About “The Help”

Well, I read the book, “The Help” and I saw the movie. I liked them both.

But as I was talking about both the movie and book with friends, we came to a consensus: what was depicted could never have happened. We came to the conclusion that such a book would never have come to print, and that anyone who participated in a “hush and tell” project such as the brave maids did in this fictional adventure would have been destroyed. The violence perpetrated against black people seeking dignity and equal rights back then, and the white people who tried to help them, was vicious, relentless and largely permissible.

What, then, was or is the value of this story?

Perhaps it is that some people, white and black, were introduced to the “race problem” or America for the first time. In the theater where I saw the movie, there was a young African American male who wept openly. I asked him how old he was; he replied 30. Somehow, the story of “how we got over” was never told to him. He was surprised, shocked, and while he was glad the Negro maids were able to tell their story, he was angered by how they were treated.

He said he had a new respect for his grandparents. Call that progress.

I suspect that this sugar-coated version of life in the South for black people “back then” was about all many people would take. The horror of that time period, the domestic terrorism that was a trademark of American life, is hard to recall, hard to remember, and hard not to resent. America is still infected with racism, but nobody will admit to the disease if the presentation of the disease is too rancid. Hence, this “feel good” version of what “the help” went through was all that could have been withstood at this point.

But the tragedy of not being able to tell the real story is that much of the country and the world (the book has been published in 35 countries) is that those who really want to keep blinders on will walk away thinking and truly believing that American terrorism was not so bad, that all of the hee-hawing that is heard from black folks is a bit overdone. Heck, if a group of Negro maids could get together and just tell the truth, then what’s everyone always complaining about?

That attitude begs the real story to be told. After reading “The Help” and seeing the movie, I delved into Alice Childress’ book, Like One of the Family: Conversations from a Domestic’s Life. The difference between the two books is stark…but that is not surprising. Childress was the great-granddaughter of a slave who was born in South Carolina who also once worked briefly as a domestic. Her experiences were far different than those of Kathryn Stockett. There is an authenticity in Childress’ book that is absent from Stockett’s.

That is not to say, however, that there was and is no value in Stockett’s work. If just a few more people can become just a little more knowledgeable about these United States and how it treated its African immigrants, the quest for a post-racial world might be a little more realistic.

Perhaps.

That is a candid observation.

God Help America

I keep hearing things, reading things, from GOP members entering the race for president, and I am bothered.

Michele Bachmann thinks that slavery was probably all right. According to a recent article in the New Yorker she agrees with Steven Wilkins, author of a biography of Robert E Lee, who wrote that the Civil War was a “holy conflict between the godly South and heathen north.” Wilkins’ idea – which Bachmann apparently supports – is that “most southerners strove to treat their slaves with respect and provide them with a sufficiency of goods for a comfortable …existence.” She apparently agrees with Wilkins’ theory that the institution of slavery “bred mutual esteem between races as slaves adopted Christianity.”

Seriously?

Another one of Bachmann’s favorite authors is Frances Schaeffer, a theologian who according to Ryan Lizza, the author of the New Yorker piece, disapproves of just about everything that isn’t defined by evangelical Christianity as being worthy and good.

Texas Governor Rick Perry, who is now entering the GOP race for the presidential nomination, thinks that the country ought to get back to “biblical principles.” In a report I heard on National Public Radio, Perry thinks that God would want the United States to stop spending all its money, “trying to take care of everyone.” The reporter says that Perry thinks a government taking care of everyone is “slavery.”

What is troubling is not that Perry and Bachmann and probably a lot of the GOP contenders think this way, but that they are playing to a base of people who believe the same way. That being the case, of whom do they propose to govern? Black people, who should understand that slavery wasn’t so bad, that it was a holy institution of some sort? People who love the arts, something that one of Bachmann’s favorite authors decries as being anti-Christian?

What God do these people serve? What Jesus? And how do they propose to govern a pluralistic country when clearly they are only interested in white Christians, and evangelical Christians at that? I heard a news report that said one of the contenders thinks that religious freedom is meant only for Christians. Seriously? I hate to be redundant, but how can a person be a citizen of America and want to govern that same nation, whose legacy is one that celebrates diversity, when it is clear that at least some of the contenders would rather shove diversity to the curb?

Is that what they mean, “Let’s take our country back?” Do they want it to go back to the time when good ol’ white boys had their way, good ol’ rich boys, at that? Is it American to not be concerned with “the least of these?” Doesn’t Christianity say we as believers are supposed to do that? Then what the hell is Governor Perry talking about? He just had a prayer gathering, for goodness’ sake! For whom was he/they praying? For white Christians with money, at the exclusion of white Christians who are struggling? Were they not praying for the black and brown and other minorities of this country who are in need of hope and help? Do the least of these, the struggling masses, not mean anything to these contenders?

I am being very careful to listen, but it is hard stuff to swallow. I shudder to think of what happens to “the rest of us” if any of these GOP contenders win the 2012 election. God bless America, please. Better…God help America!

Just a candid observation …

On the ‘Race Card’

While I am not happy with the “deal” reached as concerns the debt ceiling, what I am more unhappy about is the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about.
Racism.
What I have seen and heard from lawmakers, Democrat, Republican and Tea Party, has given me pause. When you have seen, tasted, experienced and lived racism, you have to watch yourself and make sure that you are not being too sensitive, too defensive.
But from the moment President Obama has taken office, the racism – in the form of disrespect for him as a man, a person and as president of this nation – has been rampant. The ugly comments made on talk radio, the crude caricatures of him and Mrs Obama drawn by God knows who – have all felt uncomfortably familiar. When the Tea Party emerged, some of their signage and their words stung; when some of them reportedly spit on Civil Rights icon Congressman John Lewis, none but racism could be blamed.
Alabama Senator Mitch McConnell has had little success hiding his disdain for President Obama. It is his goal, he has said publicly, to make sure Mr. Obama is a “one term president.” Even in the midst of the recent debacle over the raising the debt ceiling, Sen. McConnell warned Republicans and Tea Partiers to be careful; their refusal to budge might help get President Obama back into office, and he said he wasn’t going to do anything that might make that happen.
It must go against everything Sen. McConnell and others in this country were brought up thinking, that a black man could be the leader of the United States. When Democrats controlled both houses of the legislature, I found myself wondering why the President couldn’t get more support. When, at his first State of the Union address, a member of Congress yelled out, “You lie!” I cringed. The audacity! This was the president of the free world speaking. The blatant disrespect for President Obama and for the office of president, as well as the arrogance that accompanied it, blew my mind. Are all bets off as concerns protocol and decency, just because the president is African American?
Like I said, I don’t like the deal that has been made as concerns the debt ceiling. There were no tax increases on the wealthiest people in this nation, or on huge corporations. As usual, those who can least afford it will end up paying the biggest costs in terms of loss of benefits and services. I don’t like it that President Obama compromised as much as he did – although I am glad he DID compromise.
But I like less the fact that racism is still alive and kicking. Its virulence is showing, and nobody wants to talk about it. But for those of us who have lived it, we can see it, feel it, hear it and taste it.
That would be a candid observation.