Our Story....

What if I told you a story about a white girl who grew up in the hood, ran with gangs and dealt drugs, all while in the care of a black foster mother. Now what if I told you this same girl wrote a book?

Here's the catch. It's all a lie. Margaret B. Jones aka Margaret (Peggy) Seltzer is the author of 'Love and Consequences' a critically acclaimed memoir about girl being raised in a black foster home in South-Central Los Angeles and following her black foster brothers into the gang life.

When I first heard about this story I could not help but to be offended. But then I started to read a little more about Ms. Seltzer. She admits that though this isn't her story, many of the details in the book were based on the experiences of close friends she had met over the years while working to reduce gang violence in Los Angeles.

So this begs a few questions. Who gets to tell "our story"? And why is it more marketable when it comes from a white person?

Let's start with the first question. I believe that anyone is capable relaying their perspective on various peoples. But I do think there is a line and Ms. Seltzer crossed that line. It's one thing to relay a perspective but it's another to fake the funk. If Ms. Seltzer wrote a book about her experiences in South Central as an volunteer trying to end gang violence it probably would have been a decent book. But instead she choose to fabricate a memoir while painting herself as an urban female Tarzan if you will.

She probably knew that it would sell better. Which leads me to my second question. Why is it more marketable when it comes from a white person?

The same reason why Tarzan movies where popular back in the day. The concept that no matter what environment you are thrown into you know that you will overcome and rise above it is a popular one in the mainstream...To put it simply: White people like the idea of being dominant no matter what environment they are thrown into.

I know that sounds little bit harsh to some of the white people who may stop by here to check in but, hear me out.

It's an entertaining concept when (what Bell Hooks calls) the "other" is able to rise above their socioeconomic strata especially when it's a person who doesn't fit the stereotype. I'm sure if I made up a memoir about my life as a gang-banger who eventually gets accepted into Harvard the mainstream would eat it up.

Hmmmmm. I better get crackin.