Hello Everyone!
This post is a reminder that A Raisin in the Sun opens TONIGHT! at Cooper High School in Abilene. The show is playing at 7pm tonight and tomorrow. Below is the original blog I wrote a few weeks ago about the show and Crystal Rae Productions, which is presenting the piece. I hope to see you there!!
-- Amy
Crystal Rae is a friend of mine from my days as a student at Abilene Christian University. She has started Crystal Rae Productions and has produced a number of artistic offerings for the Abilene community.
Her upcoming project is A Raisin in the Sun. Produced
in part by the ACU Office of Multicultural Enrichment, the ACU Black
Students Association and Cooper High School, it will be performed at Cooper High School at 7:00pm on Friday, March 30th and Saturday, March 31st.
Also,
part of the proceeds will go to the Carver Youth Council in Abilene.
You seriously want to support Crystal Rae Productions.
A Raisin in the Sun
is a play beautifully written by Lorraine Hansberry. It's central
characters are the Youngers, a black family living in a
post-World-War-II Chicago neighborhood. At the beginning of the play,
the family's patriarch has died, leaving the family a sizeable life
insurance cheque. The Youngers (Mama, son Walter Lee and his wife Ruth,
and daughter Beneatha and her Nigerian boyfriend Joseph Asagai) all
have different ideas about how to use the money - and what their family
should expect of the future. When Mama uses almost half of the money to
make a down payment on a house in a white neighborhood, the whites who
already live there send a representative from their neighborhood
"Improvement Association" to bribe the Youngers to stay away. Despite
other setbacks and unexpeted opportunities, the family remains together
at the end of the play: determined that whatever the future brings, they
will be stronger together.
I highly recommend attending this production - perhaps I'll see you there!
In addition, Crystal has published an e-book of poetry called Road Map Home. It's only $1.00 and really wonderful. Here's one of my favorite poems from the collection:
Honest
No one taught me how to stay
Is that okay to say
Doesn't matter
Ima say it anyway
No one taught me how to stay put
longevity
sitting through the storm to see what the rain brings
no one taught me how to bear up
or suffer long
suffering in my world was always wrong
Now I'm contemplating forever
with one man
and my heart is having a conniption
what do I know about being constant
or steady
I've been breast fed souped up
black girl independence and
I guess God had had enough and arranged an intervention
or an interruption, or a revelation of this thinking's corruption
So I'm in a clinic for that
going through detox for that
sweating and screaming away my nights
as the spirit of entitlement fights for its hold on my life
I'm going to meetings where I say,
"Hi my name is Crystal and I'm a recovering self-sufficient"
taking it one day at a time
loving you
being true
the kind of woman you'd want to come home to
resisting the urge to show you my check book
and saying things like "Nigga look"
learning from the folk who see the possibility
of life long real love monogamy
I've gotten off the band wagon or out the paddy wagon
I'm taking on the biggest challenge ever laid before me
doing life with complete vulnerability
refusing to compromise on my integrity
and asking God to handle the ones who mishandle me.
It has been taught that the weak become wives
I swallowed the doctorine like magicians swallow knives
and the truth is that love done right is attempted only by the strong
who sit to see what the rain will bring
who've learned to suffer long.
Check out Road Map Home by Crystal Rae! It's awesome!
Websites:
Crystal Rae Productions: http://www.crystalraeproductions.com/index.php
Map to Cooper High School: http://maps.yahoo.com/#tt=&q=3639+Sayles+Blvd%2C+Abilene%2C+TX++79605-7050&conf=1&start=1&lat=32.407807&lon=-99.74893&zoom=16&mvt=m&trf=0
Buy Crystal's e-book here: http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/road-map-home/18939841?productTrackingContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/1
Friday, March 30, 2012
Thursday, March 29, 2012
That White Woman is Starrin' at Us
This is the beginning of a series I'm going to do on Thursdays: reflections on time spent with four teenage, black girls. I drive Queenie, Casey, Nina, and Amelia (not their real names) to church and back home every Wednesday night. Queenie and Casey are sisters. Nina is their friend from the neighborhood and Amelia is a friend from school. They all have different, but equally fantastic, personalities. Queenie is the older sister and has the intelligence, cautious observance, strength and compassion one would expect from that most blessed of birth orders ( :) ). She's less prone to violence than her exuberant sister, but she did tell me once that she likes to watch a good fight at school. Queenie loves babies and wants to go to college to become a nurse -- or someone who cares for babies.
