The white German graphic novelist Birgit Weyhe teaches at a US college through an academic
exchange program. At a conference of American Germanists in the Midwest she is accused of
cultural expropriation. Is she exploiting her privileges as a white writer when she tells
stories about Black people? She meets Priscilla Layne an African American professor of German
studies with Caribbean roots. Growing up Priscilla is labelled an 'Oreo': too white for her
Black classmates and too Black for the white kids. Rebelling against everything and everyone
all at once she joins the skinhead movement and becomes a rude girl only to discover a
community where she feels valued. Music clothes hair food class race gender education -
her life and identity are a complex composite. But how should Birgit Weyhe tell a life story
like Priscilla's? What mistakes does she need to avoid? The act of storytelling itself becomes
its own narrative layer in this unique graphic biography.
