I have a theory. We, consumers of media in a capitalist, money-obsessed country, love a good fraudster. There's some compelling evidence, too.
Exhibit A: Catch Me If You Can, the high-grossing 2002 film in which Leonardo DiCaprio plays the charming, quick-thinking Frank Abagnale, who was a con man in his youth, forging his identity almost as convincingly as he forged his checks. Exhibit B: Can You Ever Forgive Me?, the critically acclaimed 2018 film where the indomitable Melissa McCarthy plays author Lee Israel, who forged and sold letters ostensibly written by famous authors and actors. Exhibit C: If you haven't heard yet of Anna Delvey, aka Anna Sorokin, the young woman who scammed her way through New York City's elite by pretending to be a German heiress, I don't know whereyou've been. She's all over the media — and a movie is coming about her, too.
What do all of these have in common? They're white, and they conned individuals who moved in their circles. On the other hand, few, it seems, know the true story of another con artist — Linda Taylor — a mixed-race woman who wasn't allowed to attend the white school in her sundown town. She does not have a blockbuster movie being made about her, but she could. She passed as white, black, Latina, Hawaiian, and Filipina at different times; she wore fabulous clothes and drove incredible cars at some points in her life; she must have been charming — as well as domineering and controlling — because she kept ingratiating herself into people's lives and earning their trust before betraying it. And the thing is, even if you think you haven't ever heard of her, you have: She is the 1970s Ronald Reagan boogeyman, a racist dog-whistle-turned-stereotype, the ever-infamous Welfare Queen.
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