I kept seeing this question come up when I’d check the search engine terms on my site, so I thought it was time that I made a post addressing it.
“What do black people think of The Help?”
African Americans are just as varied in their opinions of The Help as they were when a similar book with race as a tantilizing addition to the plot was released in 1933.
That novel was Imitation of Life, a book more aligned with The Help than the other novel some tried comparing it to early on, which was To Kill a Mockingbird.
We’re just as divided as some were on the merits of Amos n’ Andy.
The creators of the radio show portraying Amos and Andy
Back during the show’s heyday when it was voiced by two white actors in blackface, it was reported:
Meanwhile, African Americans argued passionately among themselves about the program. While one black newspaper gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures demanding that the show be banned, another chose Amos ‘n’ Andy’s white stars as guests of honor at a parade and picnic for the black children of Chicago.”
But in order to answer the question “What do black people think of The Help?” effectively, it’s important that readers understand the history African Americans have with not only film, but literature in America.
Here are but a few examples of what early screenwriters created to portray African Americans on film:
The cowering male meant to induce laughter with how confused and slow of mind he behaved - Stepin Fetchit perfected and got rich off this character
Stepin Fetchit's greatest role. The cowering, confused black man
The loyal, self-effacing, and also slow of wit female maid, most often portrayed by Louise Beavers.
Louise Beavers, the early screen prototype for Stockett's Aibileen Clark
The bossy, loud mouth maid who could be portrayed by any black actress, as noted below.
Big and Bossy, "Sassy" maid stereotype
However, Hattie Mc Daniel’s lovable cantakerous Mammy walked away with the Oscar in 1940 in the best supporting actress category.
Hattie McDaniel's haunting Oscar pic. Hard not to wonder what she was thinking or going through
Ethel Waters gives comfort, in a scene from Member of The Wedding just like Aibileen and Constantine in The Help
These were roles African Americans had supposedly left behind. Because they were the only roles blacks were allowed to play during segregation.
There were a few exceptions, like Lena Horne and Dorothy Dandridge, beautiful actresses who didn’t default into the stereotype of what a black maid should look like.
January 19,1965 Lena Horne performs on NBC's The Bell Telephone Hour
Actress Dorothy Dandridge
Band of Angels, where Yvonne De Carlo portrayed the mulatto character. Sidney Poitier was also featured as a slave.
Aibileen's folksy sayings and demeanor resemble Uncle Remus from Disney's Song of The Song
But it also must be understood that no matter how beautiful or talented the black performer, domestic and slave parts were the primary roles available. Sometimes an artist could get around it by performing “specialty” numbers because they could either sing or dance. But even then, the entertainer’s segment could be edited out so as not to “offend” southern audiences.
Even more noteworthy were the few roles where a black male was cast as a soldier. Actor James Edwards paved the way for Sidney Poitier and Denzel Washington in two such productions. One film was Home of The Brave, where he played a soldier suffering from Post Traumatic Shock and also experiencing racism, and Bright Victory, where he played a blind soldier.
James Edwards, a trailblazing actor
As time passed (and unless you have TCM – Turner Classic Movies or know a bit about the history of blacks on film, then you may not be aware of much of what I’m referring to).
Even some black journalists and writers don’t appear to know the history of their own culture in literature and in film.
That’s probably why the statement released by the ABWH (The National Association of Black Women Historians) took some by surprise.
Especially since the novel The Help virtually had no criticism when it was first released as a novel.
And also in the form of a PDF: http://www.abwh.org/images/pdf/TheHelp-Statement.pdf
Early criticism of Kathryn Stockett’s novel was ignored, especially any dissent coming from the black community. Our voices were not widely publicized in lieu of the glowing reviews for Stockett’s “authentic” black characters. There again, this was in keeping with previous novels penned by white authors.
For example, criticism of Edna Ferber’s 1926 novel Showboat and its stage incarnations were protested, until finally over the years changes were made. One major change concerned song lyrics. Instead of singing “Niggers work all day on the Mississippi” which had to be sung by black thespians, the line was changed to “Here we go working all day on the Mississippi”
The same sort of tinkering was done with the movie version of The Help, as the novel has Aibileen severely loathing her own skin color (by now the roach scene in the book is infamous). Stockett has Aibileen comparing her color to one of the filthiest insects on the planet where Aibileen states He black. Blacker than me.
