You want it to be one way, but it's the other way: How David Simon's The Wire Maintains African American Stereotypes

The Wire is widely considered to be the blueprint of a post-racial TV show. It features more Black characters than any other US TV show has ever done before. African Americans are depicted in all possible positions of social and professional hierarchies. However, the show maintains some of the stereotypical depictions of African Americans that have been prevalent throughout the history of film and television as well as the history of the US. With a close look on the history of Black representation in the United States and the stereotypes used in 20th century film and television, Eike Rüdebusch analyzes The Wire with regard to social as well as media stereotypes of African Americans. Thereby he shows the changes in African American representation on The Wire, but also that The Wire is not deserving of such idealistic post-race praises.

Autorentext

Eike Rüdebusch, born 1985 in Germany, has a master's degree in American Studies and practical Literary and Media Studies as well as a bachelor's degree in Literary, Cultural, and Media Studies. He studied at the Universities of Duisburg-Essen and Siegen in Germany, as well as at Arizona State University in the United States. Early on in his academic endeavors, Eike Rüdebusch started focusing on African American culture, its history and politics. Already with his bachelor thesis on the influence of Barack Obama's first presidential campaign on political Rap, he underlined his interest in showing the interdependency of culture and its surrounding political conditions

Leseprobe
Text Sample:
Chapter 1. Introduction:
The Wire, David Simon's and Ed Burns' HBO show about the war on drugs in Baltimore and the de-industrialized American economy, has been praised by critics, au thors and scholars. It was called the "best show since the invention of radio" (Brooker as quoted by Toscano) and compared to 19th century classical literature of Balzac, Dickens and others. Even Barack Obama named the show to be his favorite.
The Wire was broadcast between 2002 and 2008 and thus is part of the cultural representation of the years before Obama became the first African American president of the United States of America. That might seem to be just a chronological fact on the side line, but can be considered quite important instead. That is, because media mirrors a soci ety's development and its recent state of mind. With Obama in office, it might seem that America has had a significant change of mind in terms of its conduct toward African Americans. The Wire was widely praised to be a multicultural show, if not even a post-ethnic show, that avoided all forms of negative, stereotypical depictions of Blacks and in cluded Blacks in numbers never seen before on TV.
Text Sample:
Chapter 1. Introduction:
The Wire, David Simon's and Ed Burns' HBO show about the war on drugs in Baltimore and the de-industrialized American economy, has been praised by critics, authors and scholars. It was called the "best show since the invention of radio" (Brooker as quoted by Toscano) and compared to 19th century classical literature of Balzac, Dickens and others. Even Barack Obama named the show to be his favorite.
The Wire was broadcast between 2002 and 2008 and thus is part of the cultural representation of the years before Obama became the first African American president of the United States of America. That might seem to be just a chronological fact on the sideline, but can be considered quite important instead. That is, because media mirrors a society's development and its recent state of mind. With Obama in office, it might seem that America has had a significant change of mind in terms of its conduct toward African Americans. The Wire was widely praised to be a multicultural show, if not even a post-ethnic show, that avoided all forms of negative, stereotypical depictions of Blacks and included Blacks in numbers never seen before on TV.
Until today, the representation of Blacks in the media is something academics and journalists, political activists and authors write and discuss about. It is stained by the American past of slavery and segregation. Certain stereotypes and prejudices about Blacks have endured time and can be found in American society, among all races and all classes. However, The Wire with its huge number of Black characters along with their quality and depth, is seen as an exception from the usual TV program. The show was praised for its politics of representation, for putting Black characters in a drama, for including them in all depicted classes, all levels of hierarchies - Blacks are part of the street, the law, politics, the harbor, the media (Buehler 55) - and for the sheer range of Black roles that was said to make stereotyping nearly impossible (Morsch 216).
[The Wire] might be considered essentially as a black series; the bulk of its cast is black, drawing on scores not only of underemployed black actors but also on local nonprofessionals, as well; just as Baltimore itself is a predominantly black city. But as has been observed of its predecessor series, Homicide: Life on the Streets (1993 - 99), this very preponderance means that you see so many different types of black people (social, professional, even physical) as to utterly dissolve the category. Here there is no longer any such thing as "black" people any longer, and by the same token no such thing as black political or social solidarity. These former "black people" are now in the police; they can be criminals or prison inmates, educators, mayor