Rude Girl

Rude Girl | By Birgit Weyhe

The white German graphic novelist Birgit Weyhe teaches at a US college through an academic exchange programme. 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, discovering 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.