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
> @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@