My child and I finally had “the talk”.
You know the one where they look at you in horror as you answer their questions on the “old” days.
It’s every parent’s nightmare when they respond with “I don’t think I could have made it back then. I don’t know how you did it.”
I dunno. I was born smack in the middle of an era when civil rights was heating up, and the black power movement began. It was a glorious time when everything was a conspiracy theory and Attica! Attica! was shouted down the school hallways with a raised fist. My white friends wore Afros. My afrocentric friends wore Cornrows and Dashiki’s. Brothers called females “My Queen” and “sister” when they greeted you. There was this mysterious entity called THE MAN and if you acted like you weren’t down with the program, well you just weren’t cool enough to hang. I was young enough to enjoy it all, and old enough to realize once I stepped out of my multi-racial neighborhood things were different.
I’d fall back on what my mother drummed into my head about speaking one way at home and another in public.
Quiet and observant in school, rowdy and inquisitive around the members of my community who were older and wanted to educate me on “how it was” I listened. And I learned.
And now I’m passing it on.
What you do with the information that you read on this site is your business. But don’t say you weren’t told. Don’t say that when The Help came out that there weren’t readers both white and black who didn’t object to the depiction of the maids, and even how the white characters were stereotyped. Because there were. WE did speak out. Only some of you weren’t listening.
Kathryn Stockett’s novel is only a symptom of a much bigger problem. It’s not THE problem.
I don’t have the time or inclination to educate anyone on the ways of black folk. All I know is, dignity is a beautiful thing. And it’s in short supply among the pages of The Help, no matter how many people think its just so wonderful that Stockett has fond memories of her “mammy” (UK reviewers tend to use that term a lot. For the record, its OFFENSIVE to African Americans)
And on that note, I am woman so hear me fuckin’ roar.
No longer Miss, they call me “Ma’am”
Yes, I have weight around the middle but I sure wouldn’t call it a “friendly” and to hell if it’s “soft”
I’m referencing the novel here, where Skeeter says this about Aibileen: She’s a little plump in the middle, but it’s a friendly softness. (Pg 78)
I dont’ want to read about what you think you know about black people and our customs, if you don’t know then don’t just make up obnoxious shit and you won’t get called on it.
Because when I opened up The Help I thought I would read about three black women who really were black women.
Not just some hokey dialogue that was simply created so the author could have a memorable film moment when a movie reel is played at some awards show:
“You is kind, you is smart, you is-“ (as Frazier would say, oh you get the picture!)
What pray tell, would have been wrong with saying “You’re kind, you’re smart. . . ” etc. etc. No, it had to be uttered exactly as written in the novel.
Could there be anything as vile and contrived as that dialogue? Or as condescending?
How about the uneasy closeness it has to something written for an episode of Amos n Andy :
Excerpt from Ebony Magazine article:
“Gosden, who on radio played both the role of Amos and the Kingfish, was soon asked not to come on the set after a run-in with Spencer Williams and his characterization of Andy. And he remained away during the entire filming of the TV series.
“We couldn’t get together on this use of dialect,” Williams explained. “He wanted me to say ‘dis here and dat dere’ and I wasn’t going to do it. He said he ‘ought to know how Amos ‘n Andy should talk,” but I told him Negroes didn’t want to see Negroes on TV talking that way. Then I told him I ought to know how Negroes talk. After all, I’ve been one all my life. He never came back on the set.”
Page 70, Article by Edward T. Clayton in Ebony Magazine
Short URL link: http://alturl.com/shkqw
Please know also, that when Kathryn Stockett reflects in the back of her novel on Demetrie, the real life maid she states inspired the character of Aibileen, here’s how she words Demetrie’s esteem building (items in bold are my doing):
“She would stand me in front of the mirror and say, “You are beautiful. You are a beautiful girl,” when clearly I was not. (Pg 448)
Hmm. Somewhere along the way Aibileen became a stereotype, not just in character but in her speech pattern.
Here’s Aibileen, a woman with such a low opinion of herself that for entertainment, she sits alone in her kitchen waiting on the company of a roach to come out from under a bag. And then when it does, Stockett decides the best quip she should say is “He black. Blacker than me.”
So how in the world does Aibileen rate instilling confidence in anything, when she can’t even figure out that she’s worth more than a roach?
Aibileen gets to laugh while hiding out in the kitchen
And the kicker is, Aibileen can grin and dote on the white children, but gets judgmental in the book when describing Minny’s youngest daughter Kindra noting that “She sass walk”.
From page 396 of the novel:
Kindra- she seven now – she sass walk her way to the stove and with her bottom sticking out and her nose up in the air. – Aibileen’s inner thoughts while watching Kindra.
If this had been Mae Mobley, Aibileen would have been rushing to help the seven year old prepare dinner. Instead as the scene progresses, Aibleen is too chicken shit to stay and face Leroy, after he wakes up raging at Benny, Minny’s second youngest child.
We make it out the door and down the street fore we hear Leroy hollering at Benny for waking him up. I walk faster so she (Minny) don’t go back and give Leroy what he good for. (Pg 397, Aibileen)
Click image for larger view:
Aibileen's attention to the children
She also becomes such an Uncle Tom that when Gretchen tells Skeeter off, Aibileen practically hisses like a mountain lion at her, demanding that she get out of her house. Aibileen never gets this upset at anyone else in the book, not even when she has a “confrontation” with Hilly at the novels end.
Good old Aibileen. If I may appropriate a line reportedly said by Billie Holiday about Louis Armstrong “Of course Aibileen toms, but she toms from the heart.”
Another problem is the number of people of color reading this book and not knowing. Some can’t comprehend that they’ve just been insulted, and don’t know what to do about it.
But I know what I read.
Look, there’s no way in hell a woman, no matter what race would compare herself to a roach. A fuckin’ roach.
DO YOU GET HOW MESSED UP THAT IS?
And what part of “nuanced” do some major reviewers not understand? Because this sure as hell isn’t “nuanced” especially when Stockett herself laments she’d wished she could change “little nuances.”