When Kathryn Stockett’s polarizing novel was released with at least three characters who fit the retro mode Mammy (loyal, self effacing maid named Aibileen, loud mouth grumpy one named Minny, older earth mother type named Constantine) some black reviewers lauded the characters:
NPR’s Karen Grigsby Bates had this to say:
A Nuanced Novel Of Race In The Deep South
http://www.npr.org/2011/07/29/105920680/a-nuanced-novel-of-race-in-the-deep-south
According to my research (which is still on-going) Grisby Bates has the earliest known review linking The Help with To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Grisby Bates’ quote was picked up by several other news sources, and the whole joining of The Help with Harper Lee’s novel was off and running.
Even Octavia Spencer, who eventually landed the role of Minny got into the act, popping up on different blogs and sites if a review of Stockett’s novel wasn’t entirely complimentary.
Click the image for a larger view:
Octavia Spencer speaks up for The Help
Early on many of the reviews neglected to mention there were pockets of discontent regarding how the African American characters were portrayed. Finally, Michele Norris of NPR brought it up in a 2009 interview with Kathryn Stockett:
‘The Help’ Author Says Criticism Makes Her ‘Cringe’
NORRIS: You know, Southern blacks and Southern whites often sound like each other in terms of their vernacular, but the black Southern dialect does have distinct differences. How did you know when you got it right, when you actually were writing in an authentic black woman’s voice from the 1960s?
Ms. STOCKETT: I guess when I felt like I was having a conversation with Demetrie, but, Michele, I didn’t get it all right. I took liberties that made me feel like I was telling the story in the way it should be told, but I never considered when I was writing how it was going to make other people feel.
I think that’s a huge distinction between writing your first book and your second book. When you’re writing your second book, you can’t help but think how it’s going to make the readers feel.
NORRIS: You know, I’m sure that you know this, that some black woman readers are very uncomfortable in reading the book. The book touches a chord with them, and many are quite angry, either at the situation the domestics find themselves in or the language that you use or the fact that a white woman wrote this book and attempted to get inside the head of black domestics.
What’s your reaction to that? Are you surprised, or do you take some satisfaction that you actually touched a nerve, that you got some sort of emotion, that people are talking about your book?
Ms. STOCKETT: I’m a Southerner – I never take satisfaction in touching a nerve.
Link: http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=120966815
As the novel was released world wide, reviews and accolades poured in. Here’s a cringe-worthy example, to say the least (the items in bold are my doing)
The Help by Kathryn Stockett Fig Tree, £12.99; 451pp This is a big, warm girlfriend of a book about female love that transcends race and class. It’s set in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962 and Aibileen is a black maid, raising her 17th white baby. “Taking care a white babies, that’s what I do,” she says, “along with all the cooking and the cleaning.” Her best friend, Minny, is a short, stout termagant of a cook. Skeeter is a white girl fresh out of college who is now expected to get married. These three women manage to reach across the gulf, to try to change their world. The author, herself a native of Jackson, has a fine understanding of the delicate relationship between Southern belles and their mammies.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/fiction/article6740183.ece
While many of the reviewers who’d given the novel their blessing grudgingly acknowledged in 2010 there was criticism, others chose to solely focus on the dialect and ignore more pressing issues.
In American Literature, portraying minority groups speaking broken english is nothing new. Many times authors are able to get away with this because American culture defaults to the dominant racial group, which is white. Some authors write to attract this group, whether by having a white heroine paired with a white hero, and then perhaps listing a minority as a side character or no minority representation at all.
It appears a number of moviegoers, much like readers for the novel were enamored because there was a protagonist they could identify with.
That character is Skeeter, a perky and pesky Ole Miss graduate played by Emma Stone in the film.
The touch Skeeter dared not do in the book, but was created for the movie. Skeeter never reached out to "touch" any black person.
What’s interesting is that many African Americans don’t state that they identify with either Aibileen, Constantine or Minny.
Many of their reviews make reference to an older relative, such as a grandmother who was a domestic or mother who may have been a maid and that perhaps the three black characters represent their experiences. There again, the opinions vary.
Actor Wendell Pierce of HBO’s Treme, took his mother to view to film. Here’s what he stated:
The Help tops US box office but hits controversy
Adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s book The Help, about white women and black housekeepers, is criticised by Wire actor Wendell Pierce as ‘segregation lite’.
