Learning the streets, scene by scene
D’Angelo Barksdale is a Baltimore drug dealer who wants out of the game. Tormented by the murders committed by his uncle Avon, leader of the Barksdale gang, he talks to the police. “I just wanna go somewhere — anywhere — where I can breathe like regular folks,” he says. “Gimme that, and I’ll give you Avon.” Later, D’Angelo tells his mother that he wants to join the Witness Protection Program and start his life over. She ignores him at first, and then leans on him to protect his uncle. “How you gonna start over without your peoples?” she asks. These scenes and others from the acclaimed television series “The Wire” are at the center of HBO’s The Wire and Its Contribution to Understanding Urban Inequality, a new course aimed at teaching Harvard undergraduates about inner-city life. Each week, students read academic research on topics that include crime, incarceration, work and labor markets,...