Hello MAC members:
I am reading with interest your comments on "The Help" and
want to suggest that one of us propose a panel on a
critical reading of this film for the 2012 convention.
Maybe MAC members who have offered comments could
participate as presenters. The panel could be a teaching
panel to emphasize the use of critical race theories or
other theories, historical lenses, etc. to advance a
critique of this text within the context of cultivating
media literacy skills among students. The film could be a
case to explore.
Let's consider. I know Felecia has called for proposals
and extended the deadline to Oct. 19.
Cordially,
Ilia Rodriguez
University of New Mexico
On Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:44:05 -0500
"E. K. Daufin" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Thank you all who have shared so far. I will be sharing
>your voices with my Mass Media & Society class. Earlier
>in the semester I tried to talk about the problem with
>products of this type. One African American male student
>(who has dropped out of sight twice and probably won’t be
>in class to hear it) said, “I thought everyone KNEW it
>was a story written by a White woman.” He just didn’t
>get it and I couldn’t reach him. Thanks for the help.
>
> Know Justice; Know Peace,
> Rev. Dr. E-K Daufin
> Professor of Communication
> Media & Society Size Equity National Expert
> Winner - 2000 MaryAnn Yodelis-Smith
> Research Award AEJMC CSW
> AEJMC MAC Membership Chair
> Alabama State University
> 915 S. Jackson St.
> Montgomery, AL 36101-0271
> (334) 229-6885
> www.home.earthlink.net/~ekdaufin<http://www.home.earthlink.net/~ekdaufin>
> Your research and creative activity referrals are
>welcomed.
> With all my heart I want to work with and for kind,
>competent, strong people who love and help me and I they.
> Ashe!
>
>From: FOR THE MINORITIES AND COMMUNICATION DIV. OF AEJMC
>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kathleen
>Fearn
> Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2011 4:05 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: SEEKING OPINIONS ON "THE HELP"
>==>White-Authored Narratives of Black Life
>
> I saw the film and I can see why you didn't. I am
>seething that I spent $8 to see it. I know so much more
>about the issues and the time than the author and I
>didn't have to interview anybody. That little addition
>to the recipe for the pie is small stuff compared to
>things that actually happened. Also, reviews are calling
>it a "feel good" movie. Who feels good -- white people?
> I feel bad that the central black maid (I have blocked
>out the names of characters in my effort to forget the
>film) was unemployed at the conclusion. What was she
>going to do? Certainly not be a writer? And where were
>the black men? I think there was one we didn't see who
>beat up his wife. What did black husbands think about
>their wives being mistreated when they could do little to
>help? What did black children think about their mother's
>sharing their breasts with white babies? That's the
>movie that we are missing.
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On Oct 13, 2011, at 1:13 PM, Karen Bond
><[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
> Dear MAC members,
> A movie written by a man about the pain experienced
>during childbirth would get little attention because
>obviously there are women who could write more credible
>accounts. So why do we always pay so much attention to
>books written by whites about the pain of the black
>experience in America? For me, a movie written by a
>white woman about the pain of the black experience has no
>value. In fact, the ability for so many whites to get
>rich off of this literary formula insults and belittles
>my experience as a black woman.
>
>
> The signature on my email messages has always read:
> "Until the lion has his own historian, the tail of the
>hunt will always glorify the hunter."
>
>
> And so it goes. "The Help" once again glorifies white
>woman as the savior of black women.
>
>
> When "The Help" came out, I sent out the message below
>to some of my associates seeking their opinions on the
>movie. Now I'm asking MAC members what they think about
>the issues raised in the message below:
>
>
> ------------ Forwarded message ------------
>From: K J Bond
><[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Date: Aug 16, 2011
> Subject: FYI, I've decided NOT to see “The Help”. . .
>
>FYI,
>
>
> I've decided NOT to see “The Help”.
>
>
> I saw “Driving Miss Daisy”, “Crash”, and “Avatar”. On
>one level, I enjoyed some of these movies. But by the the
>time “The Blind Side” came out, I had a decision to make:
>Could I sit through one more film that perpetuated the
>falsehoods of “the white savior myth”? I decided I
>couldn't and so I did not see “The Blindside”. And I
>will not see “The Help”. I do not want to risk the
>chance that my financial contribution to its box office
>receipts might encourage Hollywood to continue plying the
>nation's consciousness with this misinformation.
