How did black people in Baltimore react when his book, 'The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood,' came out? Was not about to make a series about black drug addicts created by, as one HBO executive put it later, 'a bunch of white guys.'

Simon was white and that nearly everyone in his book was black. No one talked about race at that meeting. Idea of making the book into a television series. Simon was not thinking much about his whiteness when he walked into the Los Angeles offices of HBO in January 1998 and set about trying to interest three white programming executives in the improbable He had spent a year on a Baltimore drug corner and written a book that had done something almost unheard of: It had shownīlack inner-city drug addicts as complex and startlingly human. He had known in Baltimore, where he had been a crime reporter for 14 years. Dutton, above, and author David Simon.ĪLTIMORE - David Simon was white but he knew he could write black people. Read comments from the reporters in this series.įor Students: Tell us about your own experiences, in this student questionnaire.įor Teachers: Bring this story into classrooms with a Lesson Plan.ĭirector Charles S. Tell us about your experiences with race. People around the nation talk about race. Dutton leads off a conversation on African-American Why Harlem Drug Cops Don't Discuss Race by Michael Wineripīricks, Mortar and Coalition Building by Mireya NavarroĪnd actor Charles S. Guarding the Borders of the Hip-Hop Nation by N.R. The Hurt Between the Lines by Dana Canedy When to Campaign With Color by Timothy Egan Who Gets to Tell a Black Story? by Janny ScottĪt a Slaughterhouse, Some Things Never Die by Charlie LeDuff

Shared Prayers, Mixed Blessings by Kevin Sackīest of Friends, Worlds Apart by Mirta Ojito

The corner david simon book