Casey is a powerhouse. She speaks without thinking in a way that is (usually) mysteriously endearing. She inspires me. Casey has some anger issues and she has a tendency to react in very physical ways. This combination can cause problems for her, so she has personally sought out help dealing with feelings of anger and has employed advice from others to great effect. I have witnessed her tremendous growth in self-control through her middle and high school years. Casey can be overwhelming -- even scary - to strangers, but her friends see her as fun, funny, loyal, thoughtful and honest. I like these girls a lot. They live in a nice, single-family home with their mom and dad. Their grandmother recently passed away.
Nina is much more quiet than either Casey or Queenie. She comes from a big family that has moved around a lot in the past few years. Currently she lives in a house with MANY other people: brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents and even-- I think -- some people she may not be related to. Nina has a great laugh and beautiful smile. Even though she doesn't like school, she's very interested in learning and curious about the world around her. This semester she's taking a theatre class (I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theatre; she hates the class.) and appeared both amazed and relieved to find that I knew the word "monologue"; as if she'd found a comrade of some sorts who knew about this crazy theatre world. She is a sweet, thoughtful girl who knows well how to laugh.
I know Amelia the least well of all these girls. She recently joined our caravan to church and, honestly, when I first met her, I didn't think she was a great addition. I've heard the N-word come out of her mouth more than I have ever heard it come from any single person in my life. She was always saying discouraging and demeaning things to the other girls. I just thought she was mean. I've gotten to know her -- and the culture of these girls ("Miss, we're just playin'! That's how we play.") -- better over the last few weeks and am hopefully growing in understanding and compassion for Amelia. She appears very self-confident and strong and is quite clear about what she likes and what she doesn't like. I found out one similarity between Amelia and me last week: we both love the animated movie Anastasia. In fact, the context of that discovery is what has provided the title of this series.
The series is called "That White Woman is Starrin' at Us" because of our experience eating at Burger King last week. After church last Wednesday night, I told the girls we could hang out somewhere. They usually choose Sonic or a McDonald's where the main clientele is black. That night, however, Casey was tired of McDonald's, so we went to Burger King. They were the only black people eating in the restaurant. There was a Hispanic man with two (adorable) little girls and a large group of white people. The teens choose a booth to sit in and I stood at the counter waiting for the food. When the food came, I walked over to the booth. They made room for me and I sat down. That's when the (not so quiet) whispering began. "Amy, that white woman lookin' at you." "She wonderin' why you sittin' with all these niggas". As the night wore on, the girls continued to stare back at this group of white people and to talk about them judging us. No attempts at distracting them worked for long, even (gasp!) when I asked them what their favorite movies were. As long as we were at the restaurant, they were stuck talking about these people who had looked at us.
Reflecting on this experience made me think about many things. Here are some of them:
1.) I was really amazed how antsy these white people made my friends. I suggested they just ignore the white woman staring at us, but they would have none of it. I am still so ignorant about the power white people have in our society.
2.) It reminded me of feelings I've had when we go to the McDonald's where mostly black people eat. I feel comfortable enough to enjoy my evening, but also not exactly welcomed or wanted (is that the way I should feel?) Feeling like the minority, or the strange one, can be extremely difficult. As my last post pointed out, black people are often thought of as "abnormal" in our culture. White, middle-class culture is expected. Anything else is strange. Growing up feeling "strange" (let alone living through centuries of feeling "strange") would certainly make a person more aware of and more anxious about how they are perceived.
3.) This reminds me of literary research done on "the other". "The other" is someone who is strange, or different in a story. As I'm about to go into grad school to study the works of William Shakespeare, it especially reminds me of 'ole Will. Shakespeare lived among immigrants (he actually rented housing from French immigrants), was a country stranger in the city and wrote about "the other" in plays like The Merchant of Venice and Othello. He knew so much about the world and those who people it. No doubt much of that wisdom came from his ability to step outside his comfort zone and experience life as "the other".