” . . .The Help was well done but was a passive version of the terror of Jim Crow South . . . My mother told me how she wasn’t allowed in the kitchen. She couldn’t eat during a 12-hour shift . . . She couldn’t drink water from the kitchen but had to go to the faucet outdoors . . . Watching the film in Uptown New Orleans to the sniffles of elderly white people while my 80-year-old mother was seething, made clear distinction … the story was a sentimental primer of a palatable segregation history that is Jim Crow light. . . ”
See the full article here:
And children of those who’d been The Help spoke out (of which I’m one, and created this site to voice my dissenting opinion)
The blog is called Before Barack and the post is titled Sniffing Dirty Laundry: A True Story from “the Help’s” Daughter
“Have you ever thought about the fact that the woman you call ‘Odessa’ was the same woman my friends called ‘Mrs. Singley’? That she supported a family on the six dollars and bus fare (fifty cents round trip) your Grandmommy was paying her? That the woman you call your ‘best friend’ was forty years your senior and had another whole life of dignity, hopes, and dreams that had nothing to do with being in service to you and Grandmommy? That maybe “Odessa” didn’t like you as much as felt sorry for you because you were the baby of the family, the one your brother and sister slapped around, the one they were always leaving behind? You ever thought of that?”
Wedding Princess is silent, so I continue.
Link: http://www.beforebarack.com/2011/07/28/sniffing-dirty-laundry-a-true-story
A counter perspective:
In Defense of ‘The Help’
By Demetria L. Lucas
“At its roots, “The Help” is a story about sisterhood between women, showcasing the way we forge bonds and the way we break the ones that should exist. Every woman is oppressed by sexism, racism, class or culture, and in the case of “The Help,” all three. A hard look, reveals the flaws of White womanhood that would go on to launch the feminist movement of the Seventies; dead-end opportunities, being overwhelmed by responsibilities and expectations of homemaking and child rearing, maintaining reliance upon their husbands for survival, etc.
These limited women find their only power by lauding what privilege they do have over their Black maids, and each other. The Black women don’t have anyone to overpower, and rely on each other to find their strength to keep on keeping on. It’s only when these two races of women come together that they gain any progress.
“The Help” is not a perfect film (or book, which I finally read last weekend— and couldn’t put down). There are cringe-worthy moments such as the white heroine’s benevolent obsession with the maid who guided her through a tough adolescence. That rang my Mammy bell. Loud. And watching Black folks swallow daily indignities wasn’t entertaining; it ticked me off. Still, if you can muster the energy to explore the nuances, you’ll find there’s more to glean from the film than you can get from a knee-jerk reaction to the subject matter.”
Read more: http://www.essence.com/2011/07/29/in-defense-of-the-help/
I can’t speak for all African Americans. But I do know that I was sorely disappointed with the novel.
And in this post I’ve tried list opinions both pro and con for the book and the movie.
But just because Viola Davis does an admirable job in the part of Aibileen, that doesn’t mean the role isn’t a stereotype.
THEN:
Hattie McDaniel, Shirley Temple and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson
Pinky Promo poster, starring Ethel Waters and Jean Crain. The nurturing domestic was a popular character during segregation
NOW:
Aibileen and Mae Mobley
Viola as Aibileen and young actress as Mae Mobley
Just because I don’t care for the part or the movie (thus I refuse to see it, after the book left me highly offended) that does not mean I’m looking down on those whose professions were as domestics. On the contrary, I have even more respect for them. It’s just that I don’t believe the book on which the movie is based portrayed the black maids with the respect they deserved. Or that the time period was given the gravity it should have. In addition, though the book and the film are titled The Help, the story is really Skeeter’s, as the maids are simply along to help this character achieve her dream to work in publishing and to leave Jackson. The “sisterhood” being claimed by readers and movie goers appears to be one sided to me. From the reviews of the film, the movie doesn’t deviate from the novel ever having Skeeter publicly proclaim solidarity with the maids of Jackson. Or even inviting them to meet over her home. Skeeter even admitted they weren’t “Friends” as she reveals this from the novel “I know we’re not friends. I’m not that naive.”
