- Letters to the editor 1963 and 1964
- The Real Housewives of Jackson, Mississippi Circa 1960
- ** Updated ** Links to posts on Aibileen Clark and the latest lawsuit APPEAL info
- About me
- PDF of #100Voicesrespondtothehelp
- A list of critical reviews for American Dirt
- Welcome
- A Mash Up of other Novels and The Help
- It’s 2011, and there’s still a Negro* problem in publishing and Hollywood
- The Importance of Speaking Out
- The Help (movie) cleans up after itself
- Chapter Observations
- Commentary
- For Students
- A List of Interviews with Kathryn Stockett
- Things That Should Not Be (in The Help)
- Why The Help gets on my last nerve
- Classics We Now Question
- My Reading List
- A History of being Misrepresented, Marginalized and Made a fool of
- Separate But Unequal in The Help
- Reviews for the novel
- Wall of Shame and Courage Photos
- Ten + issues that tarnish The Help **Updated!**
- Speaking for Ourselves: We don’t need any “Help”
An analysis of the novel The Help, its audio version and the movie. Blog est. in 2010
Browsing All posts tagged under »Constantine«
OT: A back in the day brother, Charles Ramsey
I’m watching the arraignment of Ariel Castro, and I’m struck by how contrite and cowardly he appears. His eyes are downcast, he’s using a collar to hide part of his face, his shoulders are slumped. However, I’m not taking this as a sign that he’s remorseful. But looking at how he now comes across, I’m sure to the […]
Finding Booker’s Place Among The Green Book
July 16, 2012
In 1965 Frank Defelitta made a documentary called Mississippi: A Self-Portrait. Setting up his camera in Greenwood, Mississippi he interviewed residents both black and white. One of those voices on film was Booker Wright, a personable African American waiter who worked at a restaurant called Lusco’s. It’s Booker Wright’s appearance in the documentary that was the impedus […]
U just might be a Mammy if . . .
December 21, 2011
“For all it’s good intentions, and after all is said and done, The Help is being held up as a movie that addresses a shameful time period in American history, while ironically promoting the very stereotypes and misconceptions of the black culture that many African Americans still challenge to this day” That’s my quote. One […]
What Herman Cain has in common with “The Help”
November 8, 2011
Hold that thought, because I have to say this first: RIP Joe Frazier. Soft spoken and socially awkward, there was something endearing about you Joe. Plus you had class. No, there was no out mouthing Ali and wisely you didn’t, simply letting your fists do the talking in the ring. On a sadder note, the intra-racism […]
Director of The Help claims all criticism is because “I’m not an African American director”
October 20, 2011
“. . . All of the criticism we’ve been facing is based on the fact that I’m not an African-American director and that Kathryn is not an African-American writer” – quote from Tate Taylor, director and screenwriter of The Help Quote is from an article by Xan Brooks of the Guardian UK titled Is The Help […]
It’s okay not to like The Help
May 28, 2011
No really. If you didn’t enjoy this novel, it’s perfectly okay. There’s nothing wrong. For whatever reason some readers didn’t bond with this novel, it’s fine. Just like there’s nothing wrong with the happy-happy joy-joy virus going around the internet from many people who just luvvvvv the book and want to share their experience with others. […]
Exposing the MAMMY Propaganda of The Help
May 19, 2011
Contrary to the movie’s tagline “Change” is looking like more of the same. Because like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, the black woman as Mammy continues to live on. In this post I hope to explore the propaganda and psychology behind the African American female characters of the novel, some of which has made […]
The Absence of Beauty in The Help
April 26, 2011
In the absence of any perceived beauty for the black culture in The Help, what remains? Contrary to the author’s public assertions that the book is a “homage” to the maid who raised her, the closest thing I found in the novel is admiration for a job well done. Even while offering a compliment of sorts on […]
Why the movie version of The Help can’t redeem the book
March 31, 2011
The film version of the novel The Help is set to be released this August. Dreamworks is banking on the movie being a hit, and in truth it probably will be. Moviegoers, particularly white ones may fill the seats in hopes of rekindling the past and/or hoping to see parts of the novel they found endearing on the […]
The Mommy/Mammy issues in The Help
March 2, 2011
“If we are to reckon honestly with the history and continued legacies of slavery in the United States, we must confront the terrible depths of desire for the black mammy and the way it still drags at struggles for real democracy and social justice.” ———–Micki McElya in “Clinging to Mammy The Faithful Slave in Twentieth-Century […]
Few Good Men: Reviewing the males of The Help
December 11, 2010
Plenty of black men leave their families behind like trash in a dump, but it’s not something the colored woman do. We’ve got kids to think about – Minny Jackson (Pg 311) If this same sentiment had been expressed about black women, more readers would probably react. So instead of being secure in the knowledge that well, she wasn’t talking […]
How the novel recycles the “Affection” myth
October 21, 2010
In the early 1920s, the United Daughters of the Southern Confederacy lobbied congress to pass a bill for the construction of a National Mammy Monument. Having pushed for and been successful in constructing several such memorials throughout the south, the UDSC wanted ground broken in Washington, DC in order to pay tribute to the loyal female domestics of […]
The problem with the domestics of The Help
October 19, 2010
There’s Aibileen and Minny. And Constantine. Three women who drop similies, analogies and metaphors like they’re dropping knowledge. Only what exactly are they saying? “We start calling his daddy Crisco cause you can’t fancy up a man done run off on his family. Plus he the greasiest no-count you ever known” (Aibileen, Pg 5) And Miss Skeeter […]
The True Song of the South
October 10, 2010
So, what was the 60s south really like, but more importantly, what were African Americans and their white employers like during that time period? In this blog post, I thought I’d seek out real southerners who resided in Mississippi during the time Kathryn Stockett’s characters are based. I found a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who […]
Same as it ever was. . .
October 4, 2010
The characters in THE HELP are re-cycled images. Much like my lead-in sentence for this blog post has been copied from another post on this site, when reading Kathryn Stockett’s novel, I had a serious case of Déjà vu while getting to know the characters of Aibileen, Minny, Constantine, Skeeter, Hilly and Lulabelle. It’s no wonder many readers feel by […]
The Wrong Author for the Right Story
June 22, 2010
Stories, both fiction and non-fiction of the countless men and women (and even children) who labored in southern homes as domestics need to be told. Unfortunately, while her intentions were good, Kathryn Stockett was the wrong author to tell their tale, even though The Help is fiction based on fact. Here’s the line that would best sum […]
The Blog that First Revealed The Medgar Evers error in The Help
Page 277 Hard copy of the novel The Help
Get ready for The Help musical Y’all (click image for larger view)
Live Feed
Boycott The Help Facebook Page
A Critical Review of the novel The Help 
May 9, 2013
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