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 In Media Studies University of Regina By Mazin Bashir Saffou Regina, Saskatchewan July 2014 Copyright 2014: Mazin Saffou 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 i 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-American inner city youth drug culture, a possible departure point for further research. iii Acknowledgements I would like to express my special appreciation and thanks to my advisor Dr. Christine Ramsay, you have been a tremendous mentor for me. I would like to thank you for encouraging my research and for allowing me to grow as a scholar. Your advice on research, writing, as well as on my career has been invaluable. I would also like to thank my committee members, Dr. Michael Trussler, and Dr. Sheila Petty, for serving as my committee members, and for your brilliant suggestions and ideas. Thank you. I would especially like to thank all of the faculty and staff at the University of Regina who have guided me in my Graduate program, with special mention to Dr. Sheila Petty and Dr. Philippe Mather for providing me with the opportunity to publish, and share my writing. In particular, I would like to thank the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research for the Graduate Studies Scholarship, and a Graduate Teaching Assistantship, Sheila Petty and Vaughn Borden for the Sheila Petty and Vaughn Borden Graduate Student Scholarship in Media Studies and the Government of Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Advanced Education for a Saskatchewan Innovation and Opportunity Graduate Scholarship. Your support has been vital in facilitating my research. A special thanks to my family for your love and encouragement. I would also like to thank my friends who supported me in writing, and have inspired me towards my goals. Thanks to all of you. iv Table of Contents Abstract.................................................................................................................................i Acknowledgments..............................................................................................................iii Table of Contents..............................................................................................................................iv CHAPTER ONE: Introduction: The Wire and the American Dream...................................................1 The American Dream..............................................................................................7 Race and Criminality in The Wire.........................................................................12 Theory: Neo-Marxism and Ideology Critique.......................................................18 CHAPTER TWO: Stringer Bell and the American Dream: CEO of Baltimore’s Streets.....................................................................................................................29 CHAPTER THREE: Hamsterdam: Legalizing Drugs and the Utopia/Dystopia Dialectic.................................................................................................................42 CHAPTER FOUR: “We Got Our Thing, But it’s Just Part of the Big Thing”: Higher Learning and The Wire’s Pedagogies for Inner City Youth.....................................................................................................................55 CHAPTER FIVE: Conclusion: “You Want it to be One Way, But it’s the Other Way”: Determinism and Tautologies in The Wire........................................................................................................................75 ENDNOTES.....................................................................................................................89 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................92 1 Chapter 1: The Wire and the American Dream In the last fifteen years there has been a noticeable shift in American television. If one believes that we can understand an era and a culture by the cultural artifacts that it produces, then it is important that we consider the pronounced shifts in American television in the 2000s. Euro-American societies have undergone rapid change in recent decades in which Euro-American culture has become globalized, media saturation and information flow has intensified, and international borders are dissolving. 9/11 proved to be a crucial traumatic moment, not only for the ways in which it impacted American society, but for the ways in which on a global scale, Western nations have become increasingly preoccupied with notions of security, and the “Other” that threatens to infiltrate and invade. The failure of the War in Iraq and the global recession of recent years have intensified antipathy towards dominant power structures. The 2011 near- collapse of Wall Street through financial scandals has had a detrimental effect upon the middle-income and working classes and has made visible the market’s unethical and exploitative practice culminating in a backlash toward what has recently been dubbed the 1%. This crisis has its roots in neoliberal discursive and economic practices, a discourse that The Wire critiques, as well as calling attention to the failure of the American Dream in contemporary American society, particularly for the black underclass1. Because of the ever-widening gap between rich and poor in recent decades the American Dream as a myth in support of “hard work” as a guarantee for financial security and prosperity has become an increasingly contested terrain in American society. The notion that “hard work” will lead to material and spiritual fulfillment has always been contentious in practice, but the fallacy of the American Dream appears to be increasingly more evident. 2 Reminiscent of American social realism like the writing of Upton Sinclair, who portrayed the economic disparity, and social malaise in urban America, The Wire (2002- 2008) shifts our attention away from looking at the individual’s quest for the American Dream, and refocuses our attention on how institutions and social structures shape American society and people’s access to the Dream. The Wire is distinctive and rare in this regard, one of few American televisual texts