“I agree that black voices are undervalued,” Stockett says. But she set out to write one story, a piece of fiction with voices that sounded to her ears like music, that were close to her heart. “I don’t think I got it right by any means,” she says. “I wish I could change little nuances.”
Oh, ya mean “little nuances” like this one (which certainly isn’t nuanced at all, but a very direct slight):
I’ll make it easy for people, here’s the definition:
Nuance: A subtle difference or distinction in expression, meaning, response, etc.
1. subtlety, nicety, hint, refinement.
"Beloved" children's novel The Three Golliwogs
And this:
"So black I couldnt' tell them apart"
And this:
Figurines, like black lawn jockies and hefty maids were popular accessories during segregation
And this, which is from the Disney “Classic” animated feature Dumbo
Faceless Rostabouts from Dumbo
Yet a group of reviewers picked up the word “nuanced”, just like many jumped on the “To Kill A Mockingbird” tag that someone wrongly attributed to this book and ran with it, so that virtually every piece I read on the novel contained the same phrases.
There was no critique or thorough analysis, just cloned articles. And no one bothered to question how The Help even came to be, warts and all. Seems the Disney-esque cover of the book blinded even the mass media from digging further.
See this post for more information:
Case in point, what was up with the males in the novel?
I’ve gone into how Stockett demeaned the black male something fierce in the book on this site, but the white southern male is practically canonized.
So what am I supposed to believe? That somehow, Southern men kept their dick in their pants? Really?
That miraculously, unlike other men, they didn’t stray outside the marriage bed, especially if they got engaged to a deathly pale, tall, thin blonde woman with a bump on her nose who was nicknamed “Skeeter” by her older brother because she looked like a mosquito?
Yet a handsome senator’s son, just getting over a broken heart to a beauty queen decides to call her “pretty”
Again, complete and utter fan fiction BS.
Worse yet, is how Stockett has a love affair with the very idea of the antebellumwhite southern male, (I’m referring to those who practiced segregation) and makes just about everyone of them in the novel gainfully employed, liberal, and strangely oblivious to the Citizen’s Council (formerly the White Citizen’s Council of Jackson), a pesky thing called segregation, or that they’re smack in middle of the turning point in the civil rights movement.
Ole Miss sign, you can't "miss" it
Solidarity for Segregation at Ole Miss
There’s also the “different” voices Stockett dreams up for the white and black characters. The employers have no regional accent, they don’t discuss anything as brazen as “spoilt cootchies” over bridge, and somehow a twenty-four year old wanna be socialite named Hilly is the Queen B of Jackson, ruling over the city with an iron will. Oh Please. Now that really is bad fiction.
Hmm. I just had a devious idea.
Hilly talks spoilt cootchies
Click image for a larger view:
Skeeter says goodbye to her new friends
Edited to add:
I must thank Alina for this find. Here’s the link to a site called The Editing Room.
The screenplay for THE HELP has been given satirical treatment by James M, a 24 year old amateur scriptwriter from Australia.
Link: http://www.the-editing-room.com/the-help.html
Please read just one of the many hilarious scenes featuring the dreaded Douche Ex-Machina (term used by James M.) click the image for a larger view:
Douche Ex Machina of The Help
A Critical Review of the novel The Help 
caitielady1
September 5, 2011
This was a horrible judgment of the book and movie, on your part. Did you grow up during this EXACT time period that the story takes place, I don’t think so! YOU don’t know any better than anyone else your age or younger. The only people who really know are the people who were there, which was NOT you. You are just trying to find a reason to be mad and upset. The movie was good it depicted the era well, whether you like it or not. Talk to your parents and grandparent they’re the ones who can truly have an opinion about it, and if they choose be upset that’s fine they have the right. In that time African Americans were not given as many opportunities it’s sad, but maybe that is why the language and diction used was not as good in front of white people. The way the movie was depicted and the way the book was written was how the author viewed everything in her life. She wasn’t trying to be offensive. You’re just looking for a way to be offended by a book that could move you, but you won’t allow yourself to be moved. Maybe you should try watching the movie or reading the book with a different attitude. One that is a little more open and understanding, you might find yourself getting something out of it or appreciating it.
acriticalreviewofthehelp
September 6, 2011
The dialogue is offensive. The whole book is offensive and insulting to African Americans. Put your critical thinking cap on. While the time period treated African Americans horribly, Stockett writes the characters as STEREOTYPES. Just because you don’t recognize them as being such (asexual, docile, loyal Mammy character which is Aibileen. Sassy, comedic grumpy Mammy is Minny, earth mother, hug you to her bosom to comfort you – Ethel Waters rip off character is Constantine)
Stockett loaded her novel up with so many literary tropes (Leroy is the black “brute” character. seen in early incarnations of Thomas Dixon’s The Clansman novel and Birth of a Nation where white actors were in blackface) its no wonder she couldn’t keep them straight.
You also seem to forget or don’t realize the author has admitted being raised in a pro-segregationist household (via her grandparents)
Enlighten yourself and read more. Start with posts on this blog:
Stockett thought she was being cute by claiming “I just made this shit up!” (your girl’s exact quote) but much of what was “made up” comes from actual segregationist ideology on African Americans.
I recognized the gossip, the myths, the insults spread about my culture and so do others. I could care less what she was “trying” to do. The woman admitted doing no research on the African American culture. She defaulted to old stereotypes and jokes about black people instead of realizing she needed to omitt much of what she’d been wrongly taught about how African Americans behave and even look and now you’re upset because a real live black person read the book and is offended by them?
The movie cleaned up much of what Stockett wrote that was downright obnoxious in her assumption of blacks, but the book still exists and the film wouldn’t have been made without the novel.
