"(They are actually worse than the project guys. ")" Here I disagree, because solidarity is pretty much what's left to them.But you have more episodes to find out about their situation: the picture is far from complete. It's also part of a tradition of the working classes, a tradition that finds in History more than sufficient reasons for. Of course it doesn't mean that systematically distrusting the authorities or their representants is a good thing and I agree that what they're doing is not right by any means and has had criminal consequences but it doesn't make them worse than the people who sling drugs.
I wasn't very clear here. To clarify? What I meant was that they are worse for the cops than the project guys - in that it is easier for the cops to bring down Barksdale's organization or get informants than it is for them to solve a crime on the docs. I didn't mean that what they do is worse - ie. helping ship smuggle illegal contraband vs. slinging drugs. So we do actually agree, but I was unclear and did not state it well. Sorry about that. You are already working at a disadvantage here - since I'm writing in my own language and you are kindly reading it - because I can't do it in French.
On the socio-economic front? The show does a very good job of delineating the differences between the dock workers and the projects. Note - Ziggy and Nick have graduated from high school, the vast majority of the union workers have. The projects kids dropped out of school in the 8th grade. Once the dock worker's kids leave high school, possibly even before - they are guaranteed a job on the docks and in the union. If their family is hurting - they are given money to get by. Their drug of choice - unlike the kids in the projects, is a legal one - alcohol, which they can afford. They aren't sleeping in low income government paid apartments, but in row houses. The union provides health benefits.
The reason they don't talk to the cops - is the union has trained them. Note the guy that the homicide detectives attempt to interview, the one who found the dead women with Beatrice Russell? That guy states that he doesn't have to go anywhere with them unless he's arrested. And if he is - he wants his union rep and union lawyer to come with him. Compare to the first season - when Brodie gets interviewed or D or Wallace? There's no union. There's just Stringer and Avon - and how fast they can send their lawyer. Also, they get beat up and no one does anything.
That's racism. The white immigrant doc workers have more rights than the black American kids living in the projects. The immigrants get a legal job and benefits. The kids and people living in the projects - don't. They are treated differently by the society around them.
As for their crimes? One permits illegal contraband, turns a blind eye - even if it is a bunch of women being sold into the sex trade (which is basically slinging human beings as drugs) - although to be fair, Frank didn't know about the women nor did he know about the sex trade. The other deals drugs. One is far more violent than the other...with a lower survival rate. Ziggy is more likely to survive than D'Angelo and Wallace and Brodie (unfortunately). Just as Nick is more likely to survive. They are also more likely to stay out of prison, because of all the protections in place - which are not in place for D'Angelo and Wallace and Brodie.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2011-07-01 09:17 pm (UTC)I wasn't very clear here. To clarify? What I meant was that they are worse for the cops than the project guys - in that it is easier for the cops to bring down Barksdale's organization or get informants than it is for them to solve a crime on the docs. I didn't mean that what they do is worse - ie. helping ship smuggle illegal contraband vs. slinging drugs. So we do actually agree, but I was unclear and did not state it well. Sorry about that. You are already working at a disadvantage here - since I'm writing in my own language and you are kindly reading it - because I can't do it in French.
On the socio-economic front? The show does a very good job of delineating the differences between the dock workers and the projects. Note - Ziggy and Nick have graduated from high school, the vast majority of the union workers have. The projects kids dropped out of school in the 8th grade. Once the dock worker's kids leave high school, possibly even before - they are guaranteed a job on the docks and in the union. If their family is hurting - they are given money to get by. Their drug of choice - unlike the kids in the projects, is a legal one - alcohol, which they can afford.
They aren't sleeping in low income government paid apartments, but in row houses. The union provides health benefits.
The reason they don't talk to the cops - is the union has trained them. Note the guy that the homicide detectives attempt to interview, the one who found the dead women with Beatrice Russell?
That guy states that he doesn't have to go anywhere with them unless he's arrested. And if he is - he wants his union rep and union lawyer to come with him. Compare to the first season - when Brodie gets interviewed or D or Wallace? There's no union. There's just Stringer and Avon - and how fast they can send their lawyer.
Also, they get beat up and no one does anything.
That's racism. The white immigrant doc workers have more rights than the black American kids living in the projects. The immigrants get a legal job and benefits. The kids and people living in the projects - don't. They are treated differently by the society around them.
As for their crimes? One permits illegal contraband, turns a blind eye - even if it is a bunch of women being sold into the sex trade (which is basically slinging human beings as drugs) - although to be fair, Frank didn't know about the women nor did he know about the sex trade. The other deals drugs. One is far more violent than the other...with a lower survival rate. Ziggy is more likely to survive than D'Angelo and Wallace and Brodie (unfortunately). Just as Nick is more likely to survive. They are also more likely to stay out of prison, because of all the protections in place - which are not in place for D'Angelo and Wallace and Brodie.