Racism Portrayed in The Help Movie (2011) by Tate Taylor
The Help is a movie adapted from Kathryn Stockett’s novel The Help (2009), directed by Tate Taylor. Tate Taylor was born on June 3rd, 1696 in Jackson Mississippi. Taylor’s dedication to producing movies gets him the recognition he deserves. According to the world’s most popular movie site, IMDb, Taylor received lots of nominations and awards: nominee for Best Adapted Screenplay “The Help” (2011) in BAFTA Film Award (2012), Awards Circuit Community Awards (2011), Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards (2011), and won in Black Film Critics Circle Awards (2011). The Help also won Feature Films in the Christopher Awards (2012). Taylor’s other works are Get on Up (2014) and The Girl on The Train (2016). Taylor and the writer of The Help novel, Kathryn Stockett, grew up in Jackson and are childhood friends. Taylor and Stockett attended the same preschool and became close when Taylor threw rocks at Stockett in the playground. Both of them went on their own path: Taylor with directing and Stockett with writing. Later on, Stockett wrote The Help novel and with the friendship, Taylor and Stockett have by growing up in Jackson, Stockett allowed Taylor to turn The Help into a movie.
The movie is set in the 1690s Jackson, Mississippi. The citizens of Jackson city are people who are still classified as conservative. Skeeter, one of the main characters, returns from college with aspirations of becoming a writer. Skeeter meets with her friends Hilly and Elizabeth, who are living life as housewives while still having maids. The maids employed in Jackson city were all black people. Aibileen and Minny are the starring maids in The Help. Aibileen works for Elizabeth and Minny works for Hilly. Upon socializing again with the citizens of Jackson city and seeing the relationship between Elizabeth, Hilly, and their maids, Skeeter comes up with an idea for her next writing project: interviewing Aibileen and Minny and retelling their story about the life of African-American maids in Jackson. Skeeter thinks the racism in her hometown is unbearable and extremely disrespectful. Hilly is the pioneer for black maids to use separate toilets from them, white people. She forces Elizabeth to do the same, build a separate toilet for Aibileen despite the fact that, at first, Elizabeth does not have a problem with using the same toilet as Aibileen. One stormy day, in Hilly’s home, Minny has the urge to go to the toilet, the storm outside is blowing. In discreet, Minny uses Hilly’s bathroom, but she gets caught and is immediately fired by Hilly. Minny then transfers to another household belonging to Celia. Celia is an outcast in Jackson because of her perky personality which causes envy from the other housewives in Jackson. Celia treats Minny like a human being, unlike Hilly. The scene moves to Skeeter when she is having a hard time convincing Aibileen and Minny to do the interview and voice their stories. Eventually, Aibileen and Minny agree.
There is another helper in the spotlight of this
movie, Yule May. Yule May is Minny’s maid replacement. Yule May finds a lost
ring in the back of Elizabeth’s sofa and takes it. Later, she is caught and arrested for theft. As Aibileen and Minny unravel their story, the fear of
being caught and the backlash cloud them. As an act of revenge for Hilly’s bad treatment,
Minny comes to Hilly’s house and bakes her signature chocolate pie. While Hilly
is eating the pie, Minny reveals that the pie Hilly is eating is a chocolate
pie containing Minny’s feces. Later in the movie, told the story about
Skeeter’s mother who fired the maid, Constantine, who had taken care of Skeeter
since childhood. Her mother, Charlotte, fired Constantine because when there is
a gathering in Charlotte’s home, Charlotte is humiliated when Constantine’s
daughter disobeys her instructions to enter through the kitchen. Charlotte is
pressured by her friends to send Constantine through the backdoor (so that
Constantine knows her place). Constantine left and later died; this makes
Charlotte regrets everything. She regrets the fact that she does not stand up
for someone important in her life. Back to the story of Aibileen and Minny, the
book is published anonymously and becomes a hit. The success of the book makes
Hilly furious since there is a chapter about her eating Minny’s chocolate pie.
Hilly can not reveal who is behind the book because she is embarrassed about
her story. Hilly urges Elizabeth to fire Aibileen by accusing her of stealing
silverware as payback for Aibileen’s assistance in Skeeter’s book. Elizabeth
tells Aibileen to go and forces Aibileen to separate her from Elizabeth’s child
whom she loves dearly. Aibileen considers the experience in retrospect and
finds solace before announcing her retirement from domestic labor and focusing
on her own writing career. This essay will analyze the discrimination of race
shown in The Help Movie and approach the sociology of literature highlighting
races.