Next time bring less emotion and more facts to back up your argument.
caitielady1
September 8, 2011
Maybe i didn’t notice the stereotypes because i wasn’t raised to, obviously she was raised in a pro-segregationist household, but what I did notice is how i felt during the movie. I felt for Abilene and it made me mad at my own race for even thinking to treat people like that, which i think was the point of the movie (to be moving and make people think about past history). I try to look at things positively so rather than look at every thing that maybe she didn’t do perfectly with the book (which she openly admits) I remember what I felt watching the movie and think about how I can learn from it. It made me grateful for my grandparents who taught my parents to love everyone no matter what race or background they’ve come from even though they lived in a time when segregation was real. It made me grateful to live in a time period where now everyone has equal opportunities and that we are not segregated. Maybe I’m not African-American, but i think i am a pretty caring and understanding person and to me it kind of seems like right off the bat you went into it with the worst possible attitude. Can’t you just be grateful for what we have now. To me i see Abilene as a brave woman who stood up for herself when times were hard, who took a risk because it might help someone else, not as asexual and docile. I saw her as a loyal friend and loving mother to all her children of both races. I saw Minny as a strong, passive, scared woman who needed change in her life but needed the help of her friend to change it. And Constantine as a hard working mother who wanted to see happiness in everyone. Do you see the difference between our two opinions? yes, I am white and you’re African-American, but that doesn’t mean our opinions can’t be similar i believe its strictly based on attitude. seriously i don’t like to argue but look at the book with a new perspective and maybe you might find a smidgen of good from it rather than absolute dire.
acriticalreviewofthehelp
September 9, 2011
You loved it. I didn’t.
It’s called having a difference of opinion, something African Americans weren’t allowed to openly express during segregation.
And while you were blessed to have parents who taught you not to see color, that’s not how society operated for over a century after slavery. Even now racial prejudice is a problem. It’s far too simplistic to chalk all this up to how a film made you “feel” when there’s a shameful history in America of treating minorities as less than human.
However many of us function quite well in spite of obstacles sometimes placed in our way or lingering myths about how we may or may not behave.
Please don’t confuse my not enjoying this book with anything above and beyond that, which is the sense I’m getting from you. My opinion is my opinion and if you really are as optimistic as you state, then at the very least you’d agree to disagree.
Being overcome with emotion while viewing a film which still contains a number of stereotypes ( for example, a majority of the maids are dark complexioned, when African Americans of all skin tones were guided into domestic professions. There was even a domestic “school” proposed in the 1920s just for African Americans).
There’s a reason for diversity training. It helps those who know very little about other cultures to be able to gain an understanding. While you have a ton of compassion, you may also want to gather insight on the history of other ethnic groups and races which would enlighten you more when addressing one.
caitielady1
September 10, 2011
thank you for your insight. Yes this conversation started with anger, but i think everyone is entitled to their own opinions. Thank you for sticking to yours it really made me think.
Linda Pritz (@lpritz)
December 29, 2011
You state “What pray tell, would have been wrong with saying ‘“You’re kind, you’re smart. . . “’ etc. etc. No, it had to be uttered exactly as written in the novel.” But the title of your article says it is some of the “worse” dialogue ever. The word to use is “worst” not “worse”. If you’re going to be the grammar police, maybe you should study a little grammar yourself.
acriticalreviewofthehelp
December 29, 2011
Hello Linda.
Uh, you do realize I’m following Stockett’s lead. “You is some of the worse dialogue ever.” What failed to give it away? Apparently you missed the sarcasm, just like you missed the point of the post isn’t about being the “grammar police” but that the character’s dialogue is stereotypical and offensive.
I love it when I get folks who worship the novel but don’t quite know how to defend Stockett’s work, so you make up some bullshit excuse like “grammar police.”
Oh, and Linda? Have a nice day and kiss my az.
crystalclear123
January 3, 2012
It’s interesting that all of the roles in the book and movie are referred to as being “stereotypical”. I agree that it is completely outrageous that women would not be much aware that they are smack in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement, but let’s face it: there are women today who are unaware that there is a world out there separate from the Jersey Shore and Real Housewives. I mean, let’s not kid ourselves, unfortunately there are people in the world who are so consumed with themselves that current events are not even a consideration. While I understand that it is frustrating to think that some people who read a book or watch a movie would think all people of that color are exactly that way, it is important to remember that SOME are, and this book and movie are simply a depiction of a few fictional characters this author is portraying. My mother grew up in Atlanta during the Civil Rights Movement and has admitted that although, as in most “feel good” movies there are some things that could “only happen in a movie” and certainly “exaggerated” for entertainment purposes, that it was and is pretty true to what life was like back then. I would be interested to read about the research/interviewing Stockett used to write the book. I would hope it was done responsibly, but nonetheless, let’s remember the intent of the movie and book here. It wasn’t written as a means to teach about history. In fact the themes are more about the relationships among women and the invaluable qualities every woman possesses, regardless of color, nationality, level of education, and status. Another stronger theme intended by the author is to expose yourselves to the things of which you are ignorant; talk to people; get their perspectives and understand that we all play an equal part in the world we live in; Treat people with the respect they deserve and educate yourself on what’s going on in the world around you so that you can be capable of doing that. Let’s not be so quick to take offense and realize that when we do, we only give racism/stereotyping that much more power over us.
acriticalreviewofthehelp
January 3, 2012
Hi crystalclear123
Thanks for your post. You may want to read this post:
With the woeful bit of research Stockett did, the author stated that Medgar Evers was “bludgeoned” in three audio interviews (one of which was with Barnes and Noble). Thus the novel has this inner dialogue of Skeeter’s on Pg 277 ” . . . or hell, bludgeoned in their front yard like Medgar Evers”
Stockett is native of Jackson, MS by the way, and the PR spin played up this fact. While I don’t think any author need be a historian, had Stockett been a man and made this error, she would have been barbequed. She could have easily googled how Evers died. Which brings up the question of how is it she couldn’t recall his means of death when she wrote about it in her own book?
When pressed (not sure if Evers error was brought up) at a public event, Stockett stated “I just made this shit up!”
Link:https://acriticalreviewofthehelp.wordpress.com/2011/08/28/i-just-made-this-shit-up-per-stockett/
In addition, when the author was asked:
D.N.: When you interviewed people for the book, was there anything that stood out?
