David Simon Goes To The

I'm Beginning To Believe That Killer Illiteracy Ought To Rank Near Heart Disease And Cancer As One Of The Leading Causes Of Deathamong Americans. What You Don't Know Can Indeed Hurt You, And So Those Who Can Neither Read Nor Write Lead Miserable Lives, Like Richard Wright's Character, Bigger Thomas, Born Dead With No Past Or Future.

How Does The [new York] Times Treat White Pathology? They Reported An Epidemic Of Heroin Addiction In The Philadelphia Suburbs. Which Included Emergency Admissions And Overdoses; These White People In The Suburbs Were Doing Heroin Like It Was Going Out Of Style. I Counted The Words: The Article Consisted Of 200 Words. "heroin Epidemic" In The Back Section. Out Here In California, The Typical Drug Addict Is A Housewife Or Suburban White Woman.

A Black Boxer's Career Is The Perfect Metaphor For The Career Of A Black Male. Every Day Is Like Being In The Gym, Sparring With Impersonal Opponents As One Faces The Rudeness And Hostility That A Black Male Must Confront In The United States, Where He Is The Object Of Both Fear And Fascination.

American Cultural Institutions Seem So Bent On Preserving The Values Of "western Civilization," The Mythical "whitetown," That Welearn About One Another's Cultures The Same Way We Learn About Sex: In The Streets.

David Simon [the Creator Of The Wire] And I Have A Running Controversy For Years. It All Stems From A Telephone Call I Made To Kpfa [pacifica Radio] When He Was A Guest There In The 90's On Chris Welche's Show. He Was Going Around The Country With A Black Kid From The Ghetto To Promote Something Called The Corner - It Was All About Blacks As Degenerates Selling Drugs, Etc.