On Seltzer--Again

According to Inga Muscio, a friend of Margaret Seltzer’s (and who only discovered Seltzer’s deception when ‘phoned by an agent, Faye Bender, who worked for both Muscio and Seltzer), Seltzer has collected government cheques on the basis of her Native American “ancestry.”

Seltzer managed a long-term masquerade, and she took numerous people in. Among them, Ms. Muscio, Ms. Bender, and Seltzer’s ethnic studies professor. Are these people somehow at fault for believing what appears to have been a well-researched, well-presented character role? No. Ms. Muscio and Ms. Bender have resisted defending Seltzer’s actions, but the good professor’s apologia, however sympathetic and well-intended, backfires in several ways. In my estimation, the most significant is the patronizing element in excusing a white woman’s “giving voice” to a community that Seltzer (and the professor) characterize as “silenced.”

The professor is a kind and generous person. I’m unsurprised that he lent support to a former student undergoing so public an excoriation; however, I am surprised at his means of offering said support.