Two Separate Americas: David Simon’s New Mini-Series Looks at "Hypersegregation" in Public Housing

Democracynow.org - Today we spend the hour with David Simon, the man behind "The Wire," what some have described as the best television series ever broadcast. His latest project is titled "Show Me a Hero," a six-part mini-series now airing on HBO. It looks at what happened in Yonkers, New York, in the 1980s when the city was faced with a federal court order to build a small number of low-income housing units in the white neighborhoods of his town.
Democracy Now!, is an independent global news hour that airs weekdays on 1,300+ TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream 8-9am ET: democracynow.org
Please consider supporting independent media by making a donation to Democracy Now! today: democracynow.org/donate
FOLLOW DEMOCRACY NOW! ONLINE:
Facebook: / democracynow
Twitter: / democracynow
KZbin: / democracynow
SoundCloud: / democracynow
Daily Email: democracynow.org/subscribe
Google+: plus.google.com/+DemocracyNow
Instagram: / democracynow
Tumblr: democracynow.tumblr
Pinterest: / democracynow
iTunes: itunes.apple.com/podcast/demo...
TuneIn: tunein.com/radio/Democracy-Now...
Stitcher Radio: www.stitcher.com/podcast/democ...

[@lootplx]

Can we just decriminalize drugs in the US so David Simon can start working on a new season of the Wire?

[@KalmWolf007]

IM FROM YONKERS N.Y BUT I WAS BORN IN THE 80S SO I DONT REMEMBER BUT IT WAS HELL AND HARD FOR BLACK FAMILIES TO COME UP THERE

[@leftcoastgal5134]

Great interview! Thanks for having mr. Simon on the program.

[@TSquared2001]

Accurate analysis

[@joshuacoleman6245]

Ty

[@adrina911]

The promise land where can I find that book?

[@chasebizzy1]

If Jacob Weisberg said it than what else is there left to say?

[@tonykennedy5522]

As a conservative, I hesitate to comment in a critical manner, lest the response be extreme, but here goes. I'm from Ireland, and we have had a major (well major for Ireland) influx of Africans here. And it's been largely successful. African women are really involved in the community, and there is a genuine desire to integrate. We are seeing African kids playing hurling and Gaelic football. Plus the culture the Africans brought here is brilliant. Without a doubt, hip-hop culture really helped bring young Africans and young Irish people together And I am truly glad that overtly racist voices are ignored. It has worked here. But, putting myself in the shoes of working-class whites in Yonkers in the 80s, I too would be quite nervous of poor blacks coming into my area. And make no mistake, it would be 100% based on fear. I know nothing of the sociological, political, economic, moral, and judicial problems that created the black underclass. I have never spent any time with black folk, and all I know is the tv news interpretation. I know I'm barely on the ladder, I broke my ass working all my life, and now the government are dictating that we have to live with people we are scared of. I also know that the problems in the black community can be very dangerous. I would fear my children being robbed, drugs, shootings etc. (Again, I am speaking as a 1980s Yonkers working class white person). I'm sure many black people felt the same when the Mexicans and other Latinos settled in their area. How do you address that in the 1980s and have a result of anything other than what actually happened?

[@FreshTillDeath56]

You shouldn't be afraid to voice your opinions, even if they are narrow in understanding. By that sentiment, we should also try to understand where your world comes from and how people end up in their circumstances. Simon has said the purpose of this series was to illustrate how the world was changing like it or not, and by following some well thought out city planning from higher-up, things were not nearly as bad as people feared they would turn out.

[@bw0716]

u got the briefcase, i got the shotgun. all in the game

[@amaljones6983]

IT'S FUNNY HOW A MAN LIKE A SHOW LIKE THIS HOWEVER BEING IN A POSITION TO FIX THE PROBLEM AND YET DID NOT DO NOTHING TO SOLVE!!! # politics as usual. 😁😁😁

[@JoeCiliberto]

President Obama was a huge fan of The Wire?

[@noelgarland3068]

the irony

[@scentability0129]

Two separate America's indeed. I think you are ignoring the one where poor blacks and whites are completely integrated.

[@staatsfeindlich9939]

+scentability01 ...and both segregated from the Bourgeois class. We need to integrate the elite with the rest of us. Turn them into real human beings. It's about class, a creation of capitalism and colonial-settler society.

[@angelodarden342]

+scentability01 And where is that? Even in poverty whites choose to be segregated. The United States has to make a choice; does it want to be a great nation or a white country?

[@scentability0129]

***** Apparently someplace you're unaware of. Try the old manufacturing centers that have been left economic wastelands. Why do you think so many college basketball players (just an example) are bi-racial? The race-mongering is disgusting in how it ignores the actual racial situation in the part of America that coastal liberal snobs ignores and dismisses.

[@angelodarden342]

***** [*"Apparently someplace you're unaware of. Try the old manufacturing centers that have been left economic wastelands."*] You haven't addressed the point; but I will. Take a look at the rural south, many of the people are dirt poor but yet amongst the poverty, segregation remains: (www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/05/segregation-now/359813/) ( www.salon.com/2011/04/03/myth_10_segregated_cities/) I would also point out that the Kerner Commission Report predicted the effects of long term de factp segregation in the north but it was largely ignored:( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerner_Commission) [*"Why do you think so many college basketball players (just an example) are bi-racial?"*] A non sequitur if I've ever read one. There are bi-racial children in affluent families as well. That's not evidence of anything at all except that Loving v.Virginia was decided correctly (www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/us/25race.html?_r=0) [*"The race-mongering is disgusting in how it ignores the actual racial situation in the part of America that coastal liberal snobs ignores and dismisses."*] I'm not here to assuage your hurt feelings. Racism is alive and well in the United States, despite the fact that a Black man is occupying the White House. Which to me, is empty symbolism, but not to a small number of white people, it would seem. While you may find the harsh truths and language uncomfortable, it pales in comparison to the conditions that poor Black people find themselves in without the prospect of relief or respite.

[@scentability0129]

***** "I'm not here to assuage your hurt feelings." No, but you may be here to prove my point about liberal condescension and not knowing anything of the real conditions of the poor.

[@joaquinmaldonado5915]

Simon formula (as seen in the corner, homicide, the wire, treme and now this): Pyrrhic victory. Check. Rich people vs blacks. Check. Aggravated poor minorities.check.

[@marthacmd]

the best series ever! this is how whites see blacks- and Obama of course.... make movies about white men gangbanging in the ghettosall this is - is whites making movies off of blacks- (since slavery) this is more of the same BS- all the so-called movies in this country will never change the mind of racist people

[@marthacmd]

+marty mart the only point in his making this movie is money-how is his movies helping people, or is it suppose to????

[@joecasey7415]

The wire was great. Some of the characters -- McNulty and Omar for example -- were a bit cartoonish