David Simon Talk

In David Simon’s talk on February 6, he discussed how his show, The Wire, depicts the “other America” of West Baltimore. Instead of a typical villain and heroic cop show, The Wire forces its viewers to really take a look at what makes these “villains” villains. Simon may come off as overly pessimistic at first, as he said that human being are worth less and less with each day that passes, but I think he is more of a realist who wants to present what it is like to live in the “other America.”
I thought that one of David Simon’s most interesting points in this talk was his description of the people who live in the “other America.” He got his listeners to think about how we, who do not live in that “other America,” may incorrectly think there is an easy solution to the problems in places such as West Baltimore. Anti-drug campaigns, such as the “Just Say No” slogan, do not take into consideration what it is actually like to live in the “other America.” David Simon brought up the interesting point that the drug dealer knows what he has to do everyday. His purpose is to sell drugs and make money. The lonely kid sitting on his front steps is the one who faces the crisis. For him, it is not as simple as “just saying no” because he does not know what his purpose is.
This part of David Simon’s talk reminded me of our many class discussions on barriers and boundaries. We who do not live in the “other America” are shielded from its realities. We do not know what it is like to be the lonely kid on the front step who does not know his place in the world. We are the ones “floating in the pleasure boat upon this river even while others are drowning underneath,” as Tony Hoagland states in his poem “America” in lines 32-33.
The theme of barriers also came up during another part of Simon’s talk. Simon said that as time passes, he would not be surprised if there were more and more gated communities. Eventually, he believes that these gated communities will get farther and farther from the city, and the people who live in these gated communities will comment on how it is a shame that you can not go downtown anymore. David Simon said that soon the “other America” may be completely separate, as the gated communities grow, as they move farther from the city, and as they build their gates higher.
This part of the talk also reminded me of Loyola’s dedication to “The Year of the City,” since in some ways, Loyola is like its own little gated community, separated from the city of Baltimore. The talk was also reminded me of Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities, which said on page 259 that “mingling of people, present because of different purposes, is the only device that keeps the streets safe.” Jacobs also said that the mingling of people is the only way to discourage “fragmented, self-isolated neighborhoods.” If America really does become a place of many separate, gated communities as Simon suggests, the streets of the city will become an even greater source of unrest and violence.
David Simon discussed how we are getting closer to what may be the end of the American empire. America is becoming more and more separated. Simon brought up another good point when he commented that although most Americans say that they want their children to have multi-cultural friends, they actually want this on their own terms, with only 15% of their children’s friend group to be multi-cultural. This way of thinking is only putting up more barriers in America.
The David Simon talk was very interesting because of Simon’s unique viewpoint and his discussion of the people in the “other America.” His point that “separate Americas” do exist only emphasized his comment that human beings are worth less and less every day. The barriers and the gates that we put up only are making America worse and bringing us to the end of the American empire more quickly.