>
>
> In addition to “the white savior myth”, the negative
>image of Black men in this movie is also a problem for
>me. As far as many of us know and have experienced in
>this life, Black men are awesome. However, this fact is
>rarely represented in film. Once too often I've seen the
>reinforcement of an insulting and false Black male
>stereotype used as a handy plot device. This is one more
>reason why I will not be seeing “The Help”.
>
>
> One might say that I should not pass judgment on a film
>I have not seen, but this is no different than my
>decision not to see the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”. I read
>about the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” movie and concluded I
>don't actually have to pay money to see people's limbs
>being severed in order to decide this movie is not for
>me. Based on having seen other horror movies of its
>type, I knew that I literally could not stomach seeing
>it. And likewise, after researching “The Help” I believe
>the movie is most definitely not for me.
>
>
> The owner of FOX television, arch-conservative Rupert
>Murdoch, also owns The Wall Street Journal. Here's what
>The Wall Street Journal said about “The Help”:
> “ 'The Help' is bound to be a hit. Just as readers loved
>the book, for good reason—its resonant themes transcended
>its imperfect craftsmanship—audiences starved for
>substance after a long, dry summer will embrace the
>movie. They'll do so not only for the white guilt it
>addresses, and deftly mitigates, but for the plot's
>entertaining contrivances (chief among them a climax of
>cyclonic uplift), the bonds of love between whites and
>blacks and a cast of outsize characters...”
>
>
> So Rupert Murdoch's movie reviewers think one important
>reason people will love and “embrace” “The Help” is for
>how it “deftly mitigates” white guilt (mitigates, as in
>“to reduce”, “to lessen”, “to decrease”). Hmmmm...
>interesting that THIS is a theme (purpose?) that
>resonates throughout the movie for them.
>
>
> Below, I have copied some interesting opinions that
>helped me make up my mind about the nature of this movie.
>I invite you to copy this email message to all you feel
>might benefit from it. Please participate in my informal
>survey - drop me a line to let me know whether you intend
>to contribute to The Help's box office receipts and why.
>
>
> Thanks!
>
> ~ Karen
>
>
>
> =============================================================================
> =============================================================================
>
> HOW RACIST IS “THE HELP”?
> http://blogs.indiewire.com/anthony/archives/how_racist_is_the_help/
> Anthony Kaufman's ReelPolitik Blog
>
> “Why should I complain about making $7,000 a week
>playing a maid? If I didn’t, I’d be making $7 a week
>being one.”—Hattie McDaniel
>
>
> Despite Hollywood’s best intentions and well-meaning
>saccharine storytelling, it gets race wrong, repeatedly.
>From “Driving Miss Daisy” to “Crash” to “The Blind Side”
>to “Avatar,” whiteness remains Hollywood’s dominant
>force, and its stories of racial redemption continually
>fail to grapple with the realities of America’s horrible
>racism, past and present.
>
>
>For all those giving a pass to “The Help,” forgiving the
>film’s reactionary core for its strong performances or
>heartwarming uplift, I suggest you consider the
>deep-seated problem of perpetuating the white savior
>myth—once again. It reinforces stereotypes, powerful
>images of subjugation, that endure in the public
>consciousness.
>
>
> I like what Boston Globe critic Wesley Morris wrote in
>his review of the film:
> “The best film roles three black women will have all
>year require one of them to clean Ron Howard’s daughter’s
>house. It’s self-reinforcing movie imagery. White boys
>have always been Captain America. Black women, in one way
>or another, have always been someone’s maid. These are
>strong figures, as that restaurant owner might sincerely
>say, but couldn’t they be strong doing something else?
>That’s the hardest thing to reconcile about Skeeter’s
>book and ‘The Help’’ in general. On one hand, it’s juicy,
>heartwarming, well-meant entertainment. On the other,
>it’s an owner’s manual.”
