Hot Wire: Episode 55: Antagonists

2008-02-04
By DeAngelo Starnes

I’ve always felt Black people should remove themselves from the following political labels: conservative, moderate, liberal, progressive.  Admittedly, I’ve been guilty of labeling myself as liberal/progressive.  Actually, I’m an unashamed Black Nationalist/Counter-Racist, but calling myself a liberal/progressive serves as shorthand for translation’s sake. 

I feel a more accurate way of describing where Black people are on the political spectrum can be encapsulated in the Five A’s: Apathetic (pre-sober Bubs), Assimilationist (Clarence Thomas), Accommodationist (Barack Obama but quickly moving to Assimilationist territory as he gets closer to the Democratic presidential nomination), Antagonist (Marlo), and Adversary (Frances Cress Welsing).  The flavor of The Wire has come from the Antagonist. 

The Antagonist operates outside and/or against the One Percent Have More System.  That’s because (s)he’s brave enough to attack it.  It’s just that, while Antagonists are proactive, their actions are usually self-destructive.  Right attitude but wrong gameplan.
 
Ain’t got money because (s)he can’t get a job?  Rob a liquor store.  Mad at the boss for holding him or her down or back?  Stop showing up for work and/or giving his/her best when (s)he is at work.  Bored with school or depressed because (s)he ain’t getting more out of it?  Act up and disrupt the class.  Got brain-dead parents or teachers who don’t help cope with the Have More System?  Join a gang. 

The Antagonist doesn’t tune in and conform.  They drop out.  With a lot of them not workin’, they watch a lotta tv.  And what do they see in the media?  Themselves as the problem for American society.  Reality shows that don’t mirror their reality.  Rich folks with problems that can’t approximate the problems of living a hand-to-mouth hustling lifestyle.  People who claim to have come out of the same neighborhoods trying to fit into rich folks’ life style.  Dudes they used to go to school with on Sportscenter.  Lots of beautiful girls – more than I saw at the five-to-one female to male ratio (with four of the five being extremely beautiful) I saw at Howard University. 

Many live in small cramped apartments or row-houses, in large Eastern, Southern, and Midwest American cities (the West – Oakland, Denver, LA, Las Vegas, and Phoenix - needs to stop fronting.  Y’all got houses and duplexes with yards. Even the apartment buildings are nice compared to a real project).   Given a neighborhood full of Antagonists, all that anger feeds on itself.  So it can’t be a surprise that they prey on each other.

I’ve often felt that some of the strongest brothers were the ones in jail, and the jail is full of Antagonists.  Their intelligence told them to use the Have More System against itself to make themselves some money.  While Stringer Bell and Prop Joe tried to use those earnings to transition from Antagonist to Accommodationist or Assilimilationist, Antagonists like Marlo, Avon, and Cheese held them back.

Quiz for the readership: Which category do the following belong to?  Omar, Lester, Daniels, Nerese (the city council chairperson), Gus (the metro editor), Michael, D’Angelo (Barksdale, not Starnes), McNulty (have to throw a ringer in there) and the late, great Prop Joe.  If you’re not quite sure to which face these names corresponds, go to HBO.com’s The Wire page and punch in “Cast and Crew.”  Also, you don’t have to answer all of them.  After all, this isn’t a multiple choice test.  And if you think they belong to more than one category, cool.  Support your answers with strong arguments though.  We’ll post the best answers in next week’s fanmail recap.

Speaking of recaps:
Opening scene: Another killing teaser.  The strength of good writing is a strong opening.  Sometimes that requires a shocking event.  But it can also be achieved through strong foreshadowing dialogue.  This episode’s opening contained the latter. 

A good lesson for all wannabe writers is pacing and set-up.  This season’s Wire has been set to a deliberate pace with many episodes founded on foreshadowing dialogue.  No rushing like young cats getting with girls in high school and college in the form of gunshot and car chase bells and whistles.  Just well-paced movement with phat lines that require close attention.

Dookie is looking for the wrong way to protect himself.  He’s trying to live the
Antagonist life but he doesn’t have the Antagonist mentality.  As Michael advised him, he needs to find a different way.  Use his brain to achieve Adversary ability.  He could even find his way to an Accommodationist or Assimilationist lifestyle.  Like Cutty said, “Not everything comes down to the way you carry it in the Street. … World is bigger than that.”  To which Dookie responded, “How do you get from here to the rest of the world?” 

I think that’s a question that parks itself in the back of every Antagonist’s mind.  Again, right attitude.  But the gameplan needs constructive guidance.  Without that guidance, Antagonists end up taking a shortcut, which almost always takes them off their Paths and away from the rest of the world. 

When you encounter a potential Antagonist who asks you that question, please wrap your arms around that person’s shoulder and do what you can to lead them away from Antagonism. 

Cutty may not know the answer that Dookie sought, but he, at least, has moved away from Antagonism.  He might be an Accommodationist who thinks the Assimilationist way of living is the way to live.  But, in the third season and so on, he moved away from Antagonism.

The Sun’s editorial meeting.  I was struck by how they wanted to play up importance of the issue of steroids in baseball.  I agree with Gus.  Steroids in baseball is not an issue that deserves the amount of press it gets.  Admittedly, it’s a sexy issue.  But, I feel, it’s an issue of artificial importance pumped up by news organizations that need sexy stories.  And the only reason Congress gets involved is because of that artificial insemination. 

Clay Davis is an Accommodationist who needs more Assimilationist friends.  The way everyone is jumping ship and asking him to take one for the team, it looks like he may need to find a way to make friends with Antagonists once he hits jail.

I received a lot of correspondence regarding the depiction of Black women.  Nerese was used as an example of a strong Black woman.  I stand corrected.  She is a baad person, brokering the cutting of bait as she has.  I like her style.

I see what Lester and McNulty are trying to do in order to get at Marlo.  It’s actually a genius plan that’s drawn in an unwitting co-conspirator in Templeton.  I guess in order to do more with less you have to color outside the lines sometimes.

The homeless as a symptom of our “more with less” economy.  Many of those who take advantage of shelters are working poor as opposed to street-people?  Another poignant social issue, which will be developed in this space next week.

Finally, my main man, E-Money – Eric Easter, may have hit on something in the fanmail post.  I believe the term was “baffling.”  This column presupposes you’re a hardcore fan who’s seen all the episodes and know the players and the storylines.  In that sense, this is a water-cooler column.  Nevertheless, we try to write something you take away without being a non-watcher, too.  

Finally, I know it’s Black History Month.  I prefer Black Power Month myself.  So I encourage everyone to seek out a Black Power moment every day of the month.

DeAngelo Starnes is a freelance writer and attorney who resides with his wife and son in Denver, CO.  He welcomes direct constructive feedback at deangelo_starnes@hotmail.com.

Read DeAngelo on Episode 55: Antagonists 

Fan Mail: Ebonyjet Readers on The Wire

Read DeAngelo on Episode 54: Transitions 

Read DeAngelo on Episode 53: Not For Attribution 

Read DeAngelo on Episode 52: Unconfirmed Reports 

Read DeAngelo on Episode 51: More With Less