This drama describes the causes of the
discrimination of race in The Help movie and the action the black maids
took to fight the racial discrimination they experienced. According to Oxford
Dictionary, discrimination means the discriminatory or biased treatment of
distinct categories of individuals, notably on the grounds of race, age, sex,
or disability. Discrimination can also refer to treating someone unfairly
because of their true self or traits. The Help movie focuses on
discrimination against the black race. The concept of race is typically
considered a social construct that is defined by commonly perceived physical
traits. According to Grosfugel (2015), the institutions of the
“capitalist/patriarchal western-centric/Christian centric modern/colonial world
system” have developed and reproduced racism through many centuries as a system
of superiority and inferiority along human lines on a global scale. Racialization
can happen upon seeing color, race, language, culture, and religion. The
Help movie shows exactly the previous statement.
Skeeter asks Aibileen whether Aibileen
expects herself to become a maid or not. Aibileen answers the question by
telling her that every member of her family are maids. From generation to
generation, black people receive discrimination making them have limited career
opportunities. Projections show that people of color (POC) suffer disadvantages
for having colored skin. Aibileen wants to become a writer but due to the
ongoing slavery, she does not have a chance to move forward. This proves
Grosfugel’s (2015) statement that says racism is there for many centuries.
Slavery started when African people were kidnapped and forced to work in
agriculture by the Europeans. In the 17th century, African slave
work is shifted from farmers to servants. From then on, there is a social
construct/class that creates discrimination against races. American society is
ruled by the majority: white people. The white people feel superior, viewing
their wealth and power. They treat POC as they like without caring about
morality and humanity. According to Kerbo (2009), there are four classes in the
social class: the upper class, the middle class, the working class, and the
lower class. In The Help movie, Hilly, Elizabeth, the government, and
their peers showed as the upper class is the ones who perform discrimination
against the working and lower class: the black maids. The government sets out
rules that school textbooks cannot be used in both white schools and colored
schools. The blacks can use the books when the whites are already done using them
(the books). The government is the higher
class of all, therefore, any regulations that they make will surely be followed
by the people. This ongoing cycle will not end discrimination and racism in
view of the fact that even the government encourages the act of discrimination.
The blacks shown in The Help movie are often seen as quiet and obedient.
It is because the upper class has power and influence to control the
lower-working class and there is proponents’ regulation from the government.
Racism can escalate quickly and become extreme. An example of discrimination in
The Help movie is a separate bathroom. As stated in the second paragraph
of this essay, Hilly is the one who started creating separate bathrooms between blacks and whites. Hilly believes that black people have “diseases” from whites. This discrimination from Hilly comes from stereotypes that the
blacks as a lower-walking class live in a dirty environment with no proper
things to take care of their own selves. The growing hatred from the upper class
of Jackson city resulted in damage to humanity toward black people.
The Help movie demonstrates how
racial identity and socioeconomic class are the factors of discrimination
against black maids. To this day, there are still discrimination and racism
going on in our society. Racism takes a toll resulting in extreme incidents
such as the killing cases of blacks by the police. There are still people that
see themselves like Hilly in The Help movie (superior) and treat
minorities poorly. People must learn that humans are all the same and worthy
despite their skin color to live in a better, prosperous society.
References
Grosfoguel, R. (2015). The Origins of Turkey’s “Heterodox” Transition to Neoliberalism. Journal of World-Systems Research, 23(2), 540–564. https://doi.org/10.5195/JWSR.1
History.com Editors. (2022, May 19). Slavery
in America. HISTORY. https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/slavery
Horowitz,
J. M., Brown, A., & Cox, K. (2021, September 22). Race in America 2019.
Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/04/09/race-in-america-2019/
Magazine,
S. (2019, October 4). WRITERS ON WRITING: Tate Taylor’s Story Behind Adapting
The Help. Script Magazine. https://scriptmag.com/features/tate-taylor-writers-writing-adapting-the-help
RACISM IN “THE HELP” MOVIE BY TATE
TAYLOR (A SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH). (2018). British, Jurnal Bahasa Dan Sastra
Inggris, 7(2), 120–129. https://journal.umgo.ac.id/index.php/British/article/download/418/250
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Kerbo, H. (2012). Social stratification and inequality: Class conflict in
historical comparative, and global persepctive (8th ed.) [PDF].
McGraw-Hill, New York. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/49309282_Social_Stratification_and_Inequality
Tate Taylor. (n.d.). IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0853238/awards
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