Usher’s estranged wife, the much-maligned Tameka Foster, has penned a blog entry for the Huffington Post in which she may have lifted another woman’s concepts without attribution. Aisha Curry, author of the book “Pretty For a Black Girl,” says that her nonfiction book, published last year, is so similar to Tameka Foster’s recent essay on women and race, “She’s Pretty for a Dark-Skinned Girl,” that friends asked her if she wrote it. I purchased the book in question to compare, and it looks like Tameka did read it and that she may have incorporated the same concepts into her essay, but it’s hard to tell for sure. Curry says that she’s upset that her ideas are being used, but isn’t outright accusing Foster of plagiarism. I made a comparison between the essay and the book, and there’s more on that below.
When Tameka Foster posted the blog entry “She’s Pretty for a Dark-Skinned Girl…” on The Huffington Post, both celebrities and regular women alike celebrated her blog message on Twitter and Facebook.
Unbeknownst to them, while they were saluting Usher Raymond’s soon-to-be ex-wife’s essay on skin complexion, author Aisha Curry, who wrote the book ‘Pretty For a Black Girl’ (AuthorHouse/$10.49) read the piece and felt outraged that her tome had been apparently been lifted and used by Foster, who allegedly passed the work off as her own.
“My heart sank into my stomach. All the hard work, all the sleepless nights I had endured was playing back in my head as I read this article written by a woman I didn’t even know,” Curry told BV Buzz. “Why did I feel so connected to this article? Suddenly, it came to me. It was my work! It was my work, my voice, but in her words. I was frozen. Tears began rolling down my face as I read line after line after line. I couldn’t believe it. The idea that someone could gain notoriety from an issue that I first brought to the forefront is mindboggling. People were praising her for tackling an issue that had never been exposed. Hello?!? I wrote the book on it and started it years ago. The only difference between her article and my book is she used ‘dark-skinned’ and I used ‘Black.'”
Curry said she began writing ‘Pretty For a Black Girl’ in 2007 after receiving compliments about her beauty, only to have them followed up with a reference to her ethnicity.
“One day about five years ago, I was absolutely tired of being told that I was pretty for a black girl,” she explained. “I started asking my friends if they had heard this statement before, and as time went on, I realized how prevalent the issue was.”
The 96-page pocket-size book, which was self-published in March 2008, was written as a labor of love by Curry, a Bible college student who is dismayed at the idea that Foster plagiarized her hard work on Aug. 11, 2009 for The Huffington Post.
“I received the link and it changed my life. A friend told me that they had read an article in The Huffington Post called ‘She’s Pretty for a Dark-Skinned Girl’ written by Tameka Foster. I knew the title was similar to my book but I didn’t jump to any conclusions,” Curry recalled. “So, I went to the site and began reading this article. If she would have changed the words ‘dark-skinned’ to ‘black’ it would be exactly the same title as my book. My frustration quickly turned to anger and I sought God for answers. ‘What do I do? What can I do?’ At that moment, the appropriate reaction was tears. All I could do was cry! Thankfully, I had the support of my family and close friends who surrounded me with love. They quoted scriptures from the Bible, which gave me strength. I began to receive phone calls from people who had read the book and they said: ‘Wow, I felt like I have heard all that before!’ That’s when I decided to do something. I picked up the phone and called as many supporters as I could.”
The Fresno, Calif.-based mother and wife of a professional athlete acknowledged that there is the slim chance that Foster could have penned the blog essay, however, she believes otherwise.“I cannot and will not say she stole my idea, because you never should assume. However, I will say that It seemed like one heck of a coincidence and everything I touched on she did,” Curry offered.
[From BVBuzz.com]
I bought Curry’s book as an e-book and compared her passages to Foster’s essay to see if I could find any plagiarism. There were very similar ideas, but these concepts aren’t new and Foster might be expected to independently come up with some of these ideas on her own. In one section, in with Foster talks about the “Willie Lynch” syndrome in which slaves were purposefully pitted against each other, her ideas follow Curry’s in the same order and it looks like more than just a coincidence. There is also some sort-of similar wording, suggesting she read Curry’s book at one point.
