Most recent public comments by Brooke Hagenbuch https://nowcomment.com/users/28294 https://nowcomment.com/documents/76206?scroll_to=735678 https://nowcomment.com/documents/76206?scroll_to=735678 What's worse is that they most likely will never be able to vote. They can't elect someone who could change things for them. Or who even represents their interests as convicted felons. Let alone have much chance at getting a decent job or attaining any sort of upward mobility... Thu, 13 Apr 2017 01:56:44 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/76206?scroll_to=735675 https://nowcomment.com/documents/76206?scroll_to=735675 I feel like Alexander wasn't saying here that affirmative action wasn't important, but that it has been the entire focus for civil rights advocates for far too long. Unfortunately, I think its necessary for black organizations to focus on one issue for long periods of time. I just finished The People vs OJ and the show makes it so evident that police corruption and injustice has been spoken out about for over 20 years, but it still isn't something that most Americans identify as a real issue. It takes years of repetition before the American public actually tunes into issues raised by African American agencies. Wed, 12 Apr 2017 19:28:38 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/76206?scroll_to=735665 https://nowcomment.com/documents/76206?scroll_to=735665 Until Prof. Williams put a name to the idea, I didn't realize that dog whistle phrases were something that could so easily be picked up by voters and interpreted in their "intended" (often racist) way. I have always been the cynic that assumes almost all voters are quite uninformed, but the idea that something like "crime in the streets" can directly appeal to a voter makes perfect sense. Even if voters aren't politically informed, they still have inherent racial biases that can easily be drawn out by a candidate Thu, 13 Apr 2017 09:39:46 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/76206?scroll_to=735655 https://nowcomment.com/documents/76206?scroll_to=735655 I feel like the political developments that "appeared" to undermine the caste system in the south during the Reconstruction Era are a lot like the time period shortly after Obama's election into office. Not in a political realm, but in the sense that people actually believed that since we had a elected a black president, "everything was fixed." Racism couldn't possibly still be an issue, right? And yet things like incarceration rates continued to climb after he was elected. And of course, riots and instances of police brutality against African Americans became a real focus of the media. (Yet people from my town truly believe that everything is fixed now) Wed, 12 Apr 2017 23:08:43 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/76206?scroll_to=735175 https://nowcomment.com/documents/76206?scroll_to=735175 I worked on a campaign this summer when felons were (temporarily) permitted to register to vote if they had served their full sentences. In this time, we worked to register thousands of convicted felons in VA. After the SC revoked this right, we were told to not even approach felons, because if they attempted to register to vote with us, they would be arrested for a violation of their parole. Not only was their right restoration fleeting, but those who misunderstood the rules, or mistakenly registered could face further charges. Why is even an attempt to gain a basic human right (which would be flagged in the system and caught right away), treated the same way as actually committing another felony? Sun, 16 Apr 2017 17:59:56 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/70146?scroll_to=668731 https://nowcomment.com/documents/70146?scroll_to=668731 There are plenty of shows that point out the flaws of Big Capitalism (West Wing is a great example) - but none that attack the real institutional issues quite like The Wire does. I certainly haven't seen a series before that so blatantly pointed out issues of inequality without the backdrop of humor or an unrealistic setting. Wed, 01 Feb 2017 22:05:32 -0500 https://nowcomment.com/documents/70146?scroll_to=668709 https://nowcomment.com/documents/70146?scroll_to=668709 As a government major, I am really interested in seeing if Simon's opinion of the media has changed at all with the election and the social events taking place over the last few years. Particularly with Ferguson, or the Baltimore protests which took place 2 years after this article was published. What would he change about how those events were covered? Does he think that there are any press/agencies who do "good journalism"? Wed, 01 Feb 2017 21:53:54 -0500 https://nowcomment.com/documents/70146?scroll_to=668691 https://nowcomment.com/documents/70146?scroll_to=668691 I think what I've noticed in regards to moral compromise, is that the emphasis on poor moral choices often falls on the detectives and officials of The Wire. In this season we saw the beginning of corruption in campaign finance. Daniels, the Senator, even Deputy Burrell, all are tied into money issues. McNulty, as we know, makes some questionable choices with his children. The choice to use brutal physical force (and to open fire) by Roland and Herc was arguably unnecessary and inhumane. Meanwhile, we see the people who are often dehumanized and demonized in detective dramas (and real life) making fairly moral choices -like Wallace, Omar, even DeAngelo. Wed, 01 Feb 2017 21:36:30 -0500 https://nowcomment.com/documents/70146?scroll_to=668677 https://nowcomment.com/documents/70146?scroll_to=668677 I thought about Bowden's point here after watching a few of the first episodes of The Wire, but more-so in the context of the transitions between episodes. Not only do you need to watch the series starting from the first episode (like modern-day House of Cards), but you really do need to watch them close together. Some of the episodes end with little to no cliffhangers OR resolutions. While some end in action, like episode 8 ending with Omar's attempted hit on Avon, often the screen just fades to black on a rather arbitrary scene. It leaves nothing to reel the audience in to tune in the following week, particularly after an hour of detective work. This is what turned off my parents from watching the show, as they like the tight-packed "self-contained" styles of Law and Order and NCIS. This may be another reason why it wasn't a commercial success for HBO like The Sopranos or Game of Thrones have been. Thu, 02 Feb 2017 01:26:04 -0500 https://nowcomment.com/documents/70146?scroll_to=668636 https://nowcomment.com/documents/70146?scroll_to=668636 I think we saw the same sort of backlash with realism after the release of the first Blair Witch movie. People thought that it might have been real because it was shot in a way that looked like found footage. The Wire doesn't quite go this far as to think we are actually following police, but the brutality portrayed from the police, and the sheer amount of drugs and money being passed around, I think is enough to make any Maryland citizen scrutinize its sincerity. If something like this took place in Charlottesville, I know I would definitely dismiss it as being unrealistic and "overblown" Wed, 01 Feb 2017 21:13:48 -0500