Female Black Historians Criticize "The Help"

Female Black Historians Criticize Movie “The Help”

The Association of Black Women Historians have released a statement criticizing the controversial new movie, “The Help,” which tells the story of African American maids in Jackson, Mississippi during the 1950’s and 1960s.

Entertainment Weekly reports:

“Despite efforts to market the book and the film as a progressive story of triumph over racial injustice, The Help distorts, ignores, and trivializes the experiences of black domestic workers,” the statement read.The group of scholars took issue with novelist Kathryn Stockett’s use of “black” dialect, her nearly uniform portrayal of black men as cruel or absent, and the lack of attention paid to the sexual harassment that many black women endured in their white employers’ homes