Book Chat

leebarzel — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 22:30:06 GMT

-- by Hannah Lee

As a Chinese-American, I am neither white nor black and I am privileged to observe the nuances of race relations in this country as a bystander (except when my own racial heritage is a source of grievance). I wonder if an academic awareness of an issue allows one to appreciate the inherent complexities?

I read Kathryn Stockett's The Help and I was riveted but very perturbed by its central issue of race relations. Set in 1962 in Jackson, Mississippi, a young white woman interviews and edits the painful narratives of black maids about their relationships with their white employers. I wanted to identify a black perspective. Another friend cautioned me that I cannot generalize to all blacks, as African immigrants and people with Caribbean roots do not share the same experience as those descended from slaves brought to America. No, indeed, but I was sure that a black person would respond differently to the book.

More after the jump.
I spoke with a black staffer at my local library, someone whom I've known for the 21 years that my family has lived in this community. She did not enjoy the book as did the white readers who have praised The Help, launching it onto the bestseller lists. She could forecast how the plot would go, and she skipped over parts. Her niece was bored by it and never did finish the book. I asked her if it would have been a better book if it had been written by a black author, but she demurred at that.

Could the difference lie in perspective? Events resonate more when they become personal, as Jews are instructed to imagine that they themselves are leaving Egypt during the Passover seder. Issues become more painful. It took me a few years before I could follow a friend's recommendation for Anne Fadiman's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
, because the central character, a child, dies from an epileptic seizure and my child has the same disorder.I've read that people like horror films because they find it cathartic, a vicarious experience that leaves them relieved to be safe and ordinary. I wonder if readers of The Help become more understanding? Are some readers smug that they are not racist and do not harbor any prejudicial intent? Or do they have a renewed sensitivity to insults to human dignity? Do they speak out in protest?My Rabbi has noted that we do not feel pain to the same degree when a tragedy, a violation, happens to someone else. However, the challenge is in the striving to maintain sensitivity and that is a hallmark of a compassionate person.

I attended a book discussion along with my friend who grew up in the South. She found the novel realistic, and told me later that the others (all white women) did not appreciate the fact that though the overt theme of the book was racism, the same kind of prejudice and peer control exist in other times, other places, including our own. I attempted to point out that the new theory on bully-behavior management, is not to address the bully directly, but to educate the silent majority, that they can take control of a situation by speaking up. The queen bee, Hilly, from the novel could not have continued in her role, if the others did not let her do so. However, most people were too afraid, ignorant, or blind to the racial divide in a society in which they had a comfortable perch. I wonder if readers would become more conscious and sensitive to injustice around them? I made a reference to To Kill a Mockingbird, which is now a classic. Did readers of the time immediately take to its message?

The film version, starring Emma Stone as the ingenue reporter, Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan, Viola Davis as her source, a black housekeeper named Aibileen Clark, and Bryce Dallas Howard as their nemesis, the controlling Hilly Holbrook, will open in the local cinemas on August 10th.

Philadelphia Jewish Voice - Fadiman

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