As an example of true friendship, here’s nineteen year old Joan Trumpaer Mulholland showing just how much she values her association with Anne Moody, another college activist and author of the novel Coming of Age in Mississippi. Along with Hunter Grey Bear, they are seen in this famous photo of the 1963 Jackson Woolworth Sit-in photo where they’ve being beaten, jeered and pelted with condiments:
1963 Jackson, Mississipp Woolworth sit in. Joan Trumpauer is seated in the center.
Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, note the date on her mug shot as she and others were arrested for their non violent protests in Jackson, MS
I liken what African Americans, both male and female went through during segregation as a Black Holocaust, as the murders, rapes and destruction of whole families lasted well over a century, with its effects still being felt.
She had a name. It was Laura Nelson.
Click on image for a larger view:
Photo by Charles Moore. Two African American women being attacked. Note the bat in the man's hand while another man pummels a woman with his fists.
Stockett’s attempt to portray the white males who kept the wheels of segregation turning, and some of whom were the “muscle” for pro-segregationist groups like the Citizen’s Council (formerly called the White Citizen’s Council and conveniently omitted in the novel and the movie so as not to “offend” southerners once again) plus the ultra violent KKK, as well as a government entity called the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission read to me as an author trying to white wash the time period to suit a revisionist viewpoint, as well as avoid just how close her own family’s roots were in connection to the Citizen’s Council.
The author admitted in the back of the book that her grandparents practiced segregation well into the 70s and the 80s even after the practice had been outlawed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Stockett also admitted in a UK interview that her grandfather’s stables were a place many influential members of the community visited, saying:
“Robert Stockett Sr was an equestrian and he ran a stable, with retired horses given to him by the Southern Cavalry. Everyone in Mississippi knew about Stockett’s Stables. ‘It was a place where people gathered; a lot of older men came there to sit on the porch and talk; people would say that there were more laws made on the porch of Stockett Stables than in the state capital.’
All this is no reflection on Viola Davis, because she didn’t create the character or write the screenplay. It was simply her job to breathe life into the character of Aibileen, and that’s what she did.
Aibileen writing out her thoughts and living the life of an asexual hermit
The character she portrays lives alone, because that’s how onscreen Mammies are written. She lavishes all her attention and love on Mae Mobley, which is another requirement white writers made of black Mammies, that they put the white children they’re assigned to first and foremost. Excerpt from an actual account from a real domestic, recording in the early 1900s:
A Negro Nurse
More Slavery at the South
From The Independent, 72 (Jan. 25, 1912): 196-200. New York: Published for the proprietors, 1912.
” . . . I live a treadmill life; and I see my own children only when they happen to see me on the streets when I am out with the children, or when my children come to the “yard” to see me, which isn’t often, because my white folks don’t like to see their servants’ children hanging around their premises. . . .”
For more real life historical accounts, please see this post
Like many of her writing contemporaries, Kathryn Stockett failed to note the number of maids who used their employment to pay for their college education, never intending to stay as a domestic (items in bold are my doing):
For even more recent accounts, please see this post:
In the fantasies by some white authors which long for black affection (usually female, as the male is a thorn) the black male is usually non-existent, in line with painting African American men as “no-account” and “no-good.” Both labels are used for the black males in the novel The Help. The movie wound up cutting a few of these stereotypical characters, yet Leroy, the antebellum inspired black brute was kept.
Unfortunately just like the novel, moviegoers fail to note that Minny is supposed to be an abused woman. Most just talk about how “funny” she is. Which is again in line with previous on screen Mammies of old who were enlisted to provide humor.
An example of an animated Mammy caricature for children:
The Mammy Two shoes caricature from Tom and Jerry cartoon
Classic children’s novels also contained this maid/Mammy caricature. Raggedy Ann had Belindy as a caretaker for the stuffed dolls.
Beloved Belindy image from the Ferris University Museum. Click image to be redirected to Ferris Museum Jim Crow images
"Beloved" children's novel The Three Golliwogs
Delilah, Mammy, Annie, these a just a few names of female maids from Hollywood history. And now The Help’s Aibileen, Minny and Constantine join them as being “beloved” caricatures of African Americans.
While Delilah and Annie both had a daughter, they sought no further companionship and simply played the shoulder to lean on for the white star. In fact, much like in The Help, these characters assisted the white lead to acheive her dreams.
In the case of Delilah, the 1933 screenplay for the film Imitation of Life stuck close to the novel, as Delilah gave up her family’s pancake recipe. In the 1959 version Delilah’s name is changed to Annie, who has a young daughter almost the same age as the lead character, re-named Laura.
