You want it to be one way, but it's the other way: How David Simon's The Wire Maintains African American Stereotypes

The Wire is widely considered to be the blueprint of a post-racial TV show. It features more Black characters than any other US TV show has ever done before. African Americans are depicted in all possible positions of social and professional hierarchies. However, the show maintains some of the stereotypical depictions of African Americans that have been prevalent throughout the history of film and television as well as the history of the US. With a close look on the history of Black representation in the United States and the stereotypes used in 20th century film and television, Eike Rüdebusch analyzes The Wire with regard to social as well as media stereotypes of African Americans. Thereby he shows the changes in African American representation on The Wire, but also that The Wire is not deserving of such idealistic post-race praises.

Eike Rüdebusch, born 1985 in Germany, has a master's degree in American Studies and practical Literary and Media Studies as well as a bachelor's degree in Literary, Cultural, and Media Studies. He studied at the Universities of Duisburg-Essen and Siegen in Germany, as well as at Arizona State University in the United States. Early on in his academic endeavors, Eike Rüdebusch started focusing on African American culture, its history and politics. Already with his bachelor thesis on the influence of Barack Obama's first presidential campaign on political Rap, he underlined his interest in showing the interdependency of culture and its surrounding political conditions