SIGH OF RELIEF Bill Johnson, the frightful white supremacist up for Los Angeles Superior Court Judge in yesterday's city election, was "handily" defeated by his opponent, LA Superior Court Commissioner James Bianco.

Surprise! A new survey conducted by a community youth organization shows that many high school students in South LA — formerly South Central LA — are disappointed with their classroom environments and feeling uncertain about their preparedness for the future.

Of the more than 6,000 students polled, only one-quarter said they felt safe at school and less than half said their school is preparing them for college or a high-paying job. 93 percent believe their school should offer more college-preparatory classes.

This data is diametrically opposite to a report released by the students' school district in February, which claimed that 90 percent of students said they were being pushed to do their best and 80 percent believed their classes "[gave them] useful preparation for what [they] plan to do in life." Oh, and this: "That same report was sharply critical of the district's efforts to get all students into a college-prep curriculum by 2012."

In a follow-up survey of 52 of the dissatisfied students, more than two thirds reported clinical levels of depression.

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.

Protesters in Los Angeles have a major problem with R. Kelly and his Double Up tour rolling into town, mainly because the show is being held at The Forum, a venue owned by Faithful Central Church.

I doubt the people at the church are as concerned with R. Kelly's lyrics as they are with the money the concert will bring in. I guess the protesters don't understand that money has never committed statutory rape and filmed it nor has it offered to feel on a woman's booty nor has it compared a woman to a jeep because it wanted to ride her. Child pornographers need concert venues, too.

I am not a person who believes that we can really "take back words." Bitch is bitch, whether a woman is saying it affectionately to another woman or a man is screaming it through clenched teeth moments before his fist connects with a woman's face. Nigger is nigger, whether a black person is using it to describe his best friend or a crowd of rabid racists is chanting it as a man swings from a noose tied to a tree. Faggot is…well, you get the picture.

I overstated the case a little there for dramatic effect. Of course I understand "intent" and how one must take this into account in the scenarios I listed above. I don't think that all people who use bitch or nigger as affectionate words are bad — that would mean I would have to cut off half of my friends. "Intent" goes a long way toward changing the meaning of a word. But it doesn't. Quite. Cut it.

Not for me. Not for a lot of people.

So no, I don't think that nigger is going to turn into a "good" word. Even if you replace the "-er" with a more friendly "a." Why? Because plenty of people still use it as a bad word. Racist slaveowners were using it to degrade us at least 200 years ago, and many of their descendants (plus some newcomers!) are still using it today. We use it, too, sure. But it's not our word. And it won't ever be.

There's a larger point here. I get to it after the jump.

CONTINUED »

The Los Angeles Fire Department is out even more money, now that the city has settled with (another) black firefighter who said he was mistreated by his cohorts. In this case, Tennie Pierce sued the city after he was purposely served spaghetti laced with dog food.

Recently, Brenda Lee, a black lesbian firefighter, was awarded a record-breaking $6.2 million settlement for workplace discrimination. The string of discrimination lawsuits against the LAFD have cost the city of Los Angeles $15 million. Now, I'm not so great when it comes to money, but even I know that it would have been much cheaper to just hire more competent leaders.
[MSNBC]