Screen siren Lana Turner played Laura, and the audience watches Laura’s rise from a model to a broadway star. Yet Annie remains the housekeeper, content to bask in Laura’s triumps as well as comfort her when the actress experiences a broken heart.
Juanita Moore played Annie, in the 1959 version of Imitation of Life. For her portrayal of the long suffering maid, she was nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar. Lana Turner played Laura
Annie, like Delilah is relegated to a supporting character, behind her own light enough to pass for white daughter. Juanita Moore earned an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of the long suffering, loyal maid Annie.
In each version of the film, the lead character is the white mother and her daughter’s love triangle with a family friend, and when the action shifts to Delilah/Annie, the focus is on the daughter who longs to be white.
In The Help, the mother daughter dynamics are a bit different, but Skeeter and Charlotte’s testy relationship is front and center.
As an avid reader, it’s not as if I haven’t been able to relate to the white characters. If you read enough fantasy and paranormal romance then you know that often the lead characters in this genre tend to be white.
But The Help was billed as a novel that dealt with the unsung domestics.
Yet a closer look at the novel, the movie and other films dealing with black domestics reveals while Kathyrn Stockett’s execution was different, the black characters were essentially following a similar pattern to previous incarnations.
1) The lead domestic is alone or without a significant other
a. Aibileen is alone, in both the novel and the movie. So is Constantine.
b. Delilah is alone, Annie is alone, Mammy is alone (though she’s also a slave)
c. TV had Beulah, played by both Hattie McDaniel and Louise Beavers. Again, this character was
alone.
2) The supporting domestic provides comedic relief
a. An example would be Prissy from Gone With The Wind. Her famous line was “I don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ no babies”
b. In The Help, Minny’s signature line may very well be “Frying chicken make you tend to feel better about life”
c. In Beulah the comedic relief was her friend Oriole.
3) The African American male is usually nagged by the maid for being lazy, shiftless or generally up to no good
a. Imitation of Life (the novel) has Delilah revealing her husband was a “White nigger” as well as a bigamist
b. In The Help, Kathryn Stockett creates Leroy, Connor, Clyde and Minny’s father. Each of these males are negatively labeled. Connor and Clyde are absentee fathers, with Clyde getting the additional negative title of Crisco because Aibileen deems him “The greasiest no-count you ever known.” She also trains their young son Treelore to refer to his father as Crisco, further emasculating the black male and making him the ultimate villain of segregation, at least for Stockett’s maids. Even Constantine is without a significant other, (Connor) and lives alone for the remainder of her life. Leroy is a violent drunk who physically abuses Minny while their children live in terror of his rage. Minny also calls her father a drunk a well as “no good.”
No white male, not even the naked pervert who Minny confronts is called a name. On the contrary, Kathryn Stockett plays omni-present narrator and “tells” the reader that Stuart is a good man, that Carlton Phelan is an honest man, and that Senator Stoolie Whitworth is a conflicted man who’s just doing the will of his constituents. Stockett also rehabilitates Constantine’s white father, even though he’s sired several bi-racial children and is unable to provide for them. After he cries and tells Constantine that he’s sorry, he joins the list of white males the author seems intent on keeping untainted.
For more on where The Help went wrong with the African American characters, please see this post
To be continued . . .
saintpaulgirl
September 22, 2011
I enjoy reading books with characters and settings completely foreign to me. I don’t presume they have mastered the field in that setting or that they are presenting the one and only truth about it, but I certainly hope they are presenting a truthful story. I don’t think the question here is whether Stockett is presenting “the whole truth” about this era of our history, only whether she is engagingly presenting a truthful piece of it. As this era and being African American are both foreign to me, I can’t honestly say if Stockett has done that, I only hope it. I don’t think anything here successfully argues that she hasn’t, though. I don’t like movies where all female characters are pretty/silent/secondary attachments to men, but I’m still o.k. with those movies being made and shown because there may be other things to learn about being human from them and there are women who are pretty/silent/secondary attachments to men.
Every piece of fiction doesn’t have to be everything to everyone. What I mostly want from art is to learn about being human and ultimately to be a better human because of it. There is no “whole truth” and no piece of fiction should be judged by how well it tells the “real whole truth.”
I learned from the book “Other Peoples’ Children” that the language and culture spoken in African American homes is something we should respect and honor in our schools. Based on this, I would say referring to African American dialect as “broken english” is insulting.