So...what is it for me to step outside of my comfort zone to experience life as "the other"? What is it for you to step outside your comfort zone to experience life as "the other"? Is that even possible? I hope, I dream, that at least in some way it is. I dream of a day when black and white teenagers can sit in the same booth at a fast-food restaurant and no one thinks anything of it. I dream.
Casey is a powerhouse. She speaks without thinking in a way that is (usually) mysteriously endearing. She inspires me. Casey has some anger issues and she has a tendency to react in very physical ways. This combination can cause problems for her, so she has personally sought out help dealing with feelings of anger and has employed advice from others to great effect. I have witnessed her tremendous growth in self-control through her middle and high school years. Casey can be overwhelming -- even scary - to strangers, but her friends see her as fun, funny, loyal, thoughtful and honest. I like these girls a lot. They live in a nice, single-family home with their mom and dad. Their grandmother recently passed away.
Nina is much more quiet than either Casey or Queenie. She comes from a big family that has moved around a lot in the past few years. Currently she lives in a house with MANY other people: brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents and even-- I think -- some people she may not be related to. Nina has a great laugh and beautiful smile. Even though she doesn't like school, she's very interested in learning and curious about the world around her. This semester she's taking a theatre class (I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theatre; she hates the class.) and appeared both amazed and relieved to find that I knew the word "monologue"; as if she'd found a comrade of some sorts who knew about this crazy theatre world. She is a sweet, thoughtful girl who knows well how to laugh.
I know Amelia the least well of all these girls. She recently joined our caravan to church and, honestly, when I first met her, I didn't think she was a great addition. I've heard the N-word come out of her mouth more than I have ever heard it come from any single person in my life. She was always saying discouraging and demeaning things to the other girls. I just thought she was mean. I've gotten to know her -- and the culture of these girls ("Miss, we're just playin'! That's how we play.") -- better over the last few weeks and am hopefully growing in understanding and compassion for Amelia. She appears very self-confident and strong and is quite clear about what she likes and what she doesn't like. I found out one similarity between Amelia and me last week: we both love the animated movie Anastasia. In fact, the context of that discovery is what has provided the title of this series.
The series is called "That White Woman is Starrin' at Us" because of our experience eating at Burger King last week. After church last Wednesday night, I told the girls we could hang out somewhere. They usually choose Sonic or a McDonald's where the main clientele is black. That night, however, Casey was tired of McDonald's, so we went to Burger King. They were the only black people eating in the restaurant. There was a Hispanic man with two (adorable) little girls and a large group of white people. The teens choose a booth to sit in and I stood at the counter waiting for the food. When the food came, I walked over to the booth. They made room for me and I sat down. That's when the (not so quiet) whispering began. "Amy, that white woman lookin' at you." "She wonderin' why you sittin' with all these niggas". As the night wore on, the girls continued to stare back at this group of white people and to talk about them judging us. No attempts at distracting them worked for long, even (gasp!) when I asked them what their favorite movies were. As long as we were at the restaurant, they were stuck talking about these people who had looked at us.
Reflecting on this experience made me think about many things. Here are some of them:
1.) I was really amazed how antsy these white people made my friends. I suggested they just ignore the white woman staring at us, but they would have none of it. I am still so ignorant about the power white people have in our society.
2.) It reminded me of feelings I've had when we go to the McDonald's where mostly black people eat. I feel comfortable enough to enjoy my evening, but also not exactly welcomed or wanted (is that the way I should feel?) Feeling like the minority, or the strange one, can be extremely difficult. As my last post pointed out, black people are often thought of as "abnormal" in our culture. White, middle-class culture is expected. Anything else is strange. Growing up feeling "strange" (let alone living through centuries of feeling "strange") would certainly make a person more aware of and more anxious about how they are perceived.
3.) This reminds me of literary research done on "the other". "The other" is someone who is strange, or different in a story. As I'm about to go into grad school to study the works of William Shakespeare, it especially reminds me of 'ole Will. Shakespeare lived among immigrants (he actually rented housing from French immigrants), was a country stranger in the city and wrote about "the other" in plays like The Merchant of Venice and Othello. He knew so much about the world and those who people it. No doubt much of that wisdom came from his ability to step outside his comfort zone and experience life as "the other".
