AMERICAN DREAMS: PORTRAYALS of RACE, CLASS, and 21ST CENTURY CAPITALISM in DAVID SIMON and ED BURNS' the WIRE a Thesis Submitted

AMERICAN DREAMS: PORTRAYALS OF RACE, CLASS, AND 21ST CENTURY CAPITALISM IN DAVID SIMON AND ED BURNS' THE WIRE

A Thesis

Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of

Master of Arts

Media Studies

University of Regina

Mazin Bashir Saffou

Regina, Saskatchewan

July 2014

UNIVERSITY OF REGINA

FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES AND RESEARCH

SUPERVISORY AND EXAMINING COMMITTEE

Mazin Bashire Saffou, candidate for the degree of Master of Arts in Media Studies, has presented a thesis titled, American Dreams: Portrayals of Race, Class, and 21st Century Capitalism in David Simon and Ed Burns’ The Wire, in an oral examination held on June 19, 2014. The following committee members have found the thesis acceptable in form and content, and that the candidate demonstrated satisfactory knowledge of the subject material.

External Examiner: *Dr. Tiffany Potter, University of British Columbia

Supervisor: Dr. Christine Ramsay, Department of Film

Committee Member: Dr. Sheila Petty, Department of Film

Committee Member: Dr. Michael Trussler, Department of English

Chair of Defense: Dr. Kevin Bond, Department of Religious Studies

*via Tele-conference

Abstract

From 2002-2008, the television series, The Wire, realistically conveyed the inner city

problems of Baltimore, with a particular focus on the drug trade and its social and

psychological effects on Baltimore’s black underclass. This dissertation values The Wire

as a major achievement in television, for its sophisticated and intricate approach in

exposing and critiquing systemic problems of inequality, disenfranchisement of the inner

city black community, and bureaucratic dysfunction, and, in doing so, portrays the

American Dream as a fallacy. By utilizing a Marxist ideological critique of late market

capitalism I examine how The Wire positions Baltimore’s underclass in contention with

neoliberal cutthroat market logic. My methodology is discourse analysis: I examine how the series stages this conflict through a series of paired characters or dramatic situations and how the tensions between these characters/situations expose the tensions/contradictions/lies in the American Dream. After setting up my theoretical framework, I focus on the paired relationship between drug traffickers, Stringer Bell, and

Avon Barksdale, and their differing and contradictory philosophies toward the drug trade.

This leads into an assessment of the “War on Drugs”, and how this is critically portrayed in the series, particularly in the context of Season 3’s representation of a Free Zone for illegal narcotics. I analyze the plight of inner city black male youth, and how they are incorporated into the drug trade, and how this is rendered in Season 4, as well as the potentially liberating pedagogical role that the education system might play. Finally, I address criticisms of The Wire that argue that the series is too bleak and deterministic, and in doing so, suggests that neoliberal capitalism cannot be reconfigured, ineffective institutions cannot be reformed, and that positive social change with lasting effects is not possible. My discoveries led me to conclude that The Wire is not deterministic, as it ii

subtly proposes relationships that advocate for community involvement and community interaction as a discourse in opposition to closed, predominantly white, elite, patriarchal systems. The implications of my conclusion have led me to consider and question whether The Wire is a useful pedagogical tool in pragmatically addressing the real-world concerns and ills of African-Ameri