My former husband is the son of WWII Holocaust survivors. He was offended by the movie Schindlers List, saying something like “that’s my story, they don’t have a right to put that up for public display.” Of course he has a right to feel violated by that movie but I don’t think that right outweighs the world’s right to deal with that aspect of that era of our history. It may feel private, but it ultimately is public. I feel similarly about The Help. The picture isn’t pretty and I understand how those for whom this history is real might feel violated seeing/reading the images, but fiction is a very powerful way for those of us without that history to learn and thereby become more human, more part of the whole human race.
I think men can write female characters, even lead ones, and I think French people can make movies with American characters, and I think white women can write books with black characters, both male and female. I don’t think we should demand those writing fiction to always only have characters who are like themselves or who are fine, upstanding representations of their culture. I don’t think the question should be whether the characters in The Help are similar to characters in other books and movies or whether they portray “black men,” “black women,” “white women” or “white men” well or completely. I think the main question should be, “Is there a truth being presented here and can I learn from it?” It is one thing to point out how a novel disappoints (“I’m tired of movies with trivial female characters,” or “I just can’t watch a dramatization of spousal abuse”) and another to dismiss it out of hand because of those things.
I am pained by race relations in my country. I want to be an engine for repairing those relations. Reviews like this suggest that, as a white American, anything I have to say about our country’s racial history is illegitimate, any attempt on my part to empathize with the experience of African Americans is an affront, and any thought I have about race is by definition racist. I really really really hope that’s wrong because if it’s right, there really is no way to repair this divide.
acriticalreviewofthehelp
September 22, 2011
Hello saintpaulgirl,
“As this era and being African American are both foreign to me, I can’t honestly say if Stockett has done that, I only hope it. I don’t think anything here successfully argues that she hasn’t, though.”
While I thank you for your opinion, your post is somewhat contradictory and confusing. In the quote from above, you blithely dismiss the opinions of real African Americans over a novel/movie housing fictional representations of them.
It’s important to remember that Stockett has been upfront about being raised in a household that practiced segregation during the 70s and 80s when the practice had been banned by Federal Law (Back of her novel, under the section Too Little, Too Late).
While many simply give the author the benefit of the doubt and believe she “captured” African Americans in her book, what they fail to note is that a number of individuals who lived during segregation recogize where the author went astray. Because instead of remembering to filter out the negative myths she’d been taught about African Americans, the author concocted scenes and dialogue using the black characters to voice bigoted ideology that originated not from the black culture, but whites who believed in segregation to the letter.
Case in point is Aibilene crowing about “Don’t drink coffee or you’ll turn colored.” That was a slur/joke bigoted whites taunted other whites with, as being “black” was to be avoided at all costs. Throughout the novel and reportedly in the movie, Stockett and screenwriter Tate Taylor repeat the same mistake. The result is a demeaning of the maids they claimed to want to pay homage to.
Minny’s infatuation with fried chicken and stereotypical dialogue in the film is another example. In an attempt at comedy, they wound up insulting some viewers.
Later in your post you claim that what you say won’t be heard simply because you’re white. I submit that you’re doing the very thing you claim others are doing to you.
Throughout this site, I’ve quoted reviewers of several ethnicities and races who didn’t care for The Help. It’s not just African Americans.
Here’s a link to the reviews from Australia and also reviews of the movie from a diversity of posters.
http://acriticalreviewofthehelp.wordpress.com/2011/09/19/overseas-reviews-and-numbers-for-the-help/
http://acriticalreviewofthehelp.wordpress.com/the-help-movie-cleans-up-after-itself-the-novel/reviews-on-the-help-movie/
While some are complimentary of the movie, others pinpoint what turned them off.
The same thing occurred with the novel. So please understand, this isn’t about YOU.
The title is “What do black people think of the help?” with examples of opinions from African Americans.
If you take the time to either google “Segregation” or “Civil Rights” you might learn exactly why being able to express how we feel is important, after years of an oppressive system that told us our “opinions” as well as our very lives weren’t important, especially if you truly intend on being “an engine” for repairing race relations.
A good first step would be to take a look at the history of blacks in America, from our literature to the struggle for civil rights, especially since the freedom movement was one of the greatest struggles and triumph for human rights in the world.