So...what is it for me to step outside of my comfort zone to experience life as "the other"? What is it for you to step outside your comfort zone to experience life as "the other"? Is that even possible? I hope, I dream, that at least in some way it is. I dream of a day when black and white teenagers can sit in the same booth at a fast-food restaurant and no one thinks anything of it. I dream.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Normal
The world is so full of interesting, important, controversial topics that I am a bit overwhelmed. A once-a-week blog is not enough to cover all I want to know about. So, I'm going to start writing more often -- perhaps even as much as every weekday (crazy, I know). I've already received two topic submissions from friends. I'd love any others -- if there's anything you've been thinking about, heard in the news or would like to say, please let me know. I'd love to add it to my cue!
I do want to mention that I'm not ignoring the biggest race story on the news today. I'll be talking about Trayvon Martin, soon. There's a great piece NPR did that I want to highlight. Once I get my thoughts on paper, I'll post them.
Today's blog post is inspired by a youtube video, Normal, which my friend Kaylynn shared with me. It's a 5 minute video of a guy named Micah speaking at a church. His speech was inspired by an encounter he had with "shampoo for normal hair".
First, I love Micah's description of how children react to something that is "different". Children are so honest and open: they notice when something is strange to them, make a big deal about it (as opposed to adults who hide their curiosity) and try to explore this strangeness (as opposed to adults who are afraid of anything strange to them).
I also love what this has to say about our assumptions (I have often thought how, when describing someone walking down the street I use the word "man" to describe a white man and "black man" to describe a black man) and about how those assumptions shape our identity and self-worth. "Oh the irony when black girls cry themselves to sleep wishing they were light-skinned" Micah says, "while white girls lie for hours on the beach fabricating melanin". This problem of self-loathing, of ignorance regarding the intentionality of our Maker is not a "normal problem" either he says. It's a problem for us all. I love that. We're all weak. We are all responsible. And we all have power to change it. We're in this mess of misunderstandings and assumptions together and so it will take all of us to get out of it.
I encourage you to watch Micah's video. It's less than 5 minutes, but is very powerful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPhuYG2_gQk
I do want to mention that I'm not ignoring the biggest race story on the news today. I'll be talking about Trayvon Martin, soon. There's a great piece NPR did that I want to highlight. Once I get my thoughts on paper, I'll post them.
Today's blog post is inspired by a youtube video, Normal, which my friend Kaylynn shared with me. It's a 5 minute video of a guy named Micah speaking at a church. His speech was inspired by an encounter he had with "shampoo for normal hair".
First, I love Micah's description of how children react to something that is "different". Children are so honest and open: they notice when something is strange to them, make a big deal about it (as opposed to adults who hide their curiosity) and try to explore this strangeness (as opposed to adults who are afraid of anything strange to them).
I also love what this has to say about our assumptions (I have often thought how, when describing someone walking down the street I use the word "man" to describe a white man and "black man" to describe a black man) and about how those assumptions shape our identity and self-worth. "Oh the irony when black girls cry themselves to sleep wishing they were light-skinned" Micah says, "while white girls lie for hours on the beach fabricating melanin". This problem of self-loathing, of ignorance regarding the intentionality of our Maker is not a "normal problem" either he says. It's a problem for us all. I love that. We're all weak. We are all responsible. And we all have power to change it. We're in this mess of misunderstandings and assumptions together and so it will take all of us to get out of it.
I encourage you to watch Micah's video. It's less than 5 minutes, but is very powerful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPhuYG2_gQk
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Crystal Rae Productions
Crystal Rae is a friend of mine from my days as a student at Abilene Christian University. She has started Crystal Rae Productions and has produced a number of artistic offerings for the Abilene community.
Her upcoming project is A Raisin in the Sun. Produced in part by the ACU Office of Multicultural Enrichment, the ACU Black Students Association and Cooper High School, it will be performed at Cooper High School at 7:00pm on Friday, March 30th and Saturday, March 31st.