K.S.: What stood out was the emotion that white people had about the connection to their black maids. When I spoke to black people it was surprising to see how removed they were emotionally from those they worked for.
That was not always the case, but it was one of the dynamics that struck me. Sometimes it was a total disregard. It was just a job.”
Link: http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2011/feb/11/q-help-author-work-book-no-2/
This is important because a major premise of the book is the mutual affection between the African Americans maids and their employers/children. While an argument can be made as to whether the employers, who are grown should be included in the “affection myth” note what Stockett reveals in another audio interview:
“I think they were surprised that I was able, hopefully able to portray the love we felt for these woman and that you know, I assume that they felt for us . . .” (11:29 into the interview)
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/speakingvolumes/2009/05/26/interview-with-kathryn-stockett
“These women” are the black domestics. So how did the author go from ignoring that a majority of her black respondents stated it was just a job, to “I assume that they felt for us” to Skeeter’s contention in the novel and film that “We love them and they love us.”
And yes, there were women like Hilly, and Aibileen and Minny. But while Hilly is a clear cut bigot, Aibileen is written as “admirable” when she would have been called out for being an Uncle Tom. Because in the novel, she can coddle and nurture Mae Mobley and grin about her white charges, but nothing in the book (or the movie apparently) has her doing the same type of esteem building with the children of her best friend, when these kids needed it more than Mae Mobley.
In the novel, Aibileen tells one of her other 18 kids not to drink coffee or he’ll turn colored. This is an old joke, but it wasn’t stated by blacks. Whites who were bigoted used it. And in a surprising turn, good old compassionate Aibileen turns judgmental while watching Minny’s youngest daughter Kindra, a child only three years older than Mae Mobley in the novel. In the only scene they have together, Aibileen notes this about Kindra “She sass-walk her way to the stove with her bottom sticking out and her nose up in the air…” Pg 396
Throughout the book, Minny’s daughters read like stereotypes. Belligerent and mouthy. Not so for the white children in the book. The reader is aware that Mae Mobley is unfairly labeled a handfull, but not Minny’s kids.
But perhaps the biggest problem is how Stockett separates the black maids from their significant other, and all three end up alone by the novel and movie’s end.
Yet the white characters have soap opera handsome, all gainfully employed and loyal husbands (all except Mrs. Walters). Unfortunately, far too many of the black males in the book default into the worse kind of stereotype, that being the absentee father (Connor, Clyde) lazy, drunk, foolish (terms applied to Minny’s father and Leroy) and violent (Leroy).
There are some major issues with the book that will hamper Stockett’s credibility over time, I believe. And I stress the words “over time” and “I believe”. Because it will take time for the book as well as the movie to get a deeper critical analysis.
There’s also the matter of real life maid Abilene Cooper, whose likeness, name and nickname make up a major part of the Aibileen Clark character, and, as a real life maid is yet to be compensated.
Stockett didn’t know Octavia Spencer (who she modeled Minny after). Stockett’s been quoted (in a video tape) saying when she first met Spencer, she observed her to craft the character of Minny. After the book was completed and Spencer agreed to go on the road with the author to promote the novel, then that’s when it appears their “friendship” truly began.
I point this out because the character of Minny, as written in the book also has serious problems in her depiction and own her turn at being a Mammy to Celia.
I’d like to think if Octavia Spencer had been able to view the novel BEFORE the final draft, she could have pointed out to Stockett some other errors in the book, for example, the “Tragic Mulatto” storyline, which was a bust. Light complexioned African Americans were nothing new. Fredi Washington was a revered black actress who could have passed for white, but didn’t. And she starred in the 1934 version of “Imitation of Life.”
Authors are under no obligation to befriend members of another race to create their characters. But while Stockett has a hit book and movie, so were “The Birth of a Nation” (based on the book The Clansman) as well as “Showboat.” Over time, more scrutiny was placed on these works, and the offensive dialogue/depictions were not viewed as lovingly.
Setting Aibileen and Minny up as heroines (in the novel, because the movie cleaned up a lot of what was wrong in the book) when they were anything but simply continues the stereotypes that African Americans still fight against today.
The “credit to their race” or “Good Negro” who earned that term simply because of how well they fawned over whites was a thorn in the progress of equality and freedom.
The black person who must “go along to get along,” smile through their pain and put the needs of the white person first (part of the “strong black woman/mammy myth)
has been a trope many authors love.
Black women are not the Mammies of the world but unfortunately, this is a stereotype that will not die, especially when works like The Help are lauded for being “authentic.”
LaNeita Cuthrell Williams
January 5, 2012
I grew up in a city that was very segregated; whites on one side of town, blacks on the other and the Italians right smack dab in the middle. I never saw, spoke to or touched anyone black until I went to college. You did not see blacks on tv (except for Bill Cosby and in 1967 Diana Ross and the Supremes with the Temptations – Oprah always talks about this day), in magazines or billboards, teaching in our literally all white school, or working in the stores we shopped in. I grew up in an all white environment.
After college, and with teaching degree in hand, I was assigned to the all black school (well I had 2 white kids in 5 years) and yes the school had mostly white teachers, but there were also black teachers. It is at this school that daily i heard the phrase “You is……” and “I be,,,,”. It was called Ebonics then, but non-standard English now. That was the way the students talked, wrote and communicated.
After moving to Los Angeles, where the world lives side by side, and being on my 42nd year of teaching; the students still say “You is…” and “I be…” so I guess it just depends on where you were raised and the type of people that you have been around. i have black friends who speak better English than I do and never have a grammar error.
I feel the movie showed exactly how it was during that time period. Being in an all white environment, I heard many of the comments mentioned in the film, exactly as they were spoken. I am fortunate that I did not grow up in a prejudiced home and did not take wrong beliefs with me to that school that I loved. My Dad, on the other hand, was one of the most prejudiced men that I have ever known. I am glad I did not grow up with him.
