretty big deal with thousands visiting. That a history conference featured a show that got off the air a few weeks ago is fairly unprecedented. I'm sure Johnson talked about his work outside of the Wire as well, but nonetheless, very cool.

The Wire has been fairly critical of the academic world. For example, the Season Four portrayal-

"Sociologist: Even though the program didn't make it into all of the schools, this is going to provide a really great study.
Colvin: So a bunch of other people are going to sit around and study your study? ::shakes head::

It's ironic that even the very top of America's educational food chain can't fix and doesn't even understand the bottom. Following Colvin's hamsterdam experiment in season 3, Johns Hopkins denies him a job because he is "too controversial." Simon demonstrates in season four/five that he is one of the show's greatest "teachers" (his education of Carcetti, the sociologist, the corner kids, Carver, and eventually Namond are Colvin's true legacy). Despite his skill, he can't get a job in Baltimore's most famous/best school.

Despite this (pretty well aimed) criticism of the ivory tower, many professors, grad students, and other academics (me, asywak, Ashley Morris, to name a few) have been crazy about the wire. I can think of many history professors, in particular, that really love the show (Steve Reich, Scott Nelson, Eric Rauchway). Sudhir Venkatesh is another academic whose work intersects very closely with the show. For me, this blog is an attempt to promote an academically rigorous view of the show (which, in the tradition of most academic work, reaches almost no one). In 10 years will there be a class on The Wire? I'd say, hell yes! Call it- The Wire as Literary Text. Or maybe, Baltimore's Underclass: A Subaltern Study. If you have any suggestions as to what you'd call an academic class on The Wire, comment away.

Real Thugs 8

In looking at the comments, Sudhir Venkatesh has created a powerful institution in and of itself. Even those who have yet to see a single episode of The Wire can't help but wait for the next freakomics blog entry by the "thugs." Episode eight took it to a new level and his posts are more about the thugs than The Wire. Although I can't say I'm disappointed. Well, a part of me still wants their take on the show, but their own stories are so much better.

In the beginning the posts brought a different view of The Wire. The hustler's view of who was going to play who next (and they were often spot-on). But with the last few posts, Venkatesh subtly shows that The Wire is not merely a TV show. The Game is not a game. It's LIFE for many. In The Wire, success is making it to the top. Winning that Pulitzer, the Governor's office, supplying all of Baltimore with drugs, becoming chief of police. On the streets, success is: "if you woke up and you weren’t in jail and you were breathing." This is according to J.T., Venkatesh's friend in Chicago and a gangleader on whom he based his book Gangleader for a Day.

Venkatesh also addresses how difficult it is to cause any real change in this environment. Sudhir often felt "helpless, uneasy, and looking to do the right thing." Yet one of the other thugs responds to Venkatesh's thoughts: “You want to know what’s hard, Sudhir? Understanding that you just can’t fix [anything] — not always, and not right away. Live with that feeling you got, my brother, ’cause we’re living with it every day. I hope you suffer; it’s good for you.” It's powerful stuff that truly connects the imagery, and the literary symbols, and the plots twists to what The Wire is really about. Life in Baltimore. Life in the American City.

But this is not to merely lay pity at the feet of a drug dealer who isn't making it. The point is that (to bring it back to The Wire), like a Greek tragedy, Dukie could not choose his fate, and neither can some of these dealers who must hustle on the street to survive.

American Gangster

I just watched American Gangster tonight. Very enjoyable movie, great acting, decent directing, good script. I think because of its popularity, it could bring a little extra interest to the Wire after the fact (I do know people who started watching The Wire because they liked American Gangster so much). It is obviously very reminiscent of The Wire, and not just because Idris Elba plays a drug dealer who gets killed. It's the "true" story of a notorious drug kingpin, Frank Lucas and his eventual capture by Richie Roberts. With Lucas as an informant, 75% of the NYC DEA was convicted of a crime related to the case (according to the movie, note to self: do some research on the movies facts because its such a darn good story). Many of the "composite" characters are similar: the dirty cops, the brilliant drug lords, the family connections, and the flashy dealers. The scenes of the city poverty along with the ruthlessness of the drug trade make powerful statements. Indeed, the ability of institutions to crush individuals is also there. Roberts refuses to take dirty money and thus becomes alienated by his department full of dirty cops. Lucas sees his boss, Lumpy, crushed because he never got out from under the thumb of those higher up on the food chain.

Yet, American Gangster is ultimately about two people who bucked their institutions and came out alive. Though Lucas did 15 year in prison, and much of his family also did significant time, the movie portrays his decision to snitch as a good one, downplaying the prison time. Roberts is doing very well at the end as a DA (his first client, Lucas). This is a far cry from Simon's bleak view of Baltimore's end. No individuals seem to have escaped thus far (we'll see at the end). Some have criticized Simon for being so impossibly bleak, arguing that for all of the bad ends his characters meet, in real life there are people who manage to get out. American Gangster shows two examples of such from history. Yet even at the end (the alternate added ending on the DVD version only, I think), the two walk on their old stomping grounds 8th (Frederick Douglas) Ave and 116th St. Instead of drugs being sold on the corner its "$100 dollar shoes" and "cafe lattes." They also meet some of the new generation of street toughs who haven't disappeared from this newly gentrified scene. So one wonders if this new happy capitalist world is that different structurally from the old neighborhood. The movie certainly portrays this as a definite, despite the free turkeys thrown out by the dealers in the old neighborhood.

