Jackson Free Press

The film 'The Help' has 99 problems but garnering critical acclaim ain't one. Armfuls of awards and nominations haven't immunized the film based on Kathryn Stockett's best-selling novel about African American maids in Jackson from criticism that the film perpetuates the Mammy meme of early cinema.

Last week, hip-hop critics, journalists, and artist Talib Kweli addressed 'The Help,' race, gender and other topics at a Jackson State University panel titled Hip-Hop Activism in the Obama/Tea-Party Era. Kweli, who has a reputation for delivering music that is conscious and alternative -- as opposed to vapid commercial rap -- applauded actresses Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer for the artistry of their performances.

"We are not finished telling any stories," Kweli said, responding to a question about whether the roles the women played hearkened back to Hattie McDaniel's Mammy" character from Gone with the Wind. McDaniels became the first African American to win an Academy Award for her performance, in 1939.

Joan Morgan, an author and journalist, said her beef wasn't with the fact that the women where maids -- she noted that her Jamaican mother was a domestic worker -- but rather with the fact that the story is Stockett's and not that of the black servants.

Elizabeth Méndez Berry, who is also a journalist, put it another way. She said 'The Help' "reduces Jim Crow to a cat fight."

Previous Comments

ID

167118

Comment

...so should the story remain "untold"??? ..I'm sorry but I read the book and saw the movie twice and I'm not offended by the fact that Stockett wrote this book..... this was a piece of fiction and when I read it I wasn't looking for a treatise on Jim Crow laws but rather I was looking for a "good read"..

Author

833WMaple

Date

2012-02-20T10:25:50-06:00

ID

167120

Comment

I'm being brutally honest with what I'm about to say and I'm not looking for favor points or looking to make waves at the same time. My biggest issue with "The Help" is that it touches on the same thing that sooooooooooooooo many movies based in Mississippi from that error. Granted its received so many accolades and the crew are winning awards, but lets change it up for once. But its high time that Mississippi Film Commission make a conscious effort to have movies made here in a new era, touching on current events.

Author

Duan C.

Date

2012-02-21T12:42:01-06:00

ID

167123

Comment

Duan C., I feel you but I cna't reach you. The Help's story has not been told. It has been but a few years that black women working in these jobs had any voice at all. These stories did not start yesterday and neither will be their ending. If this history is soooooooo painful, my suggestion is to leave the MS Film Commission out of it: Go to the MS Legislature and let them know that some of the crap they are passing will have most of Mississippi crying for HELP and I don't mean from black maids.

Author

justjess

Date

2012-02-21T20:40:57-06:00

ID

167124

Comment

@ 833 Maple "....this was a piece of fiction" If you talk to anyone who was a black maid, as a matter of fact, all maids in Jackson were black. The stories are the same. This was a status symbol - even for whites who were poor. The maid's pay was a combination of old clothes, food and an occasional trip to the doctor in the back seat of their automobile. Maids didn't eat at the table, use their bath room facilities and the food was the "throw away, i.e., chicken necks, feet: The hogs guts, ect. The only thing I saw in the movie that could be fictional was the pie made by the maid with fecal matters and served to her white female boss. This would never happen and if it did, it damn sure would not have been told - not even to God. ....and on top of that, the person would have died almost immediately. You know the story of poop in the body (ecoli)? This is nothing nice!

Author

justjess

Date

2012-02-21T21:00:24-06:00

ID

167125

Comment

@ Justjess Now you know me and you go way back like chuck taylors, but here is my rebuttal. Yes the story of what those women endured should have been told. But, can we escape the 50's and 60's - EVER to tell the story of Mississippi? We know where we've been, but its time to start painting a new picture. Prime example, I don't know if you ever seen the movie "Mississippi Damned" but its a movie that is supposed to be based in current day Mississippi and touches on a lot of points that hit home. That movie should have been made in our own back yard. It was actually an insult to injury to fins out that the movie was actually filmed in, Ahoskie, North Carolina! Yep, let me repeat - Ahoskie, North Carolina! A movie touching on current Mississippi issues, filmed in North Carolina - 'nuff said.

Author

Duan C.

Date

2012-02-21T22:51:35-06:00

ID

167126

Comment

to my fellow 833 BullDawg; the argument that you make is akin to saying that the cigarettes you smoke were made with the best paper and tobacco, taste really smooth, and therefore you like it. That doesn't negate the poisonous quality of the product. The poison here is the telling of OUR story by someone else. Period. I don't give a flip how well it was written or acted; there are important nuances to our story that can only be told by us, and when I say told, I mean WRITTEN by us. We can applaud Ms. Spencer's and Mrs. Davis' acting abilities and still complain that we are STILL not telling our stories enough. That means we may need to leave some well-made stuff on the shelf and demand our stuff.

