Street Lit

I am doing a paper for my multicultural librarianship class on street lit. (That is, literature that focuses on African Americans living in the ghetto). In my research, some African American authors who write more literary fiction are angry because street lit is selling better than their books. Some say it is marketing, the way chain stores display tittles written by African Americans. Others say street lit sells so of course retailers are going to promote it. For librarians this creates collection development issues. Street lit's value for most people is entertainment and public libraries provide resources that entertain as well as inform.

Although, I don't really like street lit mainly because of its substandard sentence structure and adult-only subject matter, it is important for some people. Many librarians have found an increase in circulation in inner-cities. The books also walk out the door at an alarming rate, but that's another story. I think for libraries this is an issue of balance. Certainly, you do not want to focus the entirety of the of the African American fiction collection on street lit, but it's like graphic novels, romance, and other trade paperbacks, people love it. So if it checks out do we stock it?