Of course these two series are both fictionalized (artful) accounts of mostly real events. So we can't really analyze them as real events. Yet one can realize that these are distinctly different times. Lucas comes of age in the Vietnam era, selling the marijuana, heroin, and coke popular at the time. He is incarcerated throughout the 1980s and the crack epidemic of that time. Many have pointed to this period as much worse than those that were before or possibly even after it. Simon also portrays the 70s ghetto as a much warmer and friendlier place in his miniseries "The Corner" (we don't really get any flashbacks in The Wire, although the S5 prequel teaser clips show a more nostalgic time perhaps).

What can we learn from these portrayals of American Ghetto? Well, maybe its not all doom and gloom, maybe it is all about capitalism and being the biggest guy on the totem pole. But for my money, Simon has the more powerful piece. Artistically, and it seems like more attention has been paid to detail. The 1970s was a different time, and maybe it was a time where one had social mobility and could break out of their institutions, but in the 21st century, Baltimore remains Baltimore. A place where the Gods will not save you.

Real Thugs - 6

Real Thugs analyze the latest episode of the Wire and I really look forward to this weekly Freakonomics post. The discussion in this post revolved around morality. It is interesting the way the men project a logic derived from the streets or prison in their analysis of politics. One comments that Carcetti should get Clay Davis in his pocket by letting him off the charges. That the only way to get ahead in politics is through deal making and displays of force on the street, ala Giuliani vs Dinkins. It's a very interesting no-holds-bar approach to politics that is maybe more reminiscient of European politics in the thirties, but nonetheless, they aren't too far off base in that politics these days is all about the image you portray to the public, and the power you hold behind closed doors.

This is not to say they don't value a sense of morality. They recognize and respect that Bunk, Omar, and Gus are the three men who live by a specific code. Even though such a strict code is an impossible goal in real life on the street.

The Wire and History and Real Thugs - Part 5

Sudhir Venkatesh is back with another segment of What Do Real Thugs Think of The Wire - Part 5.

Venkatesh is a Sociologist at Columbia and the author of Gang Leader for a Day, which explores the Chicago drug trade and gang life. It's gotten great reviews and I look forward to reading it. He has also written several other books on the economics of the urban underclass and the ghetto in general. You can read a few articles he has written at his Columbia faculty site.

Another interesting article that I've come across is Joseph Spillane's "The Making of an Underground Market: Drug Selling in Chicago, 1900-1940" in The Journal of Social History Vol. 32, No. 1. (Autumn, 1998), pp. 27-47. Spillane's article is mostly narrative, but it shocks because of the similar terminology and situations as in today's drug war.Interestingly and perhaps true of Baltimore as well (the great grandfather of Bubbles?): "By 1908, the phrase 'as crazy as a West Side dope fiend' had entered the lexicon of city residents" (1). Also in 1908, the Chicago chief of police vocally made a complaint that many a police chief of today's drug war has uttered under their breath: "'we can drive out every occupant of the 22nd street district in forty-eight hours. But do you want us to drive them into the lake as has been suggested? Do you want them driven to the resident districts? What do you want done with them? Isn't it better to keep them corralled in one spot with their names and histories tabulated?'" The parallels with season 3's Hamsterdam are obvious.

The Wire treats history in an interesting fashion. The action itself is certainly in the present without the use of flashbacks, but there is a glorification or nostalgia for the past. A pantheon of drug dealers from the seventies and eighties are often invoked by Prop Joe in Season Three for their ability to make drug-dealing into "just business", without the murder, guns, and games that come with its current incarnation. Of course, the attempt by Stringer to go back to this idealized past ultimately dooms him.

This same theme is played out in Season Two by Frank Sebotka. He felt he was breaking the law for all the right reasons to preserve the stevedore/working class future for his family. Of course, he doesn't save the dying occupation.

Simon has set up a world where institutions obliterate individual agency, but it is also a world constantly becoming worse. A sort of declension theory ("decline of the American Empire"). But Simon seems to tie this decline to more recent phenomena. The war on drugs, the weakening of the working class, the failure of inner city education and resegregation of schools, and mass media's transformation all become fodder for Simon, but as Spillane points out, these same battles have been fought in inner cities for well over 100 years.

For the past 4000 years, every old guy thought "it really used to be better in the good ole days" or.. "simpler" (conversation repeated 38 times daily at Colonial Williamsburg: "boy, they really knew what was important back then" "yep, it was a simpler time"). Often, it ain't quite like you imagine it (conspicuous lack of horse manure and raw sewage in the streets of CW?).

...a few more thoughts on this for a later time.

(1) Spillane, "The Making of an Underground Market: Drug Selling in Chicago, 1900-1940," Jo. of Soc. Hist. Vol. 32, No. 1. (Autumn, 1998), 29.

The Wire

This blog will pretty much be an extension of my obsession for David Simon's "The Wire." I hope to look at the themes it brings up, analyze it on the level of great film, and generally be a sounding board for some of the criticism that is already out on the internet.

My thoughts on the show will come at a later date, but for now enjoy Sudhir Venkatesh's interviews/sessions with actual drug traffickers and what they think about The Wire. Start with The First Episode and move through to the current one.

Here's a quick link to actual Baltimore Crime as well.

That's all for now, but stay tuned as I unleash many more links/info on the "best television show in history."