Tameka Foster’s essay:
There is an adage “hurt people, hurt people”. If this is true then we must examine the root of negative words and judgments that are passed on people. Unfortunately, we have internal stereotypes based off of skin color and facial features that stem from years of programming, dating back to the “Willie Lynch” method for creating a slave. In this infamous formula, one of the main factors in separating and creating division was placing the lighter skinned blacks in a higher position in the house, while those with darker skin were made to stay in the fields and deemed “less desirable”. Much like the Caste System in India. No matter what strides we make as a people, these issues continue to plague and rot our souls, causing significant decay to a portion of our population and truly hindering our progress. Perhaps we show progress in our wallets and lifestyles but not in our mind set.Aisha Curry’s book, p. 59
However, we still use slave-minded mentalities against one another. These actions can also be traced back almost three hundred years ago, with something called Willie Lynch syndrome…. Willie Lynch devised a plan that would keep black people divided…. One of his main focuses was to cause dissention by pitching the old black slaves against the young black males… He also incited factions between the young and the old, the dark skinned slaves and light skinned slaves, and the males and females… Sorrowfully, we see that some of us are still controlled by this awful conditioned mindset right now today, two hundred and ninety seven years later… We have made great strides but not all is said and done.
[Comparison between e-book version of Aisha Curry’s “Pretty for a black girl” and Tameka Foster’s “She’s pretty for a dark-skinned girl” essay, emphasis added]
Note that Curry doesn’t focus as much on the separation of light and dark-skinned slaves as Foster does. The flow of ideas is in the same order, but there aren’t enough similarities to make a claim of plagiarism. I scanned through the book and compared it to Foster’s essay and there are at least two other mildly similar paragraphs. Here’s a google document that compares those two sections.
Given the very similar titles of Foster’s essay and Curry’s book, along with the parallel concepts, I would say that Foster at least read “She’s Pretty for a Black Girl,” and that it inspired her essay. I don’t think she’s plagiarizing per se, but she should have listed her research sources and credited Curry’s ideas. This controversy is taking away from a very positive and thought-provoking message from Curry and Foster. Curry seems to realize this, and is gracious but honest on her blog, writing “It was just too coincidental for me. Something I worked hard to achieve was know being represented by someone else. Well on the positive side at least there is someone out there who understands and is trying to change the minds of others. I can’t accuse someone for doing anything. So, all I can do is continue to work hard and help others see the issues behind the words Pretty for a black girl.”
If you’re interested in reading more about this issue, Curry’s book can be downloaded for only $3.95 through her website, AishaCurry.com. I read parts of it this morning and found it both honest and absorbing. You can tell that Curry put a lot of heart and work into it. These are issues that I never deeply considered as a white woman and my eyes were opened, especially by Curry’s personal stories.
Here’s a video of Aisha Curry explaining her book:
Tameka Foster is shown on 7/19/08. Credit: WENN.com
Wow… It does seem Foster at least read Curry’s book, and it looks like she took some liberties with the information. I agree that she should’ve just credited Curry – then there wouldn’t have been a problem.
As for pretty “for a black girl,” that concept is foreign to me. Girls are pretty, no matter their color/race.
Aisha Curry makes a good point, although I don’t think the “Pretty for a…” line is exclusively a racial issue. I have voluptuous friends who get the “if only she were slimmer she’d be so beautiful” line, whilst I’m 6’1″ and clothing stores and men have little time for us tall girls!
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Unfortunately, I lost all respect for Tameka Foster’s “I don’t feel like I have to fit the cookie-cutter, size 2, blah” spiel when she booked a flight to Brazil to have all the fat sucked out of her backside.
I guess if I were the author, I’d be upset that someone as stupid as Tameka Foster was pretending she has a brain by more or less summing up someone else’s thoughts.
