In my honest opinion I hated how The Wire ended. I wasn’t expecting any of that to happen. I wanted the bad guys caught and the good guys rewarded. Instead, the good guys are still struggling to get any closer to King and he’s it seems that his tyranny isn’t going to slow down anytime soon. The game is turning innocent boys to deadly soldiers or even worse leaving them for dead or sacrificing them for initiations. The white man that showed me that power isn’t everything and to keep your head up is now making me regret even believing in him in the first place with the decisions he’s making. Snitches really do get stitches and more or less third degree burns. My favorite character never got a break and now has to live with one of the saddest regrets for the rest of his lonely life. Second chances don’t come cheap but they decided to give it to the most questionable character. But other than that I really enjoyed watching The Wire throughout the semester and really enjoyed this class.
The Wire vs. Other Media
The Wire differs from other media in the fact that it showcases race in a raw and uncensored manner. The show succeeds by honestly presenting Baltimore and the characteristics that comprise the city for what they are. The Wire does not ignore the systematic corruption that the city faces. Racial indifference is accounted for as a major player in the city’s problems with violence, poverty and poor education. The Wire serves as a prime example that cruelty, violence, ignorance and dishonesty do not discriminate. For these frowned upon characteristics are not unique to one individual race. The Wire is different than other forms of media because it is not afraid to show the dirt behind the streets, suburbs and office doors of Baltimore.
Alternative forms of media tend to walk on thin ice when trying to portray the truth behind events that transpire without offending anyone or any ethnicity. This inconvenient truth is especially prominent when it comes to events surrounding the subject of race. The media as a general whole tends to ignore the fact of racial indifference. As a result, important topics of controversy are often swept under the rug. Serious issues can be prolonged and even go unresolved due to the fact that race is often avoided by the media.
Bubbles
Bubbles has always had our attention since we first began following season four of The Wire at the start of the semester. Bubble’s character has a certain way of pulling at the heart strings of almost all viewers. Each member of our group seems to be interested in Bubbles for their own individual reasons. Bubbles originally gained our attention as the kindhearted, sincere and at times questionable mystery man that always seemed to present on the streets of Baltimore one way or another. Bubbles has only maintained our interest as we have gotten to know his character more as season four has progressed.
The Wire offers a variety of characters who each strike the interest of viewers in their own individual way. Bubbles is unique in the fact that he thinks of others before himself in most instances. Despite facing his own internal and external struggles, Bubbles is constantly thoughtful and generous with the little he has to offer. Although Bubbles is battling a serious addiction that leaves him homeless and alone, he manages to offer his help to others in need. Take his relationship with Sherrod for instance. Bubbles sacrifices his own earnings by allowing Sherrod to act as his intern. Not only does Bubbles provide the young troubled kid with a means to make money, but he takes him in by allowing him to sleep in his small shelter and even so much as re enrolling Sherrod in school. Bubbles does everything in his power in hopes to help Sherrod out. This ongoing act of selflessness shows that Bubbles truly does have a big heart despite being poorly treated and looked down upon.
Bubble’s undoubted faith in humanity has been especially appealing to our interest in him. He perseveres through trying times and nearly impossibly harsh circumstances and somehow manages to maintain his belief in the good of people. Although he is constantly mistreated, assaulted and abused by members of the community, he treats people fairly and acts out of honesty. It is especially admirable that Bubbles makes the conscious decision to make an honest living when he could easily partake in the drug business. Even though he is an addict himself, he chooses not to contribute to the exploitation of his community. It is with ease that the audience can identify with the pain and struggle Bubbles experiences.
The Wire: Randy Ragstaff
Although there are many characters who display strong personalities in The Wire, one particular character, Randy Ragstaff seemed to grab our groups attention. We live in a world where in todays society, peer pressure has played a huge role in children’s lives where they feel they need to act in a certain behavior to “fit in”. Throughout the show you can tell that Randy’s upbringing— he is a little more different than his peers around him. Although he lives and is surrounded in a neighborhood where it is nothing but violence, drug dealing and gangs, you can tell that he still lives in hope for a better living for himself and his brother. He seems to be the one who is a little more mentally “responsible” (out of his immediate crew), even though he gets into trouble a lot.
Although on the streets, he hangs out with those who put him in bad situations and falls right into it—you look at these young kids nowadays and hope they can determine what is right and wrong for themselves. Randy is known for the one who is “different” and a has a different type of imagination and personality. Although he is trouble and portrays a tough outer appearance, he resembles one of those kids who follows the crowd, knowing he is smarter than his actions.
The saying, “You can’t really understand another person’s experience until you walked a mile in their shoes” is right. None of us grew up in a neighborhood of this extent, which we are all fortunate of this. Randy reminds us of the real life hardships that kids his age go through— and that lifestyle is not by choice. To grow up not having that father figure let alone not ever knowing or meeting your father really pays a toll on young boys growing up in a surrounding where there is nothing but gang related/hustler figures around him. Randy was classified as a happy demeanor, young and once innocent but fell into this flawed system that corrupted his mind.
