LAWD HELP ME, I LIKED 'THE HELP'
Lawd help me, I liked ‘The Help’
Fairfield Daily Republic, September 8, 2011
Kelvin Wade
I went to see “The Help” over the weekend. I hadn’t read the book. (I’m reading it now.) I knew precious little about it other than the controversy surrounding the movie. I expected to be offended but came away from the film loving it and recommending it to others.
The harshest critics have been the Association of Black Women Historians. They feel the black women in the film are “Mammy” caricatures of contented, loyal maids. The ABWH also blasts the film for employing a “child-like, over-exaggerated ‘black’ dialect.” They criticize the lack of sexual harassment and rape in the film, something African-American domestic workers dealt with. Finally, they resented the lack of the Klan and White Citizens Council and the movie reducing racism down to acts of meanness from rich white society women.
Let’s take the criticisms one at a time. The maids in this film are definitely not content. They clearly don’t like what they have to do but it’s necessary to survive. Minny, an outspoken maid, demonstrates her displeasure in a quite memorable way.
As for the dialect, it was appropriate to the time and place. If the ABWH doesn’t know this perhaps I need to introduce them to some of my relatives. As for the book, writing phonetic ethnic vernacular is always tricky for any writer. But this piece is about the movie.
As for sexual harassment and rape? Guilty as charged. It doesn’t appear in this film. Would it have been more accurate to show this component of black female servitude? Definitely. But I can’t fault the film for not adding an element that just wasn’t part of the specific story that was being told.
This reminds me of critics who criticized Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing” for not having drug use in it. Did that lessen the impact of his movie? I think not.
The White Citizens Council was mentioned in the film. The murder of civil rights activist Medgar Evers was covered. And I might add that Evers’s widow, Myrlie Evers, was thrilled with the film, describing it as “superb” and “educational.”
Plus there is police brutality in the film.
Critics have to remember that “The Help” is a work of fiction, not a documentary. Roberto Benigni’s “Life is Beautiful” is not an accurate portrayal of the Holocaust but it is an entertaining, moving film. “Mississippi Burning,” a 1988 film on the murders of three civil rights workers, is a fictionalized account. It gets some things wrong but it’s still a powerful movie.
Some of the criticism is racial. Some black critics are upset that a white woman wrote the book and a white man directed the film. We saw similar criticism when Steven Spielberg directed “The Color Purple.” Spike Lee and others criticized white movie director Norman Jewison so much for signing on to direct “Malcolm X” that Jewison quit and Lee took over. But storytelling is storytelling.
We have to realize we don’t own black history. Black history is American history.
When I saw this film, the audience was 98 percent white. When the N word was used in the film, the audience gasped. They applauded throughout the film and at the end. “The Help” is the No. 1 movie in America and people are discussing this topic. Perhaps it’ll motivate them to read nonfiction books on the subject. These are all good things. Besides, before this movie, who knew the Association of Black Women Historians even existed?
See the film. And don’t be ashamed if you like it. Peace.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
ADDITIONAL NOTES: I'm well aware of the criticism. I just don't agree with most of it. I want to reiterate that I'm not speaking of the novel in this column because I haven't finished reading it. (But what I've read so far has been excellent.) I hope people who are interested in this subject do continue to explore it. So I'm reprinting the fiction and nonfiction list suggested by the Association of Black Women Historians.
Fairfield Daily Republic, September 8, 2011
Kelvin WadeI went to see “The Help” over the weekend. I hadn’t read the book. (I’m reading it now.) I knew precious little about it other than the controversy surrounding the movie. I expected to be offended but came away from the film loving it and recommending it to others.
The harshest critics have been the Association of Black Women Historians. They feel the black women in the film are “Mammy” caricatures of contented, loyal maids. The ABWH also blasts the film for employing a “child-like, over-exaggerated ‘black’ dialect.” They criticize the lack of sexual harassment and rape in the film, something African-American domestic workers dealt with. Finally, they resented the lack of the Klan and White Citizens Council and the movie reducing racism down to acts of meanness from rich white society women.
Let’s take the criticisms one at a time. The maids in this film are definitely not content. They clearly don’t like what they have to do but it’s necessary to survive. Minny, an outspoken maid, demonstrates her displeasure in a quite memorable way.
As for the dialect, it was appropriate to the time and place. If the ABWH doesn’t know this perhaps I need to introduce them to some of my relatives. As for the book, writing phonetic ethnic vernacular is always tricky for any writer. But this piece is about the movie.
As for sexual harassment and rape? Guilty as charged. It doesn’t appear in this film. Would it have been more accurate to show this component of black female servitude? Definitely. But I can’t fault the film for not adding an element that just wasn’t part of the specific story that was being told.
This reminds me of critics who criticized Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing” for not having drug use in it. Did that lessen the impact of his movie? I think not.
The White Citizens Council was mentioned in the film. The murder of civil rights activist Medgar Evers was covered. And I might add that Evers’s widow, Myrlie Evers, was thrilled with the film, describing it as “superb” and “educational.”
Plus there is police brutality in the film.
Critics have to remember that “The Help” is a work of fiction, not a documentary. Roberto Benigni’s “Life is Beautiful” is not an accurate portrayal of the Holocaust but it is an entertaining, moving film. “Mississippi Burning,” a 1988 film on the murders of three civil rights workers, is a fictionalized account. It gets some things wrong but it’s still a powerful movie.
Some of the criticism is racial. Some black critics are upset that a white woman wrote the book and a white man directed the film. We saw similar criticism when Steven Spielberg directed “The Color Purple.” Spike Lee and others criticized white movie director Norman Jewison so much for signing on to direct “Malcolm X” that Jewison quit and Lee took over. But storytelling is storytelling.
We have to realize we don’t own black history. Black history is American history.
When I saw this film, the audience was 98 percent white. When the N word was used in the film, the audience gasped. They applauded throughout the film and at the end. “The Help” is the No. 1 movie in America and people are discussing this topic. Perhaps it’ll motivate them to read nonfiction books on the subject. These are all good things. Besides, before this movie, who knew the Association of Black Women Historians even existed?
See the film. And don’t be ashamed if you like it. Peace.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
ADDITIONAL NOTES: I'm well aware of the criticism. I just don't agree with most of it. I want to reiterate that I'm not speaking of the novel in this column because I haven't finished reading it. (But what I've read so far has been excellent.) I hope people who are interested in this subject do continue to explore it. So I'm reprinting the fiction and nonfiction list suggested by the Association of Black Women Historians.
Fiction:
Like one of the Family: Conversations from A Domestic’s Life, Alice Childress
The Book of the Night Women by Marlon James
Blanche on the Lam by Barbara Neeley
The Street by Ann Petry
A Million Nightingales by Susan Straight
Non-Fiction:
Out of the House of Bondage: The Transformation of the Plantation Household by Thavolia Glymph
To Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women’s Lives and Labors by Tera Hunter
Labor of Love Labor of Sorrow: Black Women, Work, and the Family, from Slavery to the Present by Jacqueline Jones
Living In, Living Out: African American Domestics and the Great Migration by Elizabeth Clark-Lewis
Living In, Living Out: African American Domestics and the Great Migration by Elizabeth Clark-Lewis
Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody
Comments
http://www.abwh.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2:open-statement-the-help%E2%80%A6
The ABWH perspective is as valid as any other. in regard to the movie...positive or negative