Home of the Reality Movement: The Help...Here's A Thought.

Home of the Reality Movement: The Help...Here's A Thought.: "I've been reading so many reviews about this film. What strikes me as interesting is that many white women over 45 years old have posted rev..."

The Help...Here's A Thought.

I've been reading so many reviews about this film. What strikes me as interesting is that many white women over 45 years old have posted reviews and mentioned their "beloved maids" while praising how much of an inspiration these maids were to them and their families. What has not been mentioned by any of the people that posted reviews on this page and others, is that to many black people their praise and admiration for these maids is very similar to how pet owners express fondness for their property! What these "employers" need to remember is that many black women could not find other work, had been groomed through the brutality of slavery to accept such tasks with a smile and simply were trying to survive under unfair and inhumane life circumstances. Furthermore, to convince themselves that a black maid in the south would have willingly served them out of the kindness of their hearts post-slavery era is just silly. As these "righteous white" reminisce of when they were tended to hand and foot by smiling maids that were really doing the best they could though their opportunities were limited, they should remember that you can go to any 3 - 5 star hotel and pay for such great service and smiles today. Just because the bell hop smiles in your face and calls your kids cute, doesn't mean they love you sincerely. In short, black maids were just trying to make a living and did their best to remain human by embracing what parts of humanity they were allowed to experience as women and mothers. It's what people do when they are deprived and seeking hope for better days. The smiles of maids just made white women feel better about exploiting these black women. It's ironic that the very author of The Help is now being sued by a maid close to her own family for...exploitation without permission. What a crazy world we live in.

Home of the Reality Movement: The Help....Here we go again!

Home of the Reality Movement: The Help....Here we go again!: "I've been waiting for THE HELP to be released. To me, it had the chance to highlight an often overlooked theme within America's racist histo..."

The Help....Here we go again!

I've been waiting for THE HELP to be released. To me, it had the chance to highlight an often overlooked theme within America's racist history: the dynamic between black women and white women. The truth is, white women have always received the best of both worlds when it comes to racism. There men commit violent acts, segregate society attempt to monopolize power, while white women get to experience the fruits of racist efforts executed by their men. Also, white women know how to be racist with a "smile" as they have been groomed for centuries around powerful establishments, so they know how to play the game around kings and rich men all while being serviced by the oppressed and placed on a cultural pedestal by their men. White women have countless positive role models in popular media culture so they are told daily that they are special, beautiful and worth extra praise and admiration- a prize or trophy with star appeal. All while black women clean their footsteps and accept secondary status as "the best friend", "confidant" and "personal life coach or assistant" to help soothe the white woman's woes. As a man, I can see this clearly. What undermines the possibility of black women ever establishing themselves as more than "angry hos, single mothers, groupies, maids and assistants" is when black women support crap like THE HELP and walk out with a smile as if it's really a "feel good movie." It's a lullaby aimed at putting black women to sleep as they foolishly accept the bare minimum amount of respect from white women that are groomed to hold entitlement complexes that make black women expendable in their world...but black women should be happy to see white women smile, right? That movie is nothing but a Public Relations effort to put a smiling, pretty white female face on racism. It's called 'sympathetic racism" and white women are the masters of it, saving black kids, saving troubled schools- but they raise white men.  I wonder would this movie be as popular if a black daughter of one of the maids set out to tell the stories of black maids in the south? Imagine that. A young black woman, out to become a writer and move to the big city who decides to tell her mother's and aunties stories by way of a book called The Help. What do you think?