Also, part of the proceeds will go to the Carver Youth Council in Abilene. You seriously want to support Crystal Rae Productions.
A Raisin in the Sun is a play beautifully written by Lorraine Hansberry. It's central characters are the Youngers, a black family living in a post-World-War-II Chicago neighborhood. At the beginning of the play, the family's patriarch has died, leaving the family a sizeable life insurance cheque. The Youngers (Mama, son Walter Lee and his wife Ruth, and daughter Beneatha and her Nigerian boyfriend Joseph Asagai) all have different ideas about how to use the money - and what their family should expect of the future. When Mama uses almost half of the money to make a down payment on a house in a white neighborhood, the whites who already live there send a representative from their neighborhood "Improvement Association" to bribe the Youngers to stay away. Despite other setbacks and unexpeted opportunities, the family remains together at the end of the play: determined that whatever the future brings, they will be stronger together.
I highly recommend attending this production - perhaps I'll see you there!
In addition, Crystal has published an e-book of poetry called Road Map Home. It's only $1.00 and really wonderful. Here's one of my favorite poems from the collection:
Honest
No one taught me how to stay
Is that okay to say
Doesn't matter
Ima say it anyway
No one taught me how to stay put
longevity
sitting through the storm to see what the rain brings
no one taught me how to bear up
or suffer long
suffering in my world was always wrong
Now I'm contemplating forever
with one man
and my heart is having a conniption
what do I know about being constant
or steady
I've been breast fed souped up
black girl independence and
I guess God had had enough and arranged an intervention
or an interruption, or a revelation of this thinking's corruption
So I'm in a clinic for that
going through detox for that
sweating and screaming away my nights
as the spirit of entitlement fights for its hold on my life
I'm going to meetings where I say,
"Hi my name is Crystal and I'm a recovering self-sufficient"
taking it one day at a time
loving you
being true
the kind of woman you'd want to come home to
resisting the urge to show you my check book
and saying things like "Nigga look"
learning from the folk who see the possibility
of life long real love monogamy
I've gotten off the band wagon or out the paddy wagon
I'm taking on the biggest challenge ever laid before me
doing life with complete vulnerability
refusing to compromise on my integrity
and asking God to handle the ones who mishandle me.
It has been taught that the weak become wives
I swallowed the doctorine like magicians swallow knives
and the truth is that love done right is attempted only by the strong
who sit to see what the rain will bring
who've learned to suffer long.
Check out Road Map Home by Crystal Rae! It's awesome!
Websites:
Crystal Rae Productions: http://www.crystalraeproductions.com/index.php
Map to Cooper High School: http://maps.yahoo.com/#tt=&q=3639+Sayles+Blvd%2C+Abilene%2C+TX++79605-7050&conf=1&start=1&lat=32.407807&lon=-99.74893&zoom=16&mvt=m&trf=0
Buy Crystal's e-book here: http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/road-map-home/18939841?productTrackingContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/1
Her upcoming project is A Raisin in the Sun. Produced in part by the ACU Office of Multicultural Enrichment, the ACU Black Students Association and Cooper High School, it will be performed at Cooper High School at 7:00pm on Friday, March 30th and Saturday, March 31st.
Also, part of the proceeds will go to the Carver Youth Council in Abilene. You seriously want to support Crystal Rae Productions.
A Raisin in the Sun is a play beautifully written by Lorraine Hansberry. It's central characters are the Youngers, a black family living in a post-World-War-II Chicago neighborhood. At the beginning of the play, the family's patriarch has died, leaving the family a sizeable life insurance cheque. The Youngers (Mama, son Walter Lee and his wife Ruth, and daughter Beneatha and her Nigerian boyfriend Joseph Asagai) all have different ideas about how to use the money - and what their family should expect of the future. When Mama uses almost half of the money to make a down payment on a house in a white neighborhood, the whites who already live there send a representative from their neighborhood "Improvement Association" to bribe the Youngers to stay away. Despite other setbacks and unexpeted opportunities, the family remains together at the end of the play: determined that whatever the future brings, they will be stronger together.
I highly recommend attending this production - perhaps I'll see you there!