There has been several blogs and comments from students that have touched based on the hardships of poverty, and gang related upbringing issues which all take a toll on young minds today. We feel as we watch The Wire, where are the mentors? What and who can make a difference in these kids lives so they can be better individuals for not just themselves, but their peers and community. Individuals like Randy, who uses his imagination you can clearly see he is capable of thinking more outside the box rather than just following the crowd. He knows his role in his group, but also you can see that he has a different level of hope as he shows responsibility when caring for his younger brother. He does not want his innocent mind to be corrupted just like his friends, and his very own.
Blog 6
The Serial podcast portrays a different kind of entertainment. It takes the audience in and grabs their attention by creating real life situations and real life decisions. In this episode we feel emotion from Adnan for the first time throughout the series. But not the emotion that Sarah expects to see from him when she states “My interest in it honestly has been you, like you’re a really nice guy. Like I like talking to you, you know, so then it’s kind of like this question of well, what does that mean? You know.” This remark puzzles Adnan because of the situation he is in and his current mindset. He’s been in prison because he was found guilty for murdering his ex-girlfriend. Every time he talks to sarah or talks about the case he gets reminded of what he did or did not do in the past. It’s just like everyone else who has had an embarrassing situation or an unexpected event happen to them in the past. When you bring it up or start talking about it, all the emotions come back with it. So I feel like Adnan is just irritated with Sarah and just wants to talk about the case and that he did not commit the crime. She then tries to understand why Adnan is feeling this way by commenting about how long they have been talking for. “By then, we’d logged at least thirty hours on the phone. I’ve talked to Adnan way more than I’ve talked to a lot of people I think I know. People I consider friends.” But again Adnan just wants to let the world know that he is innocent and did not kill his ex-girlfriend. And any other topic that doesn’t fit into that will just make him angry and confused.
The Danger of a Single Story
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Ted Talk about a single story is very compelling. Adichie explained how when she moved to the United States for college, her roommate had only one single story of Africans. She compared this to the stories she used to read and how people who looked like her can also be a part of a story. What her roommate thought she knew about Africans was encompassing. She asked to hear Adichie’s “tribal music” and she was impressed that she knew English. This demonstration of only knowing a single story is detrimental to the growth of humankind.
People rarely think about how there is more than what meets the eye. In Adichie’s words, “there is more than a single story.” This means that there is more than what we just know about something. This concept highly relates to the young men in The Wire. Namond, Duquan, Michael, and the other young men in The Wire are seen by their teachers as hoodlums and up to no good. It is only Mr. Prezbo and Carver that realizes that these children are not part of a single story. They realize that there is more to these young men then they are given credit for. Yes, they are a product of their environment, however, they do wish for better.
Cells Gone Serial
Sarah Koeing exercises her expert approach to journalism as a means to bring truth to the case surrounding Hae’s murder. As it turns out, Serial accomplishes much more than that. The podcast shed’s light on the undoubted flaws and questionable aspects of our justice system. In doing so, a great deal of attention is raised regarding the ethical standards of Koeing’s work.
Like the rest of her blog, Rabia Chaudry’s, “Let’s Talk About Cells, Baby” aims to prove Adnan’s innocence. Chaudry’s article pokes holes at the so called technology that aided the verdict of the case. The fact that already unreliable technology of cell tower tracking can be further hindered by bad weather is highlighted. Baltimore County was facing harsh weather conditions in and around the time of Hae’s death. An ice storm that resulted in a declared state emergency was not a factor when considering the reliability of cell tower tracking. The reliability of cell tower tracking has been disproved by professionals and experts across the board. The detailed maps and timeline provided by Chaundry validate the suggested faultiness of cell tower tracking. The cell pinning technology selectively supported the foundation of Jay’s testimony. How is it that such questionable and dated technology can determine the fate of one young man?
Stephanie Van Shilt’s, “Is Serial Podcast Problematic?” addresses the lack of ethics in Koeing’s work. To reason with Van Shilt’s idea that Koeing lacks empathy and consideration for the real life traumatic loss of Hae is understandable. However, Koeing maintains her end goal of seeking the truth as to what happened by telling a compelling story. Koeing does not fail to check facts or to seek all angles of the story. The problem does not lay within the Serial podcast itself. There are clearly outlined faults in our justice system as there is the potential for poor ethics in any form of journalism. In the case of Serial, with national attention has come extreme doubts regarding the ethics of a piece that is otherwise doing it’s job by entertaining and investigating.