But again, that’s only if you truly are sincere about being this “engine” you speak of, instead of just giving your opinion while revealing you know nothing of the issues dissenters (who aren’t made up of solely African Americans) have with the novel and the movie.
cinnamonb
September 27, 2011
Hello!
I came across your site because of what is possibly going to happen at my college. I teach at a community college and I recently learned (but most of the members probably don’t know that I have) that the One Book, One College Committee is actually considering this book as their choice for next year. From what little I knew of it, I was skeptical about it. Just the whole idea of African American women being maids again in the novel and on screen I didn’t find appealing. So the other night I looked up some reviews at Amazon.com and one review had the synopisis. From that I just knew fhat I wouldn’t like the book anyway. But it’s been gnawing at me. I’ve been lookng for Aftrican American responses to The Help and that’s how I found your blog. If you’re at all accurate, it’s even worse than I imagined. And certainly not a good choice for our college. That puts me in a quandry though. Short or praying they’ll choose another book ( and believe me I’m doing that!) do you have any suggestion for a strategy that will not totally alienate people nor tip my hand too much?
Thanks.
acriticalreviewofthehelp
September 27, 2011
Hi cinnamonb,
Thanks for your post.
Yes, you are in a quandry. There will be instructors who love the novel and fail to see the problems in the book. Depending on how its taught, stereotypes of African Americans will be re-inforced under what I call the “Those poor black people” attitude.
Some will cling to the belief that African Americans had to be prodded into seeking equality, which is what The Help slyly suggests.
Far too many people don’t know about segregation, even though its one of the greatest struggles for human rights in the world. I’d suggest bringing up
The National Association of Black Women historians statement on the book and the movie:
Their statement is on the ABWH website: http://www.abwh.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2:open-statement-the-help&catid=1:latest-news
There’s also this thought provoking piece, by a blogger named Macon D:
” Here’s something that I as a white person can never really know — what’s it like for non-white children when they have to sit through an education system that still normalizes and glorifies white people and white ways, more or less all of the time? A system that also still denigrates the contributions and lived experiences of people of color, more or less all of the time?”
http://stuffwhitepeopledo.blogspot.com/2010/07/force-non-white-students-to-read-great.html
And this excellent, first person account from a woman whose mother was The Help:
http://www.beforebarack.com/2011/07/28/sniffing-dirty-laundry-a-true-story
Students need to understand that publishing and Hollywood have a history of sanitizing books and movies about minoritites, especially when written by non-minority authors.
Classics we now question is a blog post that explores this.
http://acriticalreviewofthehelp.wordpress.com/classics-we-now-question/
I still think you’ll get resistance, no matter how tactful you are. But perhaps there will be other instructors who’ll become your ally in this.
And if the book is taught, then a class giving a counter viewpoint should be suggested. Let the students decide. Personally, I’d suggest Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns instead of The Help or Richard Wright’s Native Son. Or even Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man
I guess the question is whether they simply want the students to be entertained, or to challenge them, and any perceptions or pre-conceived notions they harboured on race.
My best to you.
cinnamonb
September 27, 2011
Hi -
Lots of good info there. Thanks. I don’t know why thry’re not considering The Warmth of Other Suns , at least. That has received pretty good press, and certainly would be a worthy candidate. I acturally gave them a suggestion: – Limbo: Working Class Roots, Middle Class Dreams by Alfred Lubrano. It’s supposed to be about his coming of age as the son of a brick mason, having middle class dreams going into college and career, and straddling both worlds. That book came to my attention because I read Mr. Lubrano in the Phila. Inquirer frequently; he often does stories about hunger and poverty in Phila.. I thought that would be a great one to get some discussions going with our students – and that was before I ever learned of their consideration of The Help.
I teach Math so I often don’t do much with the OBOC myself – it’s often used more in Englisn and maybe Soc. or History classes. But een Art classees have been involved – one time they made possible new book covers for the book that year. A class giving a counter viewpoint may be a good suggestion; well see. Usually 3 big things happen: a panel discussion (faculty, students, sometimes community members), a shoeing of the coordinating movie, and definitely an author visit. One thing I’m hoping is that Ms. Stockett will be so booked she won’t be able to visit us – so they’d choose another book!
I will definitely ceck out your links(esp. NABWH and that first person account).lI’m also going to keep praying. And I’ll keep my eyes and ears open for deelopments.
Take care!