Essay on Race in The Help, by Tate Taylor - 2459 Words

A Tate Taylor film, The Help (2009) emphasizes the extreme, racially-charged stereotypes thus endorses racial thinking. Blacks in this film are represented broadly as common house maids, or domestic slaves, but specifically as oppressed, unhappy, impoverished, and products of hardship through the utilization of racist stereotypes and juxtaposition with the lives of affluent whites in the southern United States, a juxtaposition which immortalizes the racial gap between whites and blacks. The actions of the black characters support the cultural stereotypes that are pervasive throughout this film. A stereotype is a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing (Iftkar, 2013). Blacks are†¦show more content†¦Minnie adamantly refuses, but after a few moments of prompting and manipulation by her close friend Aibileen and Skeeter, she folds to the pressure and agrees to help. Minnie was unable to hold her own ground, to defend her ow n decisions under the pressure to conform from others. Another domestic slave is cast to embody the thieving stereotype that is attributed to blacks. Yule Mae, a maid, finds and keeps a diamond ring she discovers underneath the couch in order to pay for her sons’ schoolings. Yet another stereotype attributed to blacks is that they are unclean and diseased. Historically, this stereotype is rooted partly in their African ancestry and partly in their living conditions.This is represented in the film when Elizabeth Leefolt and Hilly Holbrook, white employers, work to pass the â€Å"Home Health Sanitation Initiative†, a bill that requires every white home to have a separate bathroom for the colored help. As aforementioned, Hilly is concerned that the supposed â€Å"diseases† that the blacks carry as a result of their race will infect whites thus threatening their health and safety. Laws like the one Hilly wants passed, which is shown endorsed by the Surgeon General, legalize discriminatory practices and reinforce racist opinions. Amongst those more general stereotypes, blacks are generalized as loving fried chicken. Though seemingly the most inconsequential, this stereotype is one of the most pervasive in the film. In one particular scene,Show MoreRelatedThe Help - Tate Taylor1407 Words   |  6 PagesSociety has changed and evolved throughout time. Perhaps one of the most significant changed in contemporary American society is the treatment towards African Americans. â€Å"The Help† a feature film directed by Tate Taylor is based on the non-fictional novel â€Å"The Help† written by author Kathryn Sockett. The feature film explores the life of African American maids of Jackson Mississippi, in the early 1960’s. 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