Stereotypes In The Wire By David Simon

Opening scene police siren in the background streaks of blood crawl across the street, next to a cold lifeless body full of bullet holes. The body was a young African American teenager who had just been shot. The camera pans around the crime scene to reveal a unidentified hand picking up a bullet casing. The camera then turns to a group of African American girls no more than ten years old outside, at god knows what time witnessing I am sure a traumatizing event. After that you here a voice from Officer McNulty asking what was the name of the boy who just got shot. And the answer he received was “Snot” not even his government name but some poorly made up nickname. Demonstrates the stereotype that all black people do is do drugs and get killed. …show more content…
In the Article titled “No, it relies on clichés about blacks and drugs” by Ishmael Reed he states how he thinks The wire should not be played in college level classrooms. How by teaching The Wire it creates a situation of “tough love” for “the black underclass” Ishmael, R. (2010) that spawn some mean and degrading comments about the black population. His reasoning behind it is he that believes it depicts blacks as drug dealers, murders and gangsters. Also it makes you forget about how much of this activity goes down outside the inner-city outside the so called “black ghettos” Ishmael, R. (2010). Ishmael believes that by teaching this is college classrooms it is a sneaky way to fill up seats for a class. And that they are teaching a class about a TV show that does not properly portrays