Margaret Seltzer thought she could write a memoir claiming that her name was Margaret B. Jones, she was half-white and half-Native American, she was raised by a black foster mother, and she spent her youth in South Central LA running drugs for the Bloods. She thought she could do this and get away with it. She was wrong!
Seltzer was really raised in Sherman Oaks, Calif., by her biological family. Her older sister outed her after Seltzer (as Jones) appeared in a New York Times article to promote her critically acclaimed memoir, Love & Consequences.
“Love and Consequences” immediately hit a note with many reviewers. Writing in The Times, Michiko Kakutani praised the “humane and deeply affecting memoir,” but noted that some of the scenes “can feel self-consciously novelistic at times.” In Entertainment Weekly, Vanessa Juarez wrote that “readers may wonder if Jones embellishes the dialogue” but went on to extol the “powerful story of resilience and unconditional love.”
In the vividly told book, Ms. Seltzer wrote about her African-American foster brothers, Terrell and Taye, who joined the Bloods gang when they were 11 and 13. She chronicled her experiences making drug deliveries for gang leaders at age 13 and how she was given her first gun as a birthday present when she was 14. Ms. Seltzer told The Times last week, “One of the first things I did once I started making drug money was to buy a burial plot.”
Seltzer's editors said they were shocked to find out that the story was a lie. For her part, Seltzer claims that she wrote the book after being moved by stories she heard through her work to combat gang violence in LA. Her publisher has cancelled her book tour and recalled all copies of the book. Well, there you go. Shamelessly stealing the stories of poor black people for your own financial gain probably makes for some bad karma. She better just thank her lucky stars Oprah Winfrey didn't make this part of her book club. This chick would have hell to pay. [NYT]
UPDATE: Read the original story about the "gang member" here. Please.
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Just lovely! Make money fabricating the story of poor, black city people while you sip latte in the surburbs, in between classes at your private school and pass it off as your truth. I suggest we drop her off in the inner city with some poor black gangbangers and see how she does.
Why can't these people label their work what it clearly is….FICTION??
The fact that this dumb ho almost pulled this off after everything that went down with James Frey is just stunning. Perhaps these publishing houses need to hire someone full time to "vet" these "memoirs" before going to print.
I guess she could pass for half native american in the right shadow, and with a stigmarism. I also love that her sister outed her ass. Lol
“One of the first things I did once I started making drug money was to buy a burial plot.”
That just sounds far fetched. I may have questioned this story.
along with her books being recalled, can she also get a good old-fashioned hood ass kicking?
That's interesting b/c I'm writing a book based on the fact that I was raised by wolves in the Appalachian Mountains and that I was found by a group of hikers who took me in made me run drugs for them.
What a coincidence.
wtf is wrong with people? life is hard enough for the downtrodden without having some (presumably) tony bitch appropriating your story and making money from it. i'm sure she wouldn't have given up her Sherman Oaks upbringing to walk a day in the shoes of the character she created.
Um yeah, why couldn't she just have written the book as fiction???
The funny thing is, if this "South Central LA gang memoir" would've originally been written by a black person, it would've been banished to the "African-American Interests" section in the back of the bookstore, let alone getting a deal from a major publisher and/or feature article in the NYT. I'm sure it wouldn't have recieved all of the "honest" and "refreshing" book reviews either….
I just read the article and I can't believe she actually could fabricate this whole other life for herself. How did she learn how to cook black eyed peas with neckbones or was she just trying to make herself seem more authentic?
Sherman Oaks isn't Beverly Hills, guys, so I'm sure she encountered enough "color" to write her book, but I suspect she's probably just a totally fucking crazy bitch. Yep, that's the clinical term for her.
Sherman Oaks aint Bev. Hills but it might as well be given the big ass mansions there. I dont know what kind of "color" BMD id talking about. Whenever I go out there (been there once) it's nothing but well to do white folk.
THis broad really does need a beating tho. HOw dare she take the pain that many of us actaully go through that she has no idea about and try to make money off it. White ppl man. I swear, they the shadiest of us all.
Monica - How you gonna tell me about a place I was born and raised in (LA) when you only been there once? That's laughable.
I have friends in Sherman Oaks and they ain't well to do white folks and they sure as shit don't live in mansions. There are nice spots and there are middle class areas. It's nothing special.
I have a friend from Sherman Oaks and I believe she lived in a gated community. This heifer is so foul.
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I wonder what the Bloods are going to say about this. I'd be on the next Space Shuttle if I were her.