Renown journalist and writer/producer David Simon has carved a legacy by creating HBO’s famed series The Wire, one of the best television shows not to win an Emmy and one of the most effectual parallels of street, criminal, police and urban cultures ever to be captured on film.
That being said, Simon is still a 56-year-old white man who figured with his close proximity to black people in Baltimore, one of the nation’s largest populations for African-Americans, he could use the n-word in a very tongue-in-cheek manner.
When Think Progress editor Judd Legum pointed out the ridiculous recruiting of FOX’s Sean Hannity by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to host a town hall outreach to potential black voters, a lot of awareness and eyebrows were raised.
Simon chimed in with a retweet that he captioned: “Hannity my nigga! If they couldn’t get Ta-Nehisi or Deray to host, then who but you on the pulse of black America?”
It’s fairly accurate to say the nature of the joke wasn’t lost on anyone, as Hannity probably identifies with black people just as well as unseasoned chicken. Yet a popular opinion aligns with white people avoiding the controversial term altogether and Simon immediately found himself under fire, even when his opposers didn’t exactly call him out on it.
In fact, there were plenty of metaphorical memes using, what else, but The Wire, among other pop culture favorites?
Naturally, Black Twitter pointed out the discrepancy as well.
Simon didn’t exactly apologize but he did tweet out that he “owns” the tweet and engaged in healthy discussion with one of his followers writing, “Would I do it again? No, because the real message got submerged. But not cause I think the meaning of it imprecise or wrong.”
Things that make you go “hmmm.”
I’m interested in what people outside the Internet think.
My best friend grew up in the heart of New Orleans, in a predominantly black area. To be honest, only white family in the area for years (before this whole gentrification thing became popular). I spent many a nights and days there. His brother is married to a black woman and their closest friends and family are black. Now, when I was out there, I saw these cats gully… In the streets doing dirt and engulfed by the hood. It sucks! But not a single person corrected or even got mad when either one of them used the “n-word” or called some their “n-word”. I feel like when it comes to street dudes, there’s a real recognize real mind state. These guys are authentic and never came off as acting like they were trying to fit in. How come they NEVER and still have not caught shit for saying it on the block but people get Twitter fingers and start getting upset about it. Btw, these guys aren’t racist at all. Matter of fact, they’re probably the complete opposite. Just making go “Hmmmm”.
fuck HipHopDX for deleting comments. Last time you see me here