Reply #2: Nothing racist about the best ever show on television [View All]

and as to it's accuracy, a distant member in my wife's extended family grew up in that very Baltimore drug scene, got out of it, and is now a drug counselor. He says "The Wire" is totally accurate. We were at a picnic on Federal Hill, and he grabbed me and showed me the new building where Stringer Bell had his condo. I check in with him from time to time, and share our fanatic fandom.

And wasn't the season finale fantastic?

"this show is borderline racist because it doesn't show enough "good" black mothers and that it always has the message that nothing can get solved without the white man."

I think the real message is that nothing gets solved at all. This is a major underlying theme of the show. There is an unending cycle of the police vs. the drug dealers vs. the politicians that never gets resolved, only occasional small victories on both sides.

"The Wire" has more quality roles for black actors than any production ever on television. It is also superb drama. As to the good black mothers, the foster mother of Randy Wagstaff was a saint, but this is poverty central, and many of the children depicted are the product of very broken homes, including Michael's drug-addicted mother.