It just goes with the territory when you are a published author that you are going to get a lot of mail from un- or newly published folks wanting your input on what they’re doing. I have to admit I’m remiss in answering this type of mail. Someone will send me an e-mail asking me something. By the time I find the information or formulate my response I can no longer find what I did with the e-mail–most often because I’ve neglected to save it. Anyway, I’m sure there are a few folks out there cursing my name for being unresponsive and I’ve often kicked myself too for just that infraction. But hey, I work every day, I’ve got three kids if you count the big one (don’t tell him I said that), I have my own writing, deal with it. Write me again and ask again. I rarely don’t answer because I have no intention of doing so.
That being said, I kept getting mail for some book called GHETTONATION. Y’all know how I feel about ghetto, so I was trying very hard to ignore this since I don’t have the time to check out every book promo sent to me. But thanks to the good folks on Tee C. Royal’s Rawsistaz yahoo group I was led to this article about the book written by Cora Daniels.
My appreciation for Ms. Daniels’ work starts with her definition of ghetto. As described in the article:
…ghetto isn’t a neighborhood. Ghetto doesn’t just affect a certain race or economic class (we like to think that have-nots are ghetto and the haves are ghetto-free). To Daniels, ghetto is a mentality to “aim low.” The ghetto persona devalues education, thinks in the short-term rather the long-term, lacks self-respect, and celebrates the worst (African American) stereotypes.
Sound familiar? That’s what I and other bloggers decrying the new wave of ghetto fiction have been saying from its inception. The article continues:
…Daniels discusses her own ghetto mentality. She explores how corporate America exploits ghettoness as a means to make money despite its disturbing ramifications. She calls out rappers who take on a ghetto persona despite the fact that they were raised in a privileged family. She talks to people who embrace ghetto because its the in thing to do and she chats with people who realize that a ghetto mentality is self-defeating. She talks about bad parents (young and old) who dabble in the art of ghetto.
This reminds me of a book signing I had at the beginning of my career in a very affluent suburb of New York. The young woman who approached my table said she wasn’t interested in my book. All she read was street lit. When I asked why that was, she replied that it was more real for her than romance. And here I was thinking this chick lives in a nicer area than I do, probably lives in a bigger house than I do, yet she identifies with the ghetto. There’s something out of whack with that.
Looks like I’m going to have to give this book a try, as soon as I get my TBR pile into some sort of manageable level. Oh, well.
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