You say there are sterotypes, but really …. that is the way that it was. My grandchildren are mixed and their other side of the family still has two forms of speech. One for the outside world and the “You is…” and “I be…” at home.
acriticalreviewofthehelp
January 6, 2012
Hello LaNeita,
Thank you for your comment. I hope at some point you decide to read more posts on my blog. I’d also like to extend an invitation to you to join in with a long running conversation on Amazon.com, where individuals from all over the globe discuss not only the book, but racial attitudes. While the thread is titled “A Dissenting View of The Help” I think you might enjoy the conversation, because of the diversity of the participants. Here is the short link:
goo.gl/wlq4H
While you state “You say there are sterotypes, but really …. that is the way that it was.”
You fail to note (and Stockett, as well as the screenwriter Tate Taylor) how African Americans waged a fight against the very stereotypes that ironically, are included in The Help. It was and continues to be an ongoing battle of perception vs. reality. And while you never physically saw an African American during your formative years, I’m pretty sure you may have seen ads (like Aunt Jemima) which reinforced the notion that African Americans came in only one variety. The demolishing of the English language, heavy set, full of mirth or blindly loyal cook/maid. Which is another part of the problem with The Help. There is no variety in the maids, when African Americans came and still come in a variety of skin tones. We have various levels of socio-economic status, education, in short not much different than whites. The 60s were a time of educational growth in the black community. For not only did we attend traditionally black colleges, but also predominately white institutions of higher learning. Many domestics in Jackson, Miss during the time period Stockett references were working their way through college. Why the author chose to make far too many of them older and matronly also falls in line with her lack of research and assumptions on the black culture during that period.
So while you weren’t privy to this while growing up, I was. And I was also blessed to have a multicultural family. So I will just repeat that respectfully, The Help does not even scratch the surface on how it really was.
From dialogue that links African Americans with chicken, when this was one of the known stereotypes during the dark years of segregation (Minny’s lines of “Frying chicken make you tend to feel better about life” and ” I love me some fried chicken” is not only NOT the way it was, but simply another white author’s caricatured viewpoint of a people she now admits that she “was terrified” when she realized it was going to be published. Unlike you, per Stockett’s own admission, her grandparents raised her under the antiquated system of Jim Crow during the 70s and 80s, well after the treatment of blacks like second class citizens had been outlawed. Thus the author was not allowed to sit at the same dinner table with the maid whom she states inspired the novel, Mrs. Demetrie McLorn.
The dialogue Stockett uses for her black maids defaults into known and repeated sterotypes of African Americans. And while the author made sure there was diversity in the lives of the employers (note that Elizabeth is a housewife, Skeeter a college grad, Hilly is the socialite).
No such diversity is present in the maids. This falls in line with the arguments not just African Americans, but other minority groups make when writers fail to see us as anything more than a side kick, or as a means to advance a plot which centers around the lead character (usually white).
Aibileen’s backstory (who fathered her child? Why does she live alone?) is another example of the “Mammy myth” that somehow black women are so “strong” that we’re able to live alone and smother the children of others with affection, while not seeking it ourselves.
Both Constantine and Aibileen fall into this trope in the book and the movie. On the other hand, Minny is another stereotype, the black woman with too many kids (note that not one white character in the book or film has a comparable brood) with an abusive husband (the black brute myth) while the southern white males are crafted to be soap opera handsome caricatures.
So no, neither the book or the movie tells how it really was. Because then the systematic rapes of African American women and girls would have to be explored as well as the myth of “We love them and they love us” which rang hollow after over a century of bondage, and with how many blacks lost their lives in the struggle for freedom from those whom Stockett/Skeeter claimed had “love.”
Posts which may be of interest:
Debi Obwaka Terry (@DebiTerry)
February 12, 2012
You obviously completely missed the context of the phrase. Let’s not let our defense reflex detract us from a powerful message. Words are never more important than what is said.
acriticalreviewofthehelp
February 12, 2012
Hello Debi,
Thanks for your comment.
I think if someone “obviously completely missed the context of the phrase” it may be you, as the line was meant to get that “Awww, how wonderful” reaction from those unaware, like yourself.
The novel includes the blueprint for not only Aibileen’s Uncle Tom attitude, but also Minny’s transformation into what she claimed she’d never become, but eventually did. Which was a Mammy to Celia Foote.
Aibileen’s internal dialogue in the book is simply Kathryn Stockett in blackface. The author writes as if Aibileen and Minny are a female version of Amos’n’ Andy. Ironically Amos ‘n’ Andy’s dialogue and antics were also a source of varying opinions in the black community. Some loved them, while others loathed them.
I didn’t enjoy Amos ‘n’ Andy (the radio version or the TV version) and I didn’t enjoy The Help.
I recall segregation. And Kathryn’s Stockett’s version of a loyal black mammy who instills self-confidence in her white “chilluns” while grinning, demeaning and ignoring doing the same in her own community is simply the same old, thought to be “good negro” stereotypical behavior far too many southern writers prior to Stockett fell back on.
That’s the “context” for Aibileen’s “You is kind, you is smart, you is important.”
It’s cringe worthy dialogue that would have played better in the 1930s, where its clear the character was a chip off the old block of Delilah, the uber docile cringing and grinning maid from Fannie Hurst’s Imitation of Life.
Judith Furedi
February 15, 2012
I just finished watching the movie and I intend to read the book. It was FANTASTIC.
Anybody, who cannot put this phrase in context has a lot to learn about literature and history and the meaning of great writing. Context, is everything!
acriticalreviewofthehelp
February 16, 2012
Hello Judith,
Here’s some “context” for ya:
“Frying chicken make you tend to feel better about life.” Minny, from the film version of The Help.
And from the novel:
“Let’s see, I put the green beans in first, then I go on and get the pork chops going cause , mmm-mmm, I like my chops hot out the pan, you know.” (Minny Jackson, Pg 166 of The Help)
Quite simply, it’s stereotypical, caricatured bullshit.
