The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
A group of oppressed black maids join forces with a quirky, ostracized white woman in Mississippi to write a tell-all book about the families for whom they work. [Before I go further, in this post I do not mean to undermine or minimize in any way the obstacles and dangers that these women faced by putting their stories down on paper and I fully understand and am aware of my own privilege. And with that said ….]
OMG this is a DREAM! To find like-minded people working for assholes who push them aside, take credit for their work, make sexist remarks in front of them and their peers, don’t listen, interrupt them, undermine or ignore their promotion opportunities, and bad-mouth them to coworkers (not to mention steal, bully, lie and threaten) and to be able to put all of these stories anonymously into a book would be so liberating and therapeutic!!! I SHOULD TOTALLY MAKE THIS HAPPEN!
The Help (specifically, the actual maids from the book) faced, and possibly still face, challenges for which my contemporaries have no parallels, ranging from being fired, to being framed and arrested for theft, to murder. What we potentially face is backlash in terms of limited future job prospects through damaged reputations within our chosen industries because most people’s bosses have more powerful connections that we ourselves to. This is a big difference, but it’s still not nothing. I suspect many, many people not only have stories to tell, but stories they WANT to tell. God knows I do!
I loved this book. I loved how a group of black maids rose above the racism and fear, and how a group of women rose above sexism and exclusion, to create something wonderful.
Rating: Buy it.
It’s been a few years since i read this book, and I too loved it. I do remember an initiating incident of someone being served a big slice of sh*t pie. Perhaps don’t try this in your current work place people!
What? Well, now what I am supposed to do with this tupperware container full of …. uh, never mind.