I can't believe my mom reads that!

No, my mom would not be caught dead reading anything about thugs or gangstas. However, a woman came in the other day and requested some racy titles. When the books came in she sent her kids in to get them. The girls were both dressed in private school uniforms and looked at the books and said, "I can't believe she's reading that!" It was totally priceless. I would love to have heard the conversation that occurred when they got in the car.

Black Folks Movies

I was told yesterday that Barbershop 2 was a "black folks' movie." I asked the patron (age 10) if that meant I was not allowed to watch it. She says, "Uh, well, uh, you know whats I mean. That's not what I says."

I am tired of people asking why we don't separate our black authors. Mostly because I don't read an author based on their color. Probably if we did separate them they would say we were discriminating. We already get that because, we "ain't got nothing black folks wants to read." The grammar I am using is not a joke. People seriously say these things to us. Then they get mad when we can't understand them.

It's also really hard to look at a person who is checking out a book by T.D. Jakes and then a book called, "Thugz and Gangstas...Lookin' fo' my Baby Daddy: an erotic tale."

Ghetto Library

I was told yesterday that my library is "ghetto." Probably so. It is in a poorer part of town. Our mayor even recently had our city classified as "blighted." We don't make a lot of money and we don't order 7,000 copies of any book (even Harry Potter). One woman got mad because we don't own a fax machine. I told her that there is another library within five miles or so that does have a fax machine and she got mad because she lives in this city. I also told her two places within one block of our library that have a fax machine and she proceeded to storm out of the library mumbling about how you can't even get a book in our library and it's just "ghetto."

Dictionary.com defines ghetto as "a section of a city, esp. a thickly populated slum area, inhabited predominantly by members of an ethnic or other minority group, often as a result of social or economic restrictions, pressures, or hardships." Technically our library cannot be ghetto without declaring the rest of the city ghetto. By admitting to live in our city and declaring that we are "ghetto" she has declared herself as part of the minority group that is contributing to the label.

As far as the book she wanted...I have no idea what it was. She never asked for a book while she was in. Probably the latest "Thug" or "Gangsta'" book.