In the beginning of American history, the success of the white man was largely accomplished on the backs of their black slaves. That tradition of exploitation has been an undercurrent of American culture that has continued to thrive until this present day. This is found very densely in the Hollywood system where Charles S. Dutton even quips in 1999 that “there isn't a single black person in Hollywood with any power.” He says that not even the top stars such as Denzel Washington or Morgan Freeman could get a project greenlit without some serious white backing. Whether or not that sentiment is true or not is something that is argued constantly. And that brings the fundamental question that is tackled by the piece “Who Gets to Tell a Black Story?” by Janny Scott on the racial and personal conflict that permeated the set of the hit HBO mini-series “The Corner.”
This award-winning serial drama was the work of a white writer named David Simon who had been collecting data on the drug problem of Baltimore, Maryland for years as a reporter. Simon appeared to have put countless hours on the street learning the rhythm and language of the people and learning the real stories that sprang up from the pavement so he could regurgitate them without any personal slants. What Simon set out to do was almost impossible; to tell the stories of the largely-black drug community members and not come of as exploiting a racial stereotype. Naturally, Charles S. Dutton was concerned and skeptical of Simon because of the scope of the piece and the sensitivity of the subject. The show would be depicting drug addicts (most of them black) so it would be all too easy to make out the characters as your common petty black addicts who's only personality trait consisted of their need to score the next hit. Black people have enough negative images floating (often cemented) around in the American consciousness that they didn't need another movie that glorified the drug problem or wrote off the people as sub-human automatons with nothing good to add to the world's conversation.
I believe that Dutton was sincere and justified of his initial mistrust of Simon because, as a black man with a substantial amount of clout, he considers himself responsible for the images that are projected onto the screen. Unfortunately, I think Dutton was largely blind to the fact that he and Simon had the exact same intentions; to tell the stories of these folks caught up in the drug world, but who still had something to teach all of us. Dutton comes off much more as a passive-aggressive pouter who suppresses his feelings about what is going on on the set, but refuses to bring his misgivings up to the writer or the HBO executives. Without a doubt, it would be great if a black writer was writing the script because in a perfect world, black writers would be the ones exposing black problems. Unfortunately, a white man wrote it, but he also did it with a care and understanding that very few writers, regardless of race, have ever been able to express. Dutton made great points about keeping the film team racially diverse to reflect the actual plight of the city and it was powerful that he was actually able to affect some change in that regard. But, like the two white writers who wrote the fantastic “Nothing But a Man,” Simon deftly and carefully painted this picture of the Baltimore drug culture with a respect for his subjects and a clear respect and understanding of the racial barriers that he was butting up against.
Being a white person myself, it is tough to demonize either Dutton or Simon because I can definitely see both points of view. Simon is writing with responsibility and passion about a story that no one else was writing about. But, I also can't imagine how frustrating it is to have white people assert themselves as the primary leaders and chief thinkers when it comes to the black identity.
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