>
>
> In a post called “Why Can’t Critics Just Get Along,”
>David Poland criticizes critics for criticizing the fact
>that “The Help” was made, at all, and not reviewing the
>film on its relative faults and merits. But Poland
>doesn’t seem to read Morris’s point—and mine, as
>well—that the film’s faults are integrally mixed with its
>premise. To make a film that purports to be about the
>struggles of black servitude that is actually just
>another tale about a white person’s empowerment is
>grossly irresponsible, from a political perspective, and
>kind of lame, from a narrative perspective.
>
>
> In his 1965 essay, “White Man’s Guilt,” James Baldwin
>writes about America’s racism: “One wishes that
>Americans, white Americans, would read, for their own
>sakes, this record, and stop defending themselves against
>it. Only then will they be enabled to change their lives.
>The fact that Americans, white Americans, have not yet
>been able to do this - to face their history, to change
>their lives - hideously menaces this country. Indeed, it
>menaces the entire world.”
>Forty-six years later, it seems, the American white
>establishment still can’t seem to understand that they
>are responsible for racial discrimination and
>subjugation, and not, as “The Help” would have it,
>responsible for breaking down those walls.
>
>
> I also can’t help wonder what does it say about “The
>Help” that Ablene Cooper, an African American nanny and
>housekeeper who works for “The Help” author Kathryn
>Stockett’s brother and sister-in-law, filed a lawsuit
>against Stockett, claiming that the central African
>American maid in the novel — a woman named Aibileen Clark
>and portrayed in the film by Viola Davis — was based
>largely on her likeness without her approval. A judge
>will decide on the case next week, as millions of
>Americans will fork over cash, enriching more white
>Americans. The exploitation continues.
>
> =============================================================================
> =============================================================================
>
> THE HELP: Boston Globe Movie Review
> http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2011/08/10/race_class_and_hollywood_gloss_in_the_help/?page=2
> by Wesley Morris
>
> ...Skeeter’s exposé is meant to empower both the
>subjects and the author, but “The Help’’ joins everything
>from “To Kill a Mockingbird’’ to “The Blind Side’’ as
>another Hollywood movie that sees racial progress as the
>province of white do-gooderism. Skeeter [a white woman]
>enjoys all the self-discovery and all the credit... The
>novel made a lot of people feel good. It was sneaky.
>Stockett wrote tolerably in Aibileen and Minny’s voices -
>in a way that keeps black vernacular inside dignified
>English, and avoids the literary dehumanization that Toni
>Morrison has written about. But as much as the book was
>about race and class, it was really about how feminism
>empowered Skeeter, and Stockett, to address other
>injustices... Tate Taylor, a childhood friend of
>Stockett, adapted and directed the movie. He applies a
>thick coat of gloss to most scenes. It’s hard not to
>imagine what trouble the passive, largely absent husbands
>of these bigoted women are up to off-screen. The death of
>the civil rights activist Medgar Evers is reported on
>television, so white supremacy is in the air, but the
>movie would have us believe that the racism of the time
>was the stuff of bridge clubs. Indeed, the meanest male
>in the movie is the abusive, mostly unseen black husband
>who, in a poorly made sequence, comes after Minny... “The
>Help’’ comes out on the losing end of the movies’ social
>history.
>
> =============================================================================
> =============================================================================
>
> RACIST OR RAVING: WHAT CRITICS ARE SAYING ABOUT “THE
>HELP”
> http://www.thefrisky.com/post/246-racist-or-raving-what-critics-are-saying-about-the-help/
>
> by Jessica Wakeman
>
> ...Some critics, both armchair and professional, say the
>new flick starring Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia
>Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Allison Janney is a
>white-washed, even racist version of the civil rights
>movement that praises a white woman as the savior of the
>poor black folks. (Cough “The Blind Side” cough.) They
>ask why Hollywood makes films about civil rights through
>the lens of white people, instead of giving due credit to
>the African-Americans who fought for their rights. And
>that is certainly a worthy question to ask.
> Others (me, for instance) read and loved the book and
>are excited to see the movie, imperfect as the narrative
>may be. (Though I agree it would be better for Hollywood
>to make more films that tell a less white-centric
>narrative.)...