Author

Lorenzo D. Gayden

Date

2012-02-22T12:12:32-06:00

ID

167129

Comment

@ Duan C. "Now you know me and you go way back like chuck taylors,...." Acknowledgement given: Acknowledgement accepted. LOL! Now to get back on point. There isn't any way to "escape the 50's and 60's" or the 70's, 80's 90's - present day. It is our history and the feeling we have about these periods are laced with many deep and painful scars. Without blame to you personally, there are others who continue to pull the skin from issues that I thought were healed or at least in the process of healing. I agree that a ship never reaches the sunrise sailing backwards. There are many things happening in this State to remind us that it is not the "Old South". Just the fact that I am able to write/speak up and out points to some essence of CHANGE. I complement and celebrate the fact that there are many whites in MS who are progressive and are both positive thinkers and doers. They realize that in order for MS to move forward, we must treat people with dignity, respect and there must be equality and fairness given to all. Now about the film being made in Ahoskie, North Carolina; We can not dictate to the writers or producers as to where they choose to film; however, we can become more proactive and support local talent as they try to raise funds to make movies. Many movies are made in foreign countries and they just might be about a small town in Lousiana. Let's start a list of positive things that are happening here in MS. I'll go first: 1. Mississippians were able to vote NO on Prop. 26 last year to ensure that certain rights of women remained protected.

Author

justjess

Date

2012-02-22T15:41:50-06:00

ID

167131

Comment

2. My story alone is a testament to the growth of Mississippi, coming from Chicago with "NO" family ties, no political connections, graduating from Jackson State, and to earn the positions I've had in the last 6 years is a credit to the people of this state.

Author

Duan C.

Date

2012-02-23T08:26:05-06:00

ID

167134

Comment

Duan C. and I are waiting for #3. I know this does not end our State's list of positives.

Author

justjess

Date

2012-02-24T00:23:39-06:00

ID

167154

Comment

Wow, Lorenzo Gayden is an angry young man. "That means we may need to leave some well-made stuff on the shelf and demand our stuff." That's not very progressive thinking, methinks. That's not very diversity-friendly. That's divisive and continues to promulgate the differences in our cultures.

Author

Darryl

Date

2012-02-26T16:08:24-06:00

ID

167158

Comment

Darryl, with due respect, you often sound angry on here yourself. Why is Lorenzo's anger "divisive" and yours isn't? Usually when someone resorts to calling someone else "angry," they're out of arguments.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2012-02-27T10:53:00-06:00

ID

167160

Comment

Congrats to Octavia Spencer. We all have a different "perspective" and all the stories aren't the same.

Author

833WMaple

Date

2012-02-27T11:02:18-06:00

ID

167162

Comment

I'm glad Octavia won, too. And I'm really glad the film itself or the writing didn't. Here was my critique of "The Help" from last year: Of Anger and Alternative Endings

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2012-02-27T11:13:00-06:00

ID

167166

Comment

Imho, taking someone's nuanced argument and inferring a simplistic, "why u gotta be so angry" meaning from it is the antithesis of progressiveness. Darryl, since you singled me out and proceeded to offer nothing in your response to actually address my argument, I'll ask directly. How would you feel if I casually observed your life - say you work for my company, and based on my daily observations of you, I write a book about you that becomes a movie? Now, let's say my ethnic group has historically and systematically misrepresented, mistreated and oppressed your ethnic group - do you trust me to write a truthful story about you? On the flip side, If I were of the oppressor's ethnicity, why wouldn't you expect me, as a sign on my contrition, to make every effort to let you tell your own story, and let you get credit for it so that we can have REAL diversity?

Author

Lorenzo D. Gayden

Date

2012-02-27T13:48:14-06:00

ID

167174

Comment

Mr. Gayden, Taking your hypothetical scenarios individually... If you happened to observe me in my daily activities in whatever capacity and decided to write a book about me. I would hope that you had the good sense to obtain my express consent to be portrayed. Should I then give my consent, then I have legally waived my right to be presented in your book. Should your book contain clearly libelous content, then I would have the recourse of the legal system to address those wrongs. Now, your second scenario is more tricky. Your ethnic group has oppressed and wronged my ethnic group. You decide to write a book about my ethnic group. Your question as to whether or not I trust you to write a fair account is irrelevant to me. (The tricky part is that I'm white. I'm speaking from a white man's vantage point. Whatever answer I give is colored (forgive the pun) by that inescapable truth.) I, personally, don't give a flying rip what you write about my ethnic group. If your published works are incorrect in whatever way, then why should I care? It doesn't affect me in the least. Your concern seems to be that a white woman wrote a book about a largely black concern. My answer is why hasn't a black person written a book about this. Perhaps someone already has and I am ignorant (blissfully, I may add, as I am ignorant as to "The Help") to this. Ms. Ladd said above that I appear on this forum and appear angry at times. She would be correct in that inference. I do come on here angrily, rarely I feel, however. My anger in this setting is simply because had I or any other white person come in here and said that we should stop purchasing products produced by black people, we would be castigated (rightly, I might add).

Author

Darryl

Date

2012-02-28T01:38:51-06:00