Persuasion in The Wire
While I can’t find many ways that The Wire is persuasive, I know one way that I am persuaded. That is that I am persuaded to feel something for these kids and to do something about it. I feel the need to help these children find the right path and to show them that there is more to being successful than to being a successful drug dealer. The struggle these kids go through is unreal. They have to do everything on their own and look out for themselves so that they do not get caught up or end up dead. This persuades the audience on how real life has a different side that they are not usually used to. I feel that this persuasiveness is good for viewers because now those who are ignorant to the fact that this actually exists today will see the dark side of growing up in a drug-stricken world.
I also get persuaded by how politics is ran throughout The Wire. There’s so much drama and cheating taking place that I find politics to be very corrupted in a lot of aspects. They use their power to manipulate people into doing bad things to get ahead in the run for mayor. Just like the living conditions for these kids, I feel like this type of persuasiveness is great for the audience to see the other side politics that exist today.
The Wire has introduced many hardships that people actually go through within their families, community and selves. As we continue to watch the everyday battles that the characters go through whether it be because of their color, neighborhood they are from and even who they hang around it persuades you to find a way to want to mentor these kids, youth and even adults. In the classroom also, as the teacher takes on the challenge in working in a “hood” type of environment, I see me putting myself in those situations wondering how I would handle or discipline the students. A lot of the show is based around violence and persuades you to want to help others cope with their problems, decisions and anger away from danger and violence.
Rat Trap
Scientists have discovered that addiction intensifies when the user is in a bad environment and has bad connection skills through scientific research on rats. Using the Wire for example, this shows that it is not necessarily the environment that starts the addiction, but it intensifies the addiction once it is present. First, they did a study where they isolated rats and had normal water and heroin water. The isolated rat’s killed themselves and got addicted to the heroin water. Then they made a rat park and gave the rat’s better living conditions and better food. The results were surprising and none of the rat’s got addicted and none died. They even put isolated heroin addicted rats in the rat park after and found that they stopped going back to the heroin and became normal again. Addiction can be helped through better living and human connection. Instead of shunning them for being addicts they need a second chance to reconnect with people so that they do not have to connect to the needle or drug.
This really is seen in the article “The Rise and Fall of the Official View of Addiction.” In this article Alexander states that rather than improving the official view of addiction, it needs to be changed. I’ve seen addiction in my personal life through my best friend growing up and this article is exactly what I was dealing with internally. My best friend, Weston, was addicted to hard drugs since our junior year in high school. I struggled daily between being mad at him for letting himself get that far and supporting him through a battle. While I wanted to be mad at him, I realized that addiction is a sickness that he didn’t have control of rather than something he wanted to do for the rest of his life
Rat Park Cartoon illustrates Professor Bruce Alexander’s views on human drug addiction by studying rats. He observed testing lab rats and the access they had to injecting themselves. His concern was to relate if rats had access to the drugs just as much as if humans were, where does the line for self control draw? He created a team to study this “rodent paradise” they have created like if it was a surrounding for humans. While testing the rats he concludes with not just how the drugs make you feel, but also the surroundings that influence it. Bruce Alexander also shared that these rats became either dependent on the drugs or decided to not take the drugs but “drug-taking varied with physical mental and social setting”. The connection that was made by these articles that can relate us to the real world is the difference of how people feel in the world we live in. Either we see the world as our “park” or “paradise” where we are free, or we see ourselves trapped in this world like caged rats.
“Imitation of Life”
The “Imitation of Life” most prominently critiques American culture in the 1950’s by portraying the racial divide between African Americans. In the 1950’s, African Americans were considered free people. However, throughout the film, we are presented with characters that have different feelings towards African Americans. For example, we have characters in Lora Meredith, Susie, and Steve who see blacks as equal. Yet, Sarah Jane, her boyfriend, her teacher and the managers of the nightclubs saw blacks in a different light.
Mass Culture in the 50’s introduced diversity and a new transition between people and entertainment. However, the majority of American’s during this time still struggled with the acceptance of racial equality. We see the division of African American acceptance and equality throughout different stages of Sarah Jane’s life. From a young age Sarah Jane struggled with her racial identity and the fact that her mother was an African American woman. We see many examples of acceptance when Susie offers to share a doll and when Lora invites Sarah Jane and Annie to live with them. Some examples of rejection are when Sarah Jane gets beat by her boyfriend for having a black mother and when she gets fired from her job at the nightclub.
“Imitation of Life” offers a variety of perspectives towards the acceptance and equality of African Americans. Sarah Jane’s internal struggle with race is the ultimate critique on 1950’s culture evident throughout “Imitation of Life.” Even as a young girl she was drawn to Lora Meredith as a mother figure and envied Susie’s adolescence. This envy and attraction was due to the fact that both Susie and her mother were white. As Sarah Jane grew older she only resented Annie more and more. She was ashamed of her African American mother and went to extremes in order to avoid being identified as an African American herself. Sarah Jane went as far as lying and eventually running away despite knowing how much it hurt her mother. Sarah Jane’s behavior was all a result of the racial concept and culture of the 1950’s. She longed be accepted and feared for the negative attention that was likely to result from being identified as African American.
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