“You is kind, you is smart . . . ” Aibileen, who can’t seem to offer the black children in her community, (especially those of her best friend’s children who witness the abuse of their mother) any positive mantras to grow on or does any physical coddling of any kind to any other child besides Mae Mobley. People who love children aren’t selective. All children deserve affection and guidance.
When you read the novel and get more insight into how Kathryn Stockett crafted Aibileen to be not just a Mammy but a proud Uncle Tom who salivates over the white children she raises but hardly has a word of praise for a black female child (pay particular attention to five year old Kindra, Minny’s youngest daughter), I’m pretty sure you’ll be just as thrilled with the bias the character of Aibileen exhibits in the book.
Sara Terrell (@vivthewonderdog)
March 19, 2012
Hello,
I just saw this movie for the first time today, I have not read the novel. Your blog here is quite extensive! I am still trying to figure out what I think of all this. What got me here is the dialogue from Aibeleen’s character you address on this page. It’s repeated at least three times I think in the film. I’m surprised to find that it’s different than the novel. But what struck me is that the film presents Aibeleen as an intelligent woman. Perhaps not educated, but decidedly intelligent. And we are told later that she writes in her journal for up to two hours each day. When she reads from that journal there is hardly a grammar “mistake” to be found in it. So why would a woman who seems to use a “correct” form of the verb “be” in both her writing and other speaking during the film, use an “incorrect” version when speaking to the young white child of her employer? Please, don’t misunderstand, I do not wish to suggest that anyone’s use or nonuse of conventional grammar is a measure of intelligence. But it seemed to me a very false note of that character.
On another note, have you done any writing of your thoughts on “Fried Green Tomatoes”? Superficially, there are similarities; segregationist south as a backdrop, racism, authored by a white, southern woman, “strong woman” characters, human products being cooked into food…This is one of my favorite books, though I haven’t read it in about five years and I would be interested to read it again with another perspective.
Still thinking…thanks.
acriticalreviewofthehelp
March 20, 2012
Hi Sara,
Thanks for your post. In the novel Aibileen (speaking in the first person) is able to recite what other characters say in standard english. She’s able to recall her son spelling “motorized rotunda” and “parliamentary” as well noting that she’s making congealed salad, among other words that had readers like myself saying “huh?”
What was done in the movie doesn’t surprise me. The director and screenwriter (one individual, Tate Taylor, the author’s childhood friend) was well aware of the inconsistencies in dialect of the character, yet having a “difference” in the white and black characters, namely through their speech was necessary to show how whites behaved and spoke differently than blacks (funny, but I thought the message was supposed to be that we weren’t different and shouldn’t be treated as such). In the novel characters who are bi-racial (Lulabelle, renamed Rachel in the movie and thankfully, not cast as the “tragic mulatto” but with a brown complexioned actress). Or who have straight hair (Yule May in the book) or articulate in speech and able to wear the same pink shade of lipstick as Skeeter and her friends (Gretchen), these characters aren’t saddled with a thick dialect. Unfortunately, like the film the book paints most of the maids who are dark and heavy set with overly southern speech.
I think one major difference between the two books is that Fried Green Tomatoes was never held up to be a book that was more than an entertaining read. The Help became its own worst enemy, so big that some of those in love with its “message” failed to see it had numerous flaws and relied on caricatures. I think as time goes on, much like all the love shown for Amos ‘n’ Andy and The Birth of a Nation, The Help may end up being lumped with those novels instead of the one many tried to compare it with, which was To Kill a Mockingbird.
Here are a few more examples from the novel, and the problem isn’t limited to Aibileen:
“Cat got on the porch this morning, bout gave me a cadillac arrest thinking it was Mister Johnny.” Minny (Pg 48)
“You gone accuse me of a philosophizing.”
“Go ahead,” I say. “I ain’t afraid of no philosophy.” (Pg 311, Minny and Aibileen discuss Celia not seeing the “lines” between black and white)
Aibileen can say “philosophy” “conjugation” and “domesticized feline” yet can’t stop using “pneumonia” for “ammonia in the book.
Ck Jones
March 28, 2012
LOL. Excellent blog! Insightful criticism based on demeaning facts written in “black” and “white” by the authors themselves! Condescending at best and we all know that The Academy loves to only award a Black actor for a mammy/brute/skank/imbecile/tyrant role.
This blog is an important archive of literary history. People who think majority of Black Americans are ignorant, illiterate, uneducated, obese, and impoverished obviously aren’t socialized!
reflectorwoman
April 4, 2012
This is an amazing blog. I am both encouraged and intrigued about the magnitude of your effort. I also am intrigued about you. I want to know more. Just today, and this is something that has long been rambling in my head and heart, I realized how often people in control of the media– publishers, editors, journalists, etc. “steal” (acquire would be the neutral word) other people’s stories without not just including them while telling it, but completely not mentioning them as co-authors. It isn’t just white people, though they have taken many stories from Native Americans, African-Americans, and Latinos, but also people whose books are based solely on some individual who seldom gets attribution or editorial power. I have to go teach class now, but I want to use this blog when I teach the Racial Diversity and Media class next semester.
decemberbabieslove
May 31, 2012
I just watched the movie for the first time today, and I was really worrying about the fact that as a black girl raised in a South Asian community all my life, I don’t know how to relate to the movie. (As an A/Level Literature student, it’s becoming second nature to me to analyse everything I read and watch, and make my own assumptions). So I was thinking “am I supposed to think, aww, that was so heartwarming? Or am I supposed to be offended because of the stereotyping?”
And then I came across this, and you’ve really made me think about a lot of things, and you’ve taught me some new things too. So what I really wanted to say was, thanks 🙂
ladyplf
August 21, 2012
Just stumbled upon this blog and I have got to say thank you. I see a lot of people disagree with you and your opinions because they liked or loved the book and movie. But they don’t give any other reason for their disagreement other than they liked it and so you should shut up. Well that’s not why we should read literature or watch movies. We should strive to learn and grow from every experience we have in life. So rather than shoot the messenger here, I would hope that people take this opportunity to learn something about other people and try to have an intelligent discussion. Intelligent debate can be fun and enlightening.
