Comments on: the messages we send: Home Girl

By: JPLogan

JPLogan — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:54:23 +0000

I have been a long-time member of the “invisibles” aka the “uptown people” while my offspring attended school on the upper west side. I know all about the species I’ve described and I am sensitive to the symptoms. Politically correct but incorrect about everything else. LOL

By: Nova

Nova — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 17:12:21 +0000

JPLogan- very good points! I didn’t even catch that angle.

By: JPLogan

JPLogan — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 17:02:03 +0000

I even find using the “Home Girl” term in the title offensive. The overall feeling I get from this project is: “I am not poor and disfranchized but if I was to act like I am, by the virtue of purchasing a building in the ghetto, I would be soooooo much better at it”. It’s like Tyra Banks walking around in a fat suit and later crying on her show because she really knows how terrible being overweight is. I am sure this book, will make the “home girl” very popular among her upper east and upper west side friends, none of which would ever venture north of 110th street without police escort LOL

By: Nova

Nova — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 15:06:28 +0000

Again, without reading it, I am sure that a good deal of the quest is about creating a safe home for family, a human right. I wonder though if the author tackled her relationship to her neighborhood in the context of her neighbors, and not just her needs, etc. etc. Even if she did, the book is packaged with the wrong (or right in the publisher’s eyes-I think this is intentional because people think they are doing the right things) message.

By: JPLogan

JPLogan — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 11:14:39 +0000

Great observations Nova! Opinionated as I am about everything else, I don’t have any idea how to tackle the whole gentrification topic. I am just hoping that this book is more about someone’s urban odyssey to create a safe home for their family rather than someone’s mission to civilize the world and teach the natives the “right” way to live.