BROADCASTS.com

I\u2019m writing this synopsis of Yoshi Didn't from Baltimore, Maryland, with both excitement and sadness. I am excited because I will finally able to visit the home of\xa0The Wire. But I\u2019m sad because the interview I recently did with my friend, Verlon Brown, was tragic, and at times seemed hopeless. Verlon is an African-American standup comedian and social worker in Seattle. He\u2019s definitely been an older brother figure to me for years.

Due to an emergency at Verlon\u2019s job, we had to shorten the conversation. In our brief interview, he explains why he\u2019s not discouraged by his most troubled clients (homeless and/or addicts), instead discussing his frustration with the system (one of the major themes of\xa0The Wire). Verlon explains the concept of \u201charm reduction,\u201d and talks about his 30 years of commitment to social work, his belief that racism is based on economics, and the importance of having an honest conversation about racism.
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 21px; color: #444