So read this blog, absorb the opinions, and then after critical thinking without knee jerk emotion develop your own informed and enlightened critique. Because when smart people debate we all get smarter.
Julie Quigley
January 15, 2013
The novel “The Help” has several positive black men characters, despite your claim. For example, Abilene’s son Trelor: he was described as being thoughtful, caring, intelligent, and it was actually HIS idea to write a book about a black worker’s point of view.
Or what about Luvinia’s grandson Robert? He would cut Abilene’s grass for free every week after Trelor was killed. What a kind and hard-working act that was.
What about Eula May’s twin sons – who were getting ready to attend college. Obviously they were smart too.
Your argument about negative stereotypes is one-sided at best.
acriticalreviewofthehelp
January 15, 2013
Hello Julie,
Treelore was but a memory, an only son that his mother couldn’t even shed tears for, though he’d been dead only two years. No, it was more important that Aibileen shed tears of happiness over Skeeter leaving Jackson.
Aibileen also taught Treelore to called his father “Crisco.” Is there any named white male character in The Help that Stockett’s white females demean in such a way? Skeeter calls Raleigh a choice name, yet later in the novel the reader gets to see Raleigh’s softer side when he changes his daughter Mae Mobley’s teacher. Senator Stoolie Whitworth is given a “twist” even though he opposed integrating Ole Miss. Yet he is given an out when Stuart reveals Stoolie was only doing the will of his constituents. Even Stuart is treated with kit gloves after all the hell he puts Skeeter through. Stockett has Skeeter thinking “He is a good man” as if to “tell” the reader he still has good qualities. No such twist is afforded to the males paired with Stockett’s trio of female domestics who are in supporting roles in The Help.
Neither Robert, the twins or Treelore can make up for Leroy, who is stuck on stupid (“You don’t get tired, not until the tenth month” – a poorly placed example/joke in the book, meant to show Leroy has no idea that its nine months to carry a child. Not ten) and excessively violent, when it was the other way around. Stockett’s males who practice segregation are practically canonized in this novel, yet the primary maids are all paired with men who are either labeled “no-ccount” or painted as absentee baby makers (Clyde – Aibileen’s philandering husband, and Connor, Constantine’s lover who leaves as soon as Lulabelle is born). This is antebellum ideology, a slur that was and continues to be perpetrated as painting most, if not all black males with the same brush. And Kathryn Stockett’s novel continues this offensive trend. In addition, Stockett alludes to Clyde giving Cocoa a veneral disease, which, by the way was one of the primary reasons whites did not want integration. I’ve included scans from the Clarion Ledger on this site, as well as non-fiction novels like WIMS (Wednesdays in Mississippi) which prove this. The fact that Stockett put this ideology into the mouths in the black female characters as cackling comedy dialogue makes it all the more offensive. So understand what I’m saying. It’s not just that the positives were few and far between in this book. It’s that I, and others who lived during segregation recognized the negative ideology from days gone by, which tainted many of the characters, especially the African American characters.
You should know that Kathryn Stockett did an interview claiming she didn’t want to write characters who were all bad.
“It’s fun trying to make characters not too flat, meaning not all good or all bad. But it’s a challenge, too. With Hilly Holbrook, who is considered my villain, the best I could do for her in terms of giving her a good side is show that she really cares for her children and that she’s a great leader.”
Link: http://www.slicemagazine.org/an-interview-with-kathryn-stockett.html
Unfortunately, when it came to the black males paired with the primary maids, she neglected to follow her own advice. You should also know the only black male Stockett mentions in most of her interviews is Clyde, AKA Plunk, the real life abusive husband of her real life grandparents maid, Mrs. Demetrie McLorn. So while Stockett decided to make most of the males paired with Skeeter, Hilly, Elizabeth, and Celia as soap opera handsome and all gainfully employed, not so for the black males she pairs with her primary maids. Even Minny’s father is called “no-ccount.” So let me flip the script. Imagine that all the white males were the characters of Leroy, Connor, Clyde and Minny’s father and I wonder if you wouldn’t go WTF? While reading this book. And know also, that in literature, making the black male into a brutal, no account, and irresponsible father figure is common place in far too many best sellers with race as an addition. Some examples include Imitation of Life (the original 1933 novel, where Delilah calls her husband a “Bigamist” and a “White Nigger”)
I’m talking history here and a pattern far too often followed by some authors. You’re talking three characters who were mentioned in passing.
Separating all three Mammies/Maids from their partners, as if black females had more to fear from the African American male instead of segregation itself, did not work for me. And it sure didn’t make reading this book a pleasant experience.
Raymond Flournoy
July 10, 2013
I’m reading this rather late, but to the comment by Linda Pritz concerning the use of the word “worse” versus “worst” you are wrong. Your comment was: “But the title of your article says it is some of the “worse” dialogue ever. The word to use is “worst” not “worse”.” The title is correct the way it is written. The only way “worst” would be correct is if the sentence was, “… it is the worst dialogue ever.” “Worse” is comparative, while “worst” is superlative.
Laurie Hoppe
June 3, 2014
I’m sorry I’m so late to the party, but I loved *loved* LOVED your post. I reread the The Help recently because a friend of mine told me I was unfair to the novel. No, I wasn’t. As I Chicagoan, I can tell you that everyone I’ve ever heard from Mississippi speaks with a distinctive accent. Not just people of color. Not just the poor. Stockett’s insistence on putting the vernacular ONLY in the dialog of the African Americans is offensive and inaccurate, whether the book is set in 1964 or 2014. How are we supposed to believe that the local newspaper hired Abilene to take over the “Miss Myrna” column when she can’t even get her grammar right in the simplest of sentences?
The book is just sloppy. Skeeter is singing “Love Me Do” at a time when the Beatles were receiving NO airplay outside of Europe. Are we to believe that she slipped off to Liverpool or Hamburg but didn’t mention it to anyone? Same with her use of peace symbols and Dylan protest songs. She’s got 1964 confused with 1968. The world changed mightily during those four years. Didn’t Stockett have an editor?
