Ever since we started taking a look at Davide Simon’s The Corner and then continuing into our study of The Wire there has been an irksome itch at the back of my mind, something I didn’t really have the vocabulary to express (as evidenced by my several failed attempts in class). Our discussion in class last Monday and its focus on “authenticity,” though, helped me to come to a more solidified realization of what I find problematic about Simon and his work. During last week’s discussion, I couldn’t help but be bothered by theidea that in order for The Wire to be successful, Simon had to establish authority through exaggerating the notion that the depictions of Black urban life in Baltimoe were “authentic” either to himself or those which he attempts to represent. It was pointed out in class that, fundamentally, Simon had the ingeniuity and will to successfully pitch a show to HBO that highlights systemic problemacies like no other show preceding it. While there’s no doubt in my mind that Simon deserves repect for this accomplishent, I take issue with the implied notion that Simon stepped up to the plate to humanize the Black urban experience when those who truthfully lived the experience would not. Let us not forget that the systemic oppressions depicted in The Wire and to a degree in The Corner are in fact real. Although Simon’s interviews and demeanor often belie blue collar roots he, in actuality, had a comfortable middle-class upbringing in the ‘burbs. Both his race and his class have given Simon the privledged opportunities which enabled him to eventually create The Wire.
While I agree with Simon’s politics and especially appreciate his more humanized depictions of poor urban communities, it does not excuse the fact that his appropriation of Black/working-class “authenticity” as a means of generating both cultural and real capital benefiting himself. Furthermore, his “authentic” cultural and linguistic representations of Blacks continue the trend of commodifying Blackness for capitalist gain.
I am not dismissing the positive step forward that The Wire‘s more humanizing and nuanced representations provide. However, I also don’t agree that Simon’s positive intentions/end-game justify the means.
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