In addition, Crystal has published an e-book of poetry called Road Map Home. It's only $1.00 and really wonderful. Here's one of my favorite poems from the collection:
Honest
No one taught me how to stay
Is that okay to say
Doesn't matter
Ima say it anyway
No one taught me how to stay put
longevity
sitting through the storm to see what the rain brings
no one taught me how to bear up
or suffer long
suffering in my world was always wrong
Now I'm contemplating forever
with one man
and my heart is having a conniption
what do I know about being constant
or steady
I've been breast fed souped up
black girl independence and
I guess God had had enough and arranged an intervention
or an interruption, or a revelation of this thinking's corruption
So I'm in a clinic for that
going through detox for that
sweating and screaming away my nights
as the spirit of entitlement fights for its hold on my life
I'm going to meetings where I say,
"Hi my name is Crystal and I'm a recovering self-sufficient"
taking it one day at a time
loving you
being true
the kind of woman you'd want to come home to
resisting the urge to show you my check book
and saying things like "Nigga look"
learning from the folk who see the possibility
of life long real love monogamy
I've gotten off the band wagon or out the paddy wagon
I'm taking on the biggest challenge ever laid before me
doing life with complete vulnerability
refusing to compromise on my integrity
and asking God to handle the ones who mishandle me.
It has been taught that the weak become wives
I swallowed the doctorine like magicians swallow knives
and the truth is that love done right is attempted only by the strong
who sit to see what the rain will bring
who've learned to suffer long.
Check out Road Map Home by Crystal Rae! It's awesome!
Websites:
Crystal Rae Productions: http://www.crystalraeproductions.com/index.php
Map to Cooper High School: http://maps.yahoo.com/#tt=&q=3639+Sayles+Blvd%2C+Abilene%2C+TX++79605-7050&conf=1&start=1&lat=32.407807&lon=-99.74893&zoom=16&mvt=m&trf=0
Buy Crystal's e-book here: http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/road-map-home/18939841?productTrackingContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/1
Thursday, March 8, 2012
StoryCorps - The Symbol of Integration
So there's this really wonderful oral history program called StoryCorps. StoryCorps' "mission is to provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs
with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives". Conversations between people all around the United States are recorded, and broadcast on the radio and the internet. "Since 2003, StoryCorps has collected and archived more than 40,000
interviews from nearly 80,000 participants. Each conversation is
recorded on a free CD to share, and is preserved at the American
Folklife Center at the Library of Congress". (quotes come from their website.)
I was listening to some of the stories on the StoryCorps website and was reminded of a line in a play I recently watched (more on that in a later post). One of the characters in the play, a Captain in the military, defends his actions by saying, "I represent many men".
In 1953 A.P. Tureaud Jr. entered Louisianan State University as the first black undergraduate. Listen to his story and the way he felt the weight of representing many men -- even representing a movement that would in many ways define the decade to follow.
Listen to A.P. Turneaud Jr.'s story: http://storycorps.org/listen/stories/a-p-tureaud-jr-and-steven-walkley/ Check out StoryCorps: http://storycorps.org/
I was listening to some of the stories on the StoryCorps website and was reminded of a line in a play I recently watched (more on that in a later post). One of the characters in the play, a Captain in the military, defends his actions by saying, "I represent many men".
In 1953 A.P. Tureaud Jr. entered Louisianan State University as the first black undergraduate. Listen to his story and the way he felt the weight of representing many men -- even representing a movement that would in many ways define the decade to follow.
Listen to A.P. Turneaud Jr.'s story: http://storycorps.org/listen/stories/a-p-tureaud-jr-and-steven-walkley/ Check out StoryCorps: http://storycorps.org/
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Helping...
This post begins what I'm sure will be a long-winded
investigation into truth-telling through art, the power of story, and
importance of historical accuracy. This post centers around a
discussion of the 2011 movie The Help lead by author, professor and
MSNBC host Melissa
Harris-Perry.
