written by a Baltimorean and a fan of the show:<\/p>\n
The closest the show gets to presenting an autonomous Black solution to Black problems is Cutty\u2019s boxing gym, and the fate of the young people who cycle through there frame the effort largely as a failure.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
more<\/a> (via Loftus<\/a>)\u2013among other things, looks at how Simon\u2019s choice of genre (tragedy of institutions) locked him into a narrative where the important forces work on black communities from the outside.<\/p>\n
I agree w\/Loftus that there\u2019s an unrealistic absence of church in the show, too. I mean yes, it\u2019s there sometimes, but I just finished reading Snoop\u2019s memoir<\/a> and the thing is just soaked in the language of the church and the people of God. Jesus is everywhere in her book even though she herself is not a churchgoer. You don\u2019t see that ubiquity, intensity, and diversity of religious experience on the show. (Which I, like the author of this article, think was a groundbreaking and truly terrific piece of television.) That may make \u201cThe Wire\u201d prescient about the unchurching of the poor<\/a>, but it\u2019s less true to the show\u2019s 1990s context. And less interesting, but you all already know my bias there.
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