I agree Tameka should have cited Curry in her article. It’s pretty obvious she borrowed ideas from Curry’s work.
Lighter does not equal better. Edgar Winter is about as light as it gets, and although I respect him as an artist, he’s very rough on the eyes.
Bone structure and facial shape often determine levels of attractiveness. That’s a fact of life regardless of color.
Tameka has a some prominent masculine features in my opinion, namely nose and chin. She is not alone in being criticized for certain features. Look at Rumer Willis (enormous chin, always being ridiculed) and Elizabeth Hurley (big nose, Anna Kournikova once said Elizabeth is “so ugly”).
I also think Tameka took a lot of flak for her appearance because people just don’t seem to like or trust her.
Thanks for the link to the book, CB. Should make for an interesting read.
A lot of people are coming out against celebs for writing books with the same concepts as some one else. I think Elizabeth Hasslebeck is the most recent one (other than this one) to be sued over her sugar free book or something like that. Jerrry Seinfeld’s wife is another.
I feel that sometimes, if you’re talking about the same subject, then you’re bound to have some of the same topics. If we’re writing a book on chocolate chips cookies, you can’t sue me for using the word chocolate chip. It’s a very thin line.
Remember when Vanilla Ice was sued for “Ice,Ice Baby” and he claimed he added another “ding” in the hook which makes it different? (running out of this post…)
Wow, you used terrible examples. Both EH and Jessica Seinfeld plagiarized to the point that chapter titles had the same mispellings, recipes that were wildly innovative being presented as original. If you look at the comparisons, it becomes quite clear.
The should run Tameka’s essay/blog through Turnitin.com.
It’s this huge database my university uses to run every essay ever written by a college student, against anything else ever written to pick up on even the slightest degrees of plagiarism.
On a side note, I agree with Miranda…”pretty for a…” isn’t just limited to black people. Here we go again with that crap.
@katyusha people’s perspectives are often influenced by their lived experiences. This can mean race, gender, etc., all of which are a very real element of their lives. so i’d ease up on calling it crap.
Bianca, you are absolutely correct.
However, generally, one one specific group (doesn’t matter who the group is) render themselves the only ones vulnerable to situations like this, I think it’s a little silly.
It’s just my opinion.
You know, though, sadly it is sometimes about the lighter tone of your skin.I know I know, a lot of people are going to give me flak for this one, but Let me just say, when you’re from Mexican roots or your family is very dark and you come out with creamy rosy light coloring or hazel ‘colored’ eyes, its very favorable. People pay more attention to you and your
‘beauty’ is complemented all the time in restaurants or at the mall. And I remember reading an article, I’ll try to find the link to it, that in Mexico, Darker brown people are considered ‘stupider’ than lighter counterparts and are quicker to get jobs, promotions, desirable status, and pick of mates to marry. Which is why so many mexican women color their hair blond or wear foundation too light.Its just the way it is…..
Sorry for the typo…
*WHEN one specific group
Disregarding this current flap, I think people have been really unfair to Tameka. And why? Basically, she’s hated because she’s older than Usher, had three kids already, and doesn’t look like a fashion model (to put it kindly). If he had married a 23 year old, skinny, pretty model, no one would have said a word against her. Yes, there was the rivalry between Tameka and his mother, and I’d love to hear more about that, but it’s sheer sexism for her to be criticized so severely for her age, prior children, and appearance.
I think it IS sad that in today’s world it is still thought of that a light black person is perfectly fine in society and often treated so differently than dark skinned african americans. I see this all the time in stores, malls etc. It is the same way people treat overweight people. I think dark skinned african americans have a tough time in life, and it seems so unfair. I think that is why so many darker skinned people wear long weave and colored contacts. They are trying to appear lighter. Tyra had a special on her show that showed dark skinned women would do just about anything to become a light skinned person with straight silky hair. It was something that was really sad and I felt so sorry for them.