>
>
> ...Whether you decide to see the movie or not, or to
>read Kathryn Stockett’s novel or not, is up to you. To
>help give you an idea of some of the controversy
>surrounding “The Help” I’ve rounded up the criticism from
>all angles:
>From Akiba Solomon at Colorlines:
> “As a racial justice and gender writer, a pop culture
>observer, and an African American woman who rides for
>Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Cicely Tyson and Aunjanue
>Ellis, I feel obligated to see this film. But, damn it,
>I’m jaded, and it has absolutely nothing to do with
>watching black women portray domestic workers onscreen.
>(There’s no shame in domestic work, unless you’re talking
>about their employers’ abuse and wage exploitation.) I
>just can’t bring myself to pay $12.50 after taxes and
>fees to sit in an aggressively air conditioned, possibly
>bed bug-infested, New York City movie theater to watch
>these sisters lend gravitas to Stockett’s white heroine
>mythology. I’m sorry, but the trailer alone features way
>too many group hugs to be trusted.”
>From Martha Southgate at Entertainment Weekly:
> “Implicit in The Help and a number of other popular
>works that deal with the civil rights era is the notion
>that a white character is somehow crucial or even
>necessary to tell this particular tale of black
>liberation. ... This isn’t the first time the civil
>rights movement has been framed this way fictionally,
>especially on film. ... Why is it ever thus? Suffice it
>to say that these stories are more likely to get the
>green light and to have more popular appeal (and often
>acclaim) if they have white characters up front. That’s a
>shame.”
>From Ann Hornaday at The Washington Post:
> “One of those truths, which “The Help” deserves praise
>for bringing to light, is that racism should be
>understood less as a matter of black grievance than of
>unexamined white privilege and pathology. ... [Racist
>character] Hilly’s monstrousness is in keeping with “The
>Help’s” tendency to reduce its characters to stock types,
>but it has the effect of enabling white viewers to
>distance themselves from racism’s subtler, more potent
>expressions.”
> Tami at What Tami Said:
> “This is my worry: That even if “The Help” film gets it
>right, viewers will see just another movie about a
>spunky, young, white girl, setting the world on fire,
>while the lives, stories and agency of black women remain
>invisible.”
> And last but not least, what I thought was the strongest
>review of “The Help”: Wesley Morris at The Boston Globe:
> “The movie is too pious for farce and too eager to
>please to comment persuasively on the racial horrors of
>the Deep South at that time. ... The death of the civil
>rights activist Medgar Evers is reported on television,
>so white supremacy is in the air, but the movie would
>have us believe that the racism of the time was the stuff
>of bridge clubs. Indeed, the meanest male in the movie is
>the abusive, mostly unseen black husband who, in a poorly
>made sequence, comes after Minny. ... “The Help’’ comes
>out on the losing end of the movies’ social history. The
>best film roles three black women will have all year
>require one of them to clean Ron Howard’s daughter’s
>house. It’s self-reinforcing movie imagery. White boys
>have always been Captain America. Black women, in one way
>or another, have always been someone’s maid. These are
>strong figures, as that restaurant owner might sincerely
>say, but couldn’t they be strong doing something else?
>That’s the hardest thing to reconcile about Skeeter’s
>book and “The Help’’ in general.”
>
> =============================================================================
> =============================================================================
>
> IS VIOLA DAVIS' CHARACTER IN THE HELP JUST THE
>STEREOTYPICAL BLACK MAMMY?
> http://gayblackcanadianman.com/2011/04/21/is-viola-davis-the-stereotypical-nurturing-black-mammny-in-the-civil-rights-drama-the-help/
>
> I cannot contain my anger and disappointment that Viola
>Davis decided to star in the new film The Help. Hollywood
>produces very myopic representations of black women.
>Black women are either whores like Halle Berry in
>Monster’s Ball or maids like Viola Davis in The Help. The
>social construction of the binary of black female
>sexuality is very limited. The film roles available for
>black women tend to be two dimensional and not nuanced.
>Black women in North America are still presented as
>inferior to white women. The white woman is still placed
>on the pedestal as the true image of womanhood.
>
>
> ...Of course, the white woman saves the day since the
>purpose of The Help is to promote the narrative that as
>black people we cannot save ourselves... The genesis of
>The Help is that in order for white people to be
>interested in movies about black people, a white person
>must always be the protagonist.