The subtle, nefarious thing about this book is that the storytelling is compelling. Who doesn’t want to know what happened to Constantine? Who doesn’t want to rescue Mae Mobley? So we keep reading, and subconsciously absorb the perhaps benignly intended toxicity. It reminds me of that bit of dialog about the Devil from Broadcast News: “He will be nice and helpful and he will get a job where he influences a great God-fearing nation and he will never do an evil thing… he will just bit by little bit lower standards where they are important.”
Cheryl McBee
November 19, 2014
Excellent. Hilarious. Intelligent. Insightful. Well Done.
You ain’ neva lie!
Amanda Shaffer
March 10, 2015
I had similar reactions to the book and movie but did not dive in as deep as you are willing to go. Glad to find your insightful analysis and relentless responses to commenters. A resource when this book is used as assigned reading in school and teenagers are troll for insights to paraphrase.
Kimberly Klaus
May 3, 2015
The only quote that had any real effect on me, whether it was solely in the book or the movie, I don’t know, was spoken by Constantine and I’ll paraphrase without the “accent”: “Every day that you’re not cold in the ground, when you get up in the morning, you will have to make a decision. You will have to decide, am I going to believe what those fools say about me today?” It’s the only sensible thing anyone says the entire movie, and it actually managed to touch me.
Carol Boyer
May 26, 2016
I am so glad I came across your blog. I loved reading the book and seeing the movie as I respond to the individual human elements and have a tendency not to look much deeper or do much analyzing. (So, obviously, I disagree with your comment about that not being the purpose of literature- I think simple, shallow, entertainment can be a purpose of literature!)
I loved Abilene as a person, Minnie, as a person, Skeeter as a person. I loved hating Millie. But now you have gone and made me think. And I’m so glad. I grew up in the South in the sixties and seventies and, until going to college, was gleefully unaware of anything but my own perspective. Thanks for sharing yours.
glenncontrarian
January 5, 2017
You know, when I watched the movie, I knew that much of it wasn’t filmed in Jackson – the trees were different, most of the scenes were of flatlands…it didn’t feel like Jackson at all. It felt much more like the Delta of my youth, and I said so to my wife…and I was right, for I waited until the credits rolled to see that it was filmed in Greenwood, about 30 miles from where I grew up in Sunflower County. If you’ve ever read “The Senator and the Sharecropper”, about the times of James O. Eastland (the senator who was twice president pro tem and was for a generation the most powerful racist in America) and the civil rights activist Fanny Lou Hamer, well, much of that takes place not far from where I grew up – we knew some of the people in that book, and my grandmother used to sell moonshine for Eastland (no kidding) from the commissary on his plantation before he became a senator. You can probably imagine how racist my family was. But we have deep roots there – all my direct family line is in the same cemetery by a Southern Baptist church (not far from where the Eastland house was) all the way back to 1870. I’ll be the first one not buried there.
I agree that from your perspective, The Help is offensive to African-Americans…but to whites like me, It’s a reminder of how cruel we were even in small and intimate ways. Unfortunately, I suspect that a lot of whites in the Deep South didn’t watch it, for they didn’t want their crap to be rubbed in their noses again. I know my family there wouldn’t watch it – it would have been “beneath their dignity”. I miss the Delta, the land, the weather, the food (oh man do I miss the food) (but NOT the skeeters), but it’s because of such endemic racism even from my own family that I will never live there again. When I brought my Asian wife home for the first time, we weren’t even inside the house before my mother pulled me off to one side and told me “I wish you’d married a black girl instead”. She was honestly trying to be polite by not using the n-word…and knowing that she was racist against blacks, you can imagine what she must have thought about Asians. No, I’ll never set foot in the Delta again – there will be no more of my line’s blood in that clay we called “gumbo”.
What I’m getting at here is that yes, the movie was offensive to you on so many levels…but it was more important that whites watched that movie, that we whites are reminded again and again and again of what we did, of what so many of us STILL do (like the racist man-child we just elected president). The crap needs to be rubbed in our white noses until all of us get a clue as to how wrong and evil our racism was…and is even today.
One last thing, to end this letter on a more hopeful note. When I was growing up, the Eastland house was the nicest house in the county (of course, him being a U.S. senator and all), so when I took my youngest son back there to show him around, I drove down the road from Linn to Sunflower, looking for the Eastland house, and it bothered the heck out of me that I couldn’t seem to find it anywhere. I stopped at a gas station and asked, and they told me that after Eastland had died, the place fell into disrepair and was eventually torn down…and to me, for all the wrong he’d committed (like being the driving force behind the “segregation academies” (one of which I attended for a year)), it does seem like a bit of poetic justice.
Searching for Fernando
February 15, 2020
The controversy about American Dirt brought me to your blog. That book is about a subject I am intimately familiar with due to my life experiences. I had never heard of the book or film The Help until I came here (probably due to the fact I stopped watching tv in 1980, and the last time I set foot in a cinema was August of 1980).
I have very much enjoyed reading your blog posts. You are a good writer, and you are saying things that need to be said. I have noticed that the the apologetics used to defend American Dirt, are the same stale apologetics used to defend The Help.
I was disappointed to learn Ablene Cooper did not get her day in court. This type of lawsuit was filed in my neck of the woods in the 1950’s (largely forgotten today). Writer Betty MacDonald and her Hollywood cohorts made a mint off of “humorous” depictions of white trash characters based on actual people. These folks (which included one insulted Native American was well) did get their day in court, but of course they didn’t win because they were poor and powerless. MacDonald used the same excuse as Stocket: she said of her book “I made it all up”. Whenever I hear of an author receiving a huge sum for a book about someone other than themselves, I always look for the forgotten nobody who’s story is being ripped-off.
I don’t read fiction because I don’t want someone’s fantasy interfering with my ability to discern the truth. Sadly I have come to believe that most people prefer a pretty lie to the unvarnished truth, and that most people go by emotion rather than critical thinking. I would say that many of the comments on this post prove my point.