By Charles S. Mombo
In 1929, the only work McDaniel could find was as a washroom attendant and waitress. In 1931, McDaniel made her way to Los Angeles to join her brother and sisters. When she could not get film work, she took jobs as a maid or cook.
Despite the hype surrounding the controversy movie “The Help,” there was not enough steam to make it climb to the No. 1 movies spot in the country. It is reported that “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” for a second straight week earned $27.5 million over the weekend. The Help, an adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s 2009 novel, came in second with an estimated $25.5 million.
Just in case you are not aware of Stockett’s book, “The Help,” is about Africa-American maids or servants working in white households in the extremely racist and early 1960s Jackson, Mississippi. The novel is told from the “make believe” point of view of three narrators: Aibileen Clark, a middle-aged African-American or black maid who has spent her life raising white children, and who has recently lost her only son; Minny Jackson, an African-American or black maid whose back-talk towards her employers results in her having to frequently change jobs, exacerbating her desperate need for work as well as her family's struggle with money; and Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, a young white woman and recent college graduate who, after moving back home, discovers that a maid that helped raise her since childhood has abruptly disappeared and her attempts to find her have come to naught. The stories of the three women supposedly explain how life in Jackson, Mississippi revolves around "the help", with complex relations of power, money, emotion, and intimacy tying together the white and black families of Jackson.
In my opinion “
All due respect to the Stockett; she did a great job in using her literary gift to create an excellent work of art. As a white woman, she did an impeccable job by creating two outstanding black fictional characters – Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson; while putting words in their mouths and pretending to share their black experiences. Embedded within her water down version of the reality of the 60’s Mississippi, Stockett whitewashed her version of the crime of racism against blacks. The movies will definitely add more money to the bank accounts of Stockett and the movies producers; however, the typical maid of the 60’s continue to languish in a ramshackle frame house somewhere along a dusty road in rural Mississippi without basic amenities like running water and electricity. It appears that Stockett and Hollywood have refused to acknowledge that racism was a painful experience and can’t be sugar coated for the sole purpose of enriching the descendants of the slave masters.
Let’s take a look at the timeline with regards to what was happening in Mississippi during the early 1960s. Mississippi was the poorest state in the nation. It is reported that 86% of black families lived below the national poverty line. Mississippi had a terrible record of black voter rights violations. At that time, the white administration reported that blacks did not want to vote, but this was not true. Many blacks wanted to vote, but they worried, and rightfully so, that they might lose their job. In 1962, over 260 blacks in Madison County overcame this fear and waited in line to register and only seven got in to take the test over the two days, walking past a sticker on the registrar's office door that bore a Confederate battle flag next to the message "Support Your Citizens' Council." Yes, they were required to take a test to determinate literacy competency and to determine who are eligible to vote. Most blacks, even those with doctoral degrees, "failed." In contrast, most whites passed, no matter what their education levels were.
I’m sorry, but when I hear the words Mississippi and the 60’s in the same sentence, I’m immediately reminded of the man that said these words, "We fought during the war for America, Mississippi included. Now, after the Germans and Japanese hadn't killed us, it looked as though the white Mississippians would."
He is also credited for saying, "Freedom has never been free . . . I love my children and I love my wife with all my heart. And I would die, and die gladly, if that would make a better life for them."
NAACP field director Medgar Evers was the most visible target for violence in Mississippi in the early 60’s. As a native of Mississippi and a World War II veteran, he was greeted by a mob of gun-wielding whites when he attempted to register to vote, after the war, in his hometown of Decatur. In 1963, 37-year-old, civil-rights activist Medgar Evers was assassinated in front of his Jackson home.
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