February 15, 2012

Concessions 90210

A Help-Style White-on-Black Interview

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With the Oscars just around the corner, I'm busy getting caught up on my best-picture nominees! This week, I watched The Help, which is a movie about how poop is hilarious and racism gives you cold sores. In it, a white lady-journalist collects and publishes the stories of black domestic workers in Jackson, Mississippi, in the early 1960s. The movie maneuvers around the awkwardness of white women speaking for black women by framing it all as an interview: The black ladies tell their own stories to the benevolent white lady. See? They have their own voices! Super-empowering! (Thanks to the white lady.) Recently, I, a white lady-journalist, watched The Help with my roommate, who is a black person. Soooooooo... taking a cue from the movie The Help, I just interviewed him about it! Here's what my black roommate has to say about The Help:

What did you think of The Help?

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It was good. It was okay. Kinda boring. I'm not going to say it wasn't offensive, but I'm considerably less offended than I thought I would be.

There was a LOT of poop in this movie. What do you feel the poop symbolized?

Um... brownness?

Uh... is that offensive?

Incredibly.

Do you feel like the message of the movie was a little bit paternalistic and condescending? Like, that white people are patting themselves on the back for getting black people out of a jam that they, the white people, created in the first place?

Yeah, but it does that less than most movies. I didn't like the part when the white lady helped the black lady start a shrimp company, though.

No, but seriously, it seems like there's been a lot of backlash to this movie.

I feel like there have been movies that addressed the larger issues of racism, like, you know, Mississippi Burning (murder), The Color Purple (the aftermath of slavery). But there aren't a lot of movies that address just being treated shittily. Things like murder—it's easy for white people to be like, "I'm not racist—I've never murdered anyone!" But it gets a little hairier when you get into, well, do you actually just treat some people shitty? So it's the beginning of addressing slightly subtler forms of racism, which rarely get addressed. So on that end, I commend it. But it's still a Hollywood movie about, you know, white people saving the day.

Is it racist that I'm interviewing you about this movie?

I think it's racist that you're making me vacuum while you do it.

I'm sorry about racism.

That's essentially what we've been looking for this whole time—just a "My bad" from white people.

Well, you're welcome.

Cool.

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Ok, so I haven't seen the movie, but I did hear Viola Davis interviewed on NPR, and it seemed to me like her perspective was that her character was a writer in her own right, having kept a journal of her experiences for her entire life. So when the white lady showed up and was like, "Tell me your story," she was like, "It's been done, stupid, here it all is."

But I haven't seen the movie.

Posted by TheLando on February 15, 2012 at 9:29 AM · Report

I've read a few things about the story / theme of the movie, and it sounds like an interesting premise - why do whites in the south who are raised by blacks generally grow into these racist asses? - but not having seen the movie, it sounds like it unentionally answers the question via the mechanics of the story: because these blacks need whites to even give their perspctive. Ugh, and what a waste of a good idea.

I have family down in Texas (from a small little town with both the good and bad sides of the tracks), and its the same situation: Black nanny who seems to be part of the family and is entrusted with raising the kids, but when it comes to weddings and social events, is sat in the very back row and dismissed as mere 'help'. Its pathetic and disgusting.

By the way, the part about making him vacum - funny!

Posted by dude-man on February 16, 2012 at 7:54 AM · Report

I haven't seen the movie either but I read the book. Sad that whitey had to get their voice heard but that's how it was back then. Are people bummed that white lady had to help? Or, as I think they should be, bummed that the sisters didn't self-publish or simply write a blog?

Posted by aeros66 on February 16, 2012 at 9:27 AM · Report

"I think it's racist that you're making me vacuum while you do it."

I haven't laughed this hard in a while. Thanks, Lindy's roommate!

Posted by I have always been... east coaster on February 16, 2012 at 10:20 AM · Report

You know, I see the point of the hubbub over the whole "benevolent white woman solves racism" thing, but I have to say that it's a bit of a stretch. To me (an admittedly super-white person), it seemed as though the movie was empowering for ALL of its protagonists. Yes, it's the white woman who does the interviews, publishes the book, yadda yadda...and the movie appropriately establishes the risks she takes doing so. Yay white woman! But it's the black women in the movie who, at a time and place where they could lose their livelihoods and their lives, had the courage to risk everything and tell their stories. There's even the lovely subplot of Octavia Spencer's character teaching Jessica Chastain's character (sorry, can't remember names) how to keep her house and turn her life around. Yay black women! And it's important to keep the context of the period in mind...it would be a ridiculously inaccurate and laughable premise historically if, say, Viola Davis's character had published the book herself.

It's a good movie; it's funny, it's touching, and it discusses the history of racism in America from an angle that feels fresh and important. Can we all please stop wringing our hands so much and just say that it's a movie about wonderful women doing great things to help combat racism, regardless of their own races?

Posted by TenrSinger on February 16, 2012 at 10:32 AM · Report

I like the way you kept your roommate nameless to help us white people not think too hard about him.

Posted by dwightmoodyforgetsthings

on February 16, 2012 at 10:48 AM · Report

"I think it's racist that you're making me vacuum while you do it." is the funniest thing you've ever written. The words of a black person. Hey, just like the movie!

Posted by Fnarf

on February 16, 2012 at 11:10 AM · Report

@5 You're right, the historical setting of the film explains the logistics of the "benevolent white lady" storyline. But the underlying issue is that Hollywood opts to keep making movies like this rather than movies that empower people of color and address modern issues of racism.

Posted by T on February 16, 2012 at 11:59 AM · Report

It was a very enjoyable movie. Octavia Spencer was even better than Viola David IMO. All the bad people got their comeuppance and no good people were harmed for doing brave or honorable things (except for that one thing, which I won't mention in case you still want to see the movie). And the sets were beautiful and interesting.

Hey, did you guys see that 2-second shot of a bunch of Black women in a woman's prison? Is that what it was, a segregated prison? It was so quick I didn't even understand what I was looking at.

Posted by Sandiai on February 16, 2012 at 12:31 PM · Report

@6 & 7, holy crap, jerks! Maybe Lindy's roommate doesn't want you to know his name and try to find him on Lindy's facebook page.

Posted by More, I Say! on February 16, 2012 at 12:40 PM · Report

@8 I agree that Hollywood should be making more movies that directly empower people of color. However, that doesn't mean that stories like The Help shouldn't be told as well.

@9 That's why Octavia is raking in all of the awards! It takes a lot for me to say that anyone was ever better than Viola Davis, but Ms. Spencer absolutely stole that movie. Phenomenal.

Posted by TenrSinger on February 16, 2012 at 3:31 PM · Report

I'm in favor of any movie that gives major roles to Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, not to mention the incomparable Cicely Tyson. I'll forgive them a hell of a lot for that.

Posted by Geni on February 16, 2012 at 3:49 PM · Report