Quick Summary of The Help (for the 3 of you who haven't read the book or seen the movie):
Based on the tremendously popular novel of the same title by Kathryn Stockett, The Help follows two groups of women living in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962. One is a group of poor, black, female domestic workers. The other is a group of wealthy, white 20-something women whom the black women work for. One of the white girls (the only one who has graduated from college) wants a job as a reporter. She sees that the black women aren't being treated fairly and decides to write something about their plight. She ends up interviewing a handful of black maids from Jackson, collecting their interviews into a book and using that book to secure a writing job in New York City. The book is published and read by many in Jackson, which gives voice to the black maids (who had previously been quieted in the white section of town) allowing them to both praise and discredit their employers.
Two great things about The Help:
1.) It has gotten people talking about issues of race.
2.) It reminds us (or shows us for the first time) that black women have important stories to tell.
It is my opinion that we need to hear more stories from women, particularly black women and I see The Help as an encouragement for black girls and women to step up and be heard. Our stories are important and hold great power when spoken aloud.
However, the issues Melissa Harris-Perry and her guests brings up need to be considered. Are the characters in The Help simply stereotypes, which actually hurt black females? Is this story so laden with white-guilt that it fails to do anything but perpetuate our inaccurate cultural stereotypes? Is our society blind to our assumed roles for women -- both black and white? If so, how do we open our eyes and change those roles?
This past weekend, The Help was nominated for 5 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Octavia Spencer received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. This movie is popular and celebrated. I believe that obvious popularity should be used for good - as inaccurate and even harmful as it may be, this story has inspired many (myself included) to seek a greater understanding of the historical truths of black Americans. One black female I know said this after viewing The Help: "I watched it with my Grandmother and my mom it was so interesting to hear their stories throughout the movie...it was powerful!" I have hope that this kind of response will be common. I have hope that The Help will bring about renewed interest in hearing and in speaking the real stories of blacks in the United States. I have hope that our eyes and ears can be opened to see and hear everything that has so long been hidden behind stereotypes.
Perhaps truth-telling can be a legacy of this piece of art, after all? I hope.
You can find the discussion with Melissa Harris-Perry here: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/melissa-harris-perry/46523913#46523913
Quick Summary of The Help (for the 3 of you who haven't read the book or seen the movie):
Based on the tremendously popular novel of the same title by Kathryn Stockett, The Help follows two groups of women living in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962. One is a group of poor, black, female domestic workers. The other is a group of wealthy, white 20-something women whom the black women work for. One of the white girls (the only one who has graduated from college) wants a job as a reporter. She sees that the black women aren't being treated fairly and decides to write something about their plight. She ends up interviewing a handful of black maids from Jackson, collecting their interviews into a book and using that book to secure a writing job in New York City. The book is published and read by many in Jackson, which gives voice to the black maids (who had previously been quieted in the white section of town) allowing them to both praise and discredit their employers.
Two great things about The Help:
1.) It has gotten people talking about issues of race.
2.) It reminds us (or shows us for the first time) that black women have important stories to tell.
It is my opinion that we need to hear more stories from women, particularly black women and I see The Help as an encouragement for black girls and women to step up and be heard. Our stories are important and hold great power when spoken aloud.
However, the issues Melissa Harris-Perry and her guests brings up need to be considered. Are the characters in The Help simply stereotypes, which actually hurt black females? Is this story so laden with white-guilt that it fails to do anything but perpetuate our inaccurate cultural stereotypes? Is our society blind to our assumed roles for women -- both black and white? If so, how do we open our eyes and change those roles?
This past weekend, The Help was nominated for 5 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Octavia Spencer received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. This movie is popular and celebrated. I believe that obvious popularity should be used for good - as inaccurate and even harmful as it may be, this story has inspired many (myself included) to seek a greater understanding of the historical truths of black Americans. One black female I know said this after viewing The Help: "I watched it with my Grandmother and my mom it was so interesting to hear their stories throughout the movie...it was powerful!" I have hope that this kind of response will be common. I have hope that The Help will bring about renewed interest in hearing and in speaking the real stories of blacks in the United States. I have hope that our eyes and ears can be opened to see and hear everything that has so long been hidden behind stereotypes.
Perhaps truth-telling can be a legacy of this piece of art, after all? I hope.
You can find the discussion with Melissa Harris-Perry here: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/melissa-harris-perry/46523913#46523913
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