I just stumbled across “Murder I Wrote” (from a link related to Bradford Pulmer’s blog).
In 1997, David Simon, producer of The Wire (the best TV show ever), wrote in The New Republic how corner boys were recruited for a day to be slinging extras for the TV show Homicide(not the best show ever). The boys complained about how unrealistic it was.
“Damn,” said Manny Man, walking back to his position. “This ain’t gonna look right. People in other cities gonna see this show and think the crews in Baltimore don’t know how to carry it.”
Most of the boys are now dead.
Simon understands that yo-boys may not but model citizens, but they’re living breathing people. I was strangely moved by Simon’s article.