I loved reading this article. I had been wondering throughout the duration of watching the show how much the fact that two white men who had many experiences with black people were capable of writing a show that was dominated by black characters, let alone thugs. It didn’t really bother me to have that knowledge but I definitely questioned the authority with which they wrote about and for drug dealing in West Baltimore.
My favorite points George mentioned was Chris Rock’s “nigga vs. black people” categories. There is certainly a stigma about discussing these “subcultures” within race, and it’s an issue that is part of every racial category. What I find even more interesting is how “thug” subculture appears to be disparaged upon within other racial groups, while the focus on glorification of that lifestyle occurs primarily within Hispanic and Black racial groups. Is this an unfair claim about what gang members (and their portrayals) are like? Considering characters like Stringer Bell and D’Angelo Barksdale, what is The Wire trying to say about what the definition of a thug is?
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