By Cara L. Gallagher, weekend contributor
*Warning! This post has the potential for spoilers.
Show David Simon a hero and he’ll write you a biopic tragedy full of injustices, passive-aggressive slights, and indifference. He’ll also create original characters, like Tommy Carcetti, Bubbles, and McNulty, who will test the needle of your moral compass on an episodic basis. You’ll want try to find the good one, the one who consistently plays it above board, the incorruptible. You’ll find yourself at bars and cocktail parties when the inevitable discovery that all parties present have binged The Wire debating who the least bad character is. But none such character exists in nearly any of his HBO series. I say nearly because I can’t speak for Treme. Like the rest of us, I never made it through the entire series. My hunch is he’s not in New Orleans either.
The latest Simon series, Show Me A Hero, a short six-episode HBO series about housing, race, and politics set in mid-1980’s Yonkers, New York is one of his more hopeful tributes to social justice, but no less delivers on the tragedy.
White citizens of Yonkers protest and riot against a federal court order to enforce desegregation by building two hundred mixed-income and public housing units. Newly elected hero mayor Nick Wasicsko campaigned on the promise to appeal the order, but discovers almost immediately after his election the appeal has been denied and he must enforce the law by building the homes.
Vignettes of women, almost all single, working Latina and African-American mothers, who seek the dream a low-story townhome in Yonkers – a refuge for their children from the violence, gangs, and drug dealing prevalent in the high rises – provide proportionate humanity to the legal and political battles in each episode. Though his character rarely if ever sees the housing issues through the lens of these women, Wasicsko changes his mind, seemingly worn down and physically exhausted by the unrelenting, violent, and venomous housing opponents. Down but not out, Nick becomes a champion for the cause he campaigned against, seeing the construction of the housing development through to the end.
Hope. A weird, unnatural feeling from a Simon series, right? Relax. Simon delivers on the rest of the Fitzgerald quote left off the show’s title–He did in fact write you a tragedy.
This one is chock full of injustices, “codespeak,” and indifference masquerading in 80’s hair, shoulder pads, Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen hits. Gentle warning if you’re watching Hero and sub-40: Don’t be fooled by such tropes. You’re inclination will be to screen-capture the images and stories as events in the past that were extensions of the post-Brown v. Board integration efforts such as white flight and redlining. They continue today in cities and states everywhere.
Emboldening such delusions are cities like my hometown, Chicago, where vestiges of public and mixed income housing have been erased. Cabrini-Green homes, public high-rise buildings constructed in the early 1940s, loomed large over what is now a tony, predominantly white neighborhood. How would you know Chicago, like Yonkers, was the setting of similar housing disputes when a Target now stands in the old Cabrini lot? You wouldn’t. That was intentional, according to David Simon in an interview with Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Julian Castro. According to Simon, “Federal, state and local governments spent their resources, spent our resources to build a segregated society. We didn’t arrive at a Yonkers that magically self-segregated without a plan. We planned this society. We spent our money, our treasure, our tax dollars to achieve this over the course of decades. We spent it to create public housing when it was white folks who were the beneficiaries during the Depression, or the redlining that happened under the FHA, which was a New Deal program, or the great mainstream use of public housing to help veterans coming back from World War II. It was all a program that had widespread support — until people of color became the beneficiaries.”
SCOTUS reporters tried to write this into the mainstream political narrative during coverage of the surprising 5-4 decision in Texas Housing case from last term. It had the unfortunate timing of coming down the same day as the Obamacare decision (King v. Burwell) and the day before the same-sex marriage decision (Obergefell v. Hodges), thus it ended up lost in the frenzy.
A group called the Inclusive Communities Project (ICP) challenged Texas’ Department of Housing and Community Affairs for giving too many tax credits to housing in predominantly black neighborhoods. The credits were repeatedly awarded to housing developments in predominantly black, low-income neighborhoods which had the effects of keeping black neighborhoods black and white neighborhoods white. When money stays in the same neighborhoods it does nothing to integrate them, especially those segregated for decades. Think about the long term effects of a lack of housing mobility. It doesn’t simply limit geographic options, it impacts what schools children attend, the quality of their education, health (more food “deserts,” less quality grocery options), safety, access to transportation, job opportunities, and life expectancy.
These effects may not arouse your interests like a binge-watchable David Simon series does, but they are real and no less tragic today, in 2015, as they were in the 1980’s.
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.
