Story Telling vs. Exploitation

So last week a friend of mine tweeted the following question: How do you tell the story of a marginalized people without exploitation?

Being a sucker for philosophical discussion, I started to type my answer, and found myself backspacing and typing and backspacing again. I was stumped. (Especially with a 140 character limit…)

Over the past week, the question keeps popping back up in my head. Is it possible? Where’s the line between authentic story telling and exploitation? Must authentic story telling necessarily come from a member of the oppressed/marginalized group?

I would love to hear what others think!