> The Help is just another form of the classic white
>saviour movies. Usually in a white saviour movie, the
>white protagonist has an epiphany and decides to help the
>black people that are constructed as victims. I am so
>tired of the racist white saviour narrative that black
>people need to be saved by whites.
>
>
> Another problem I have with The Help is the film
>promotes the racist narrative that black women have no
>agency. The only purpose black people have in the film is
>to serve white folks. Black womanhood is constructed as
>just to be loving and nurturing. The Help does not
>present Viola Davis or Octavia Spencer’s characters as
>three dimensional women. Hollywood consistently promotes
>the discourse that a black woman’s purpose in life is to
>exist in an anterior time. I cringed when I heard the
>line in the trailer “we love them and they love us.”
>
>
> Yes, black women loved working in the domestic sphere
>and served rich white women. Of course, The Help ignores
>the fact that in America, black women were blocked from
>higher educational opportunities for decades... The
>majority of black women had to work in domestic work
>because that’s the only form of work they were offered!
>
>
> Two years ago, Sandra Bullock's racist film The Blind
>Side, also promoted this abhorrent narrative disavowing
>black agency. The Blind Side made over $200 million
>dollars at the North American box office. Hollywood will
>continue to make racist movies such as The Help because
>the public supports this bigotry. Would the general
>public really want to see an honest movie about black
>female domestics that were raped by white men?
>
>
> ...The trailer for The Help is so racist and sexist
>against black women. I just feel sick watching this
>racist garbage! It is so sad that the best role Viola
>Davis can get since her Academy Award nomination for
>Doubt is just being the black mammy! ...The Help
>engenders the discourse that a black woman's purpose is
>to be subservient to white folks. I also find the racist
>narrative of the white saviour in The Help problematic.
>In the 1960s civil rights movement, my black elders
>helped themselves - they did not sit and wait for white
>folks to gain freedom!
> ===================
> ONLINE COMMENTS:
> ===================
> "I want to read the African-American version of The
>Help.”
> ===================
> Erin Aubry Kaplan wonders "Why must blacks speak dialect
>to be authentic? Why are Stockett's white characters free
>of the linguistic quirks that white Southerners certainly
>have?" The Christian Science Monitor notes the same
>problem, wondering about the "decision to convey only
>black voices in dialect, with nary a dropped 'g' among
>her generally less sympathetic Southern white
>characters."
> ===================
> “Many have taken issue with the core theme of the movie
>– a young white girl helping to ‘empower’ black women in
>the South. And then there’s anger that strong black
>actresses like Viola Davis are ‘reduced’ to playing maids
>in 2011.”
> ===================
> “I did check the book out at local public library about
>2 weeks ago. But after reading the inside jacket I got on
>the computer to find out who the author was. After
>finding out the author was a Caucasian and, based on the
>topic, I returned book to the library without even
>reading a page. Why? I personally felt that if this
>writer wanted to write a book about her personal life
>experience as a young woman growing up in Mississippi in
>the 60's, she should have told the story from her own
>personal perspective. To try and tell the story from her
>maid's perspective I felt would be superficial.”
> ==================
> “My concern is over the specific types of stories about
>race that get such critical, mainstream acclaim. Stories
>like Precious, the Blind Side, etc. suggest that there is
>a very specific set of requirements for a movie dealing
>with race, and anything outside of that mold isn’t going
>to get that level of attention.
> ...I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I do worry (and
>have seen support for this worry in the reviews I’ve
>read) that this script was chosen for its ability to be
>boiled down into the preferred narrative about race, one
>that too often simplifies a complex issue and leaves
>white people feeling all warm and fuzzy about their
>enlightened perspective.”
> ==================
>
> ============================================================================
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Karen J. Bond
> Executive Director
> National Black Coalition for Media Justice (NBCMJ)
> Phone: (847) 328-4849 Cell: (224) 616-1119
> Email Address:
>[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Website (currently under construction):
>www.nbcmj.org<http://www.nbcmj.org>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
>
> UNTIL THE LION HAS HIS OWN HISTORIAN, THE TALE OF THE
>HUNT WILL ALWAYS GLORIFY THE HUNTER.
>
> -African Proverb
> @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
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