Baltimore Ranks Fourth for African-American Economic Status

One of the best things about The Wire was the well-developed African-American characters on both sides of the law. The wonderfully fleshed out development of each character avoided so many of the awful stereotypes most of Hollywood's product usually spits out. The criminals were interesting people where the viewer gets to explore their humanity. Even more valuable was the many black characters on the right side of the law. Teachers, cops, politicians, lawyers, social workers, and so on are shown as complex working people in a way rarely seen.
Unfortunately, this aspect of the show is often lost in The Narrative that people use when they dis Baltimore...pretty much that it is full of scary black thugs. Props to The Wire for finally having a host of interesting and complex black characters...and shame on viewers who do not see them.
A recent article in Forbes magazine ranking African-American economic status by metro area has Baltimore coming in at number four. Yes, Baltimore has lots of poverty and it is disproportionally found among African-Americans. However there is a  large black middle class (and above) who are doing just fine (or at least  struggling along with rest of us).