I predict that he will made a decision based on the Pope’s comments and blessings and that he will officially enter the race. I think he will do it in the afternoon so as to fully capitalize on the Pope’s visit and popularity of the visit. I would be surprised if this does not happen tomorrow.
Paul: An “Uncle Tom” is now an “Uncle Clarence”/
But off topic. Biden met with the Pope at the airport as the Pope flew out. I believe that Biden will say a prayer in the morning and call a Press Conference. He will bow in or bow out of the Presidential race and he will have the Pope’s blessing. Great way to start the day.
If Biden gets in the race, Obama will loose the dogs on Hillary.
Steg, Of course, both you and Douglass are “RAAACIST!!” I’m reminded of the scariest words uttered in the US, “We’re from the government and we’re here to help.”
Nick – today I think Douglass is considered an Uncle Tom
Annie- in regards to your pasted text at 4:57- specifically the bold portion at the end- I offer this sentiment from Frederick Douglass:
“What shall we do with the Negro?” I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with
us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are wormeaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! I am not for tying or fastening them on the tree in any way, except by nature’s plan, and if they will not stay there, let them fall. And if the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone!”
Apply that to all persons, and that is what the government can do to help.
The director of Show Me a Hero is Paul Haggis. He made a pretty good flick, Crash. But, this series fell short. HBO is horribly liberal and the series had to reflect that agenda. As I think about it, HAVING WATCHED THE SERIES, maybe the HBO suits had undue influence. Both Simon and Haggis have shown from their work in the past that they can show balance and nuance. This series was more liberal heavy handed, so obviously MSM critics, loved it.
Haggis was featured in the HBO doc, Going Clear. He was a card carrying Scientologist for over 2 decades .I was impressed w/ his candor in being so stupid for so long. I love his Canadian accent.
Where is “Social Engineering” in the Preamble, Constitution and Bill of Rights?
Where was “Social Engineering” in practice in 1789?
The writings of the Founders and the Preamble, Constitution and Bill of Rights must be the most hated documents in America because freedom, free enterprise and the right to private property preclude the entire welfare state, social engineering, central planning and control of the means of production, providing the individual with dominion over the state.
As a rabid extreme collectivist, you may enjoy penalizing motivated, capable and successful people with confiscatory taxation; you may like taking private property from one man to give private property to another, but you can’t do it under the founding documents. When private property goes to the government, it becomes public property. That is a violation of the right to private property. Taxation is for usual and customary governmental operations, including security and infrastructure, not redistribution of wealth, which is the function of the private charity industry.
The question is why has the Supreme Court “interpreted” the founding documents out of existence with impunity?
What price treason?
The lesson of Ferguson should be that you do not need a Pruitt Igoe “project” to create enough Michael Browns to ruin a neighborhood. Canfield street had Section 8 buildings and enough to give Michael Brown the authority to walk down the center of the street like a thug. This is just after his strong arm robbery. Those stores burned down on West Florissant did not deserve to be burned. All this media distortion about Ferguson being a Ghetto and being unfair to Michael Brown is denying America a view to stopping this mess.
A “project” is a concentration of thousands of welfare recipients whose ticket to ride is dependent on there being no “daddy” on board. The places are destined to be gang infested. Knocking them down and moving the people around helps. Concentrating too many in one place like the street where Michael Brown thrived is wrong. But what is wrong is the notion that getting knocked up is your ticket to ride. A 14 year old girl in the projects is often heard that she is proud to be knocked up because she will be getting “her check”.
We need a President who will oppose all this. Maybe The Donald.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-show-hero-review-20150815-column.html
“It’s not journalism, and it isn’t exactly impartial. Broadly speaking, Simon is on the side of bringing the marginalized in from the margins; for good neighbors against bad ones and for principled or at least efficient public servants over rabble-rousing, self-approving loudmouths.”
http://www.vox.com/2015/8/17/9164123/show-me-a-hero-review-hbo
“Show Me a Hero argues that most of our American heroes are just people who were pragmatic enough to support important social change slightly before public opinion did. The “Great Man” theory of history is a misnomer. It’s more like a series of people who realize which way the wind is blowing and start heading that direction
Simon and Haggis’s past work has been marked by an occasional pessimism about America’s ability to do anything worth doing, but Show Me a Hero argues, at the end, that sometimes it’s as simple as sitting down with another person on common ground, to talk more about what you have in common than what divides you. And, the series argues, there is no greater task of government than this — to come to the people it represents, hat in hand, and ask, “How can we help?”
