Life Imitates Art Imitates Life.

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The Wire‘s Nerese Campbell, a shrewd and possibly corrupt city councilwoman, was based on Sheila Dixon of Baltimore, who had been dogged by allegations of wrongdoing. On the show, Campbell, like Dixon, eventually became the mayor of Baltimore.

Today, Mayor Dixon was indicted on 12 charges of corruption.

G.D.

G.D.

Gene "G.D." Demby is the founder and editor of PostBourgie. In his day job, he blogs and reports on race and ethnicity for NPR's Code Switch team.
G.D.

Latest posts by G.D. (see all)

  • Oy vey. I’m waiting to hear what Ta-Nehisi has to say about this, and my buds from Baltimore.

    Your thoughts?

    I suppose she could be happy at least about the announcement in the middle of the friday afternoon news dump. Aigh.

  • Grump

    let’s hope her nephew, The Wizards’ Juan Dixon, decides to stop pursuing the NBA and jump into B-more politics.

  • Grump

    Dude, I was hoping that they would run a similar subplot on “The Wire”…

  • ladyfresshh

    but…i did’t watch the wire

    *runs from G.D. and baseball bat*

  • Steve

    Not only is she Juan’s aunt but she pretty much raised him.

    She used him alot to attract people to campaign rallies LOL…

    I love Sheila though, not guilty damnit! LOL… my only beef with her is how ghetto she gets in news conferences and how she often lets her new hair growth run wild…

  • Steve- we were good until that ‘new hair growth’ comment. I’m not tryna be super-sensitive or threadjack, but I can’t let that stand. Offhand comments like yours contribute to why so many black women can’t accept the hair that naturally grows outta their heads.

  • Steve

    I mean I feel you on the implications of my statement…I was just echoing a common comment about Sheila…I don’t think the comment diminishes natural hair, its just if she is the mayor and she she decides to gets her hair permed and is on TV all the time…she should probably get it done on a regular basis. I don’t think you can infer from that statement that I imply that natural hair is ugly, but it’s just commonly known that if you do decide to perm and you’re on TELEVISION all the time there is a certain amount of upkeep needed. I’d say the same thing if she was a dude and constantly needed a shape up. Shit, Michael Nutter NEEDS to fix his damn beard.
    It transcends race, too, I mean clearly Blago is a situation. Or if you on TV as an official, you should dress accordingly. Although Sheila does have some nice suits. I think you read way more into it.

    Beyond that I REALLY wish she hadn’t gotten in trouble I actually like her…. but using gift cards to buy things for herself that were intended for charity? SIGH. I thought she really had an opportunity to be more of a legitimate mayor for the city than her predecessors but oh well.

  • Steve

    On second thought I was being mad insensitive I apologize..

    I really really think it sucks that she is getting in trouble though….I was optimistic even though people were saying otherwise about her.

  • Okay, I get what you’re saying. There’s just a tendency to make thoughtless yet disparaging comments about black women’s hair when it’s not bouncin’ and behavin’ with stick-straight roots. (I say that as a person who used to do it too.) We’re good, tho. :-)

    I know next to nothing about this woman… but I agree it does suck that she was so idiotic.

  • oh, baltimore. how do i love thee?

  • Steve

    So I read the entire indictment…

    and I fall back a little bit. 1. These charges are not very serious and to me they reflect a prosecutor who spent three years trying to get her for the city contracting allegations and came up short, 2. Showing intent and bribery in a situation where she was dating the person is going to be tough. The only thing that can really stick is the messed up element of using gift cards intended for homeless. But to be real, these charges are NOT that serious….this aint no blago or kwame level of craziness.