Are Urban Drug Dealers as Supernatural as Vampires and Aliens?

[FrodosPet]

7. 'The Wire': Young Adults See Bits of Their Past

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/10/AR2006121001034.html

When eighth-grader Namond Brice's mom seethingly orders him to "be a man" and run the family's ruthless drug-dealing business, Julian Quander is reminded of an old friend from Silver Spring.

Namond is just a character, one of the west Baltimore middle-schoolers this season on HBO's "The Wire." But like many of the characters on this no-stereotypes-allowed series, which had its season finale last night, Namond is too real. Young people in the Washington area feel they know the show's characters all too well: children who could be saved -- who want to be saved -- from the powerful forces that jettison them onto the wrong path in life.

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Simon has complained about the show's inability to reach a mass audience despite critical acclaim, and he said he fears that is because white viewers turn it off when they see the large emphasis on black characters. The show certainly has hooked many fans, including many white viewers. In online chats, fans call it "the best television ever." But it might say something more personal to young black viewers, judging from the active Web-based "Wire" fan clubs and chat rooms started by African American college students and young professionals.

"Even if an individual hasn't grown up in a low-income environment, they still can find some relation to 'The Wire' and its characters, whether it's the office, school or street," said Abeni Edwards, 20, a student at Hampton University in Hampton, Va. "Especially in the African American community, I think it's a hit because unlike other prime-time shows, 'The Wire' doesn't sugarcoat anything, and sometimes there are no happy endings."

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