http://variety.com/2015/tv/reviews/show-me-a-hero-review-david-simon-miniseries-hbo-1201559373/
Without whitewashing the problems in the minority neighborhoods, the miniseries captures the underlying racial animus and apprehension motivating the homeowners, hidden behind coded language like “property values” and “liberty.” In that regard, it charts the continuation of the civil-rights movement into efforts to foster desegregation, from housing to busing.
http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2015/aug/10/show-me-a-hero-david-simon-return-to-form
“As aficionados of The Wire might expect from that programme’s complex discussion of drug legalization and post-industrial decay, to take just two examples, Show Me a Hero is unafraid to get into the theories of social housing. It firmly argues that building single-family homes rather than tower blocks creates a sense of individual pride in their residents and avoids public spaces becoming neglected and mired in criminal behaviour. Simon’s show suggests social housing should be mixed in with private housing as much as possible in order that, to put it bluntly (which the programme does), middle-class values predominate over those of the poor. These theories are still being debated today, as the New York Times reported at the weekend.”
DBQ, One of the intellectually honest points Simon did make in his latest series was, there is nothing inherently wrong w/ people wanting to live w/ people of their same culture. He had characters both black and white say that. And, the other glimmer of hope was the black govt. housing guy[Det. Lester Freeman from The Wire] giving tough love to the black people chosen to integrate, hammering home “personal responsibility.” You hardly ever hear those 2 words mentioned in situations like this, or in any context. Ambulance chasers have worked hard to wipe “personal responsibility” from our lexicon.
Social engineering schemes never work out well. Never.
You cannot force social changes on people by fiat. It has to come on its own, make sense and be a good deal for all involved. Otherwise, social engineering only makes a bad situation even worse.
Well, before this degenerates, allow me to make a comment about David Simon. The Wire was one of the best series ever on TV. It might be my favorite. Simon was a crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun and understands crime, the inner city, and politics. The Wire was gritty, realistic, and superbly written. This was when Simon was new to Hollywood. I watched Show Me a Hero and was bitterly disappointed. The well developed, realistic, characters in The Wire were replaced w/ caricatures in Show Me a Hero. Now, I realize the former was fiction, and the latter based on real events documented in Federal Court. But, you can see Simon has been caught up in the Hollywood PC culture. The caricatures were so predictable. You knew who was going to evolve, devolve, etc. I grew up an hour or so from Yonkers. My old man was a horse player and we would go to Yonkers trotter track often. I know the area and the people.
What integration does is pit working class whites against poor black people. That’s what busing in Boston did as well. The upper middle and certainly the upper class whites, the attorneys, professors, TV executives, etc. never have to deal w/ the ramifications. Simon did not touch this 3rd rail in his depiction of Yonkers. The HBO executives would never hire him again if he did. There may still be some hope for Simon. He was interviewed about Ferguson. Simon noted, after the facts revealed the deceased did not have his hands up, that in virtually every police shooting he covered in Baltimore, the same lies were told on the scene. “He had his hands up and the cop shot him down like a dog.”
Finally, the most segregated areas in this country are big cities, monopoly controlled by Dems for generations. Third, fourth generation blacks who moved from Jim Crow south after WW2 are returning to integrated, rural southern neighborhoods, mostly Republican. Facts can be a mofo. When govt. is involved in micromanaging, or even macro managing, they can screw up a wet dream.
Cara, thanks for posting your article, we most defiantly DO need to discuss it. It’s affected generations of black Americans and deserves all of our attention.
Inga – it appears that you are not aware that it affects all the poor, not just blacks.
Yes Paul, we all know that. But a disporportionate amount of the black community was/ is poor.
Maybe not tomorrow, but “disparate impact” will eventually be tossed onto the same junk pile as “affirmative action”. Congress will pul pull back from funding the DOJ class action clown shows, and conservatives will be able to apply more pressure to get judges appointed to the federal bench who will slap down these phony actions by Progressives.
This was a rather complex case in which the Court sent the case back down with strict instructions. David Simon or no David Simon there is not enough explanation of the case to discuss it.
Cara, I was “The Wire” binge watcher, it was truly riveting, an excellent series with much true to life scenarios and stories. Having worked with black women in healthcare in Milwaukee, who grew up in Cabrini Green, I’ve heard stories that could’ve come out of the The Wire. I think that the decision in Texas Housing case was exactly right. Keeping generations of black Americans segregated only perpetuated the problems unique to the black community and didn’t give these young people a chance to view another way of living. Redlining and housing projects were a social experiment that failed.