Shamelessly taken from Tariq Nelson's blog:
An amazing and involved interview of Ishmael Reed by Pakistani-American writer Wajhat Ali. Topics include race and the Clinton dynasty, Obama, Paul Mooney and the Black/Latino pseudo-divide, the economics of misery, Nazi science, Irshad Manji, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Blacks in NASA, Amiri Baraka, Malcolm X, the racist uses of feminism and the scapegoating of Black males, Gloria Steinem, Geraldine Ferraro, medical experimentation on Black people, Dinesh D'Souza, Crash, The Wire, American Gangster and the canons of Western Civilization.
An amazing and involved interview of Ishmael Reed by Pakistani-American writer Wajhat Ali. Topics include race and the Clinton dynasty, Obama, Paul Mooney and the Black/Latino pseudo-divide, the economics of misery, Nazi science, Irshad Manji, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Blacks in NASA, Amiri Baraka, Malcolm X, the racist uses of feminism and the scapegoating of Black males, Gloria Steinem, Geraldine Ferraro, medical experimentation on Black people, Dinesh D'Souza, Crash, The Wire, American Gangster and the canons of Western Civilization.
6 comments:
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Though I'm a fan of The Wire and David Simon, I'm very open to listening to critiques. However, at least in this interview, Ishmael Reed gave no substantive critique other than that David Simon's a white guy who doesn't live in the hood and to be honest, Mr. Reed didn't show any indication that he's actually watched the show he's ripping.
I think he says more than that. According to him the series is cliche, overly negative, it exploits children the actors and is part of a long tradition of white writers profiting off of negative stories about Black people.
Abdul-Halim,
But at the end he says the problem is not that he's white. And if that is the problem, well there's not much Mr. Simon can do about that.
Have you watched the show? Do you think the show is cliche? I'm not sure what is meant by exploiting the children, I'd have to understand more.
As to whether it's overly negative, I think the reality its trying to depict is pretty negative. And anyone who's actually watched could both point out a lot of positive characters as well as point out the fact that it's certainly not just negative about Blacks or kids, it has a negative view about the police, about politicians, about journalists, it has a negative view about institutions in general and it is meant to send an alarm about the state of our urban centers.
Like I said, I'm open to critiques, I actually get a little nervous about liking the show because it's liked by so many people that I began to wonder what it really means to people individually. But Mr. Reed's gonna have to give me a little more to actually believe him. Also, to be fair to him, reading between the lines of his comments, I think his beef with Mr. Simon started over The Corner, which I have not seen. So I really think its possible that Mr. Reed has not watched much of The Wire but just assumes its more of the same. And maybe it is.
But, hey I even liked Crash, so I'm completely hopeless to a sophisticated critic like Mr. Reed.
I've not seen the wire or the corner. I couldn't tell you first-hand if it was cliche. But all I'm saying is that the critiqus are specific enough that I don't think he hates the show just becuase Simon is a white guy who doesn't live in the hood.
I did catch part of an interview with Simon on NPR
I think this might be it...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88039740
And at one point when asked about where he gets the lingo from, he said somewhat glibly that he just made it up.
And in my current job I deal with "rough, inner-city kids" too and I might start to question excessively bleak portrayals of what their lives are like.
I've not seen the wire or the corner. I couldn't tell you first-hand if it was cliche. But all I'm saying is that the critiqus are specific enough that I don't think he hates the show just becuase Simon is a white guy who doesn't live in the hood.
I did catch part of an interview with Simon on NPR
I think this might be it...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88039740
And at one point when asked about where he gets the lingo from, he said somewhat glibly that he just made it up.
In my current job I deal with "rough, inner-city kids" too and I certainly find some limitations and contraints on their lives, but at the same time, I might also resist and question some of the excessively bleak televised portrayals of what their lives are like.
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