The Movie "THE HELP", Sobers You Up a Bit, Doesn't it" Discrimination in America [80]

I JUST FINISHED watching the new movie "THE HELP", starring Bryce Dallas Howard and Viola Davis in a 1942 Productions and Dreamworks based on a novel by the same name written by Katheryn Stockett. For those few who may not be aware, it is about the real life black maids and nannies set in racist Jackson, MS around the period 1960 to 1964; just before the beginning of the civil rights movement. The daughter of one well-off family gets back from college intent on becoming a journalist. Seeing the plight of the black servants; having been raised by one who, mysteriously is no longer there, being very sympathetic to their dire plight decides to write about their life as servants; from their perspectives; using their words. Not an easy chore given the maids reticence to talk for fear of losing their jobs.

As it turns out, in Mississippi, it was also illegal, at that time, for her to attempt to write such a book; that was reality then folks, not storyline! In any case, events happen, such as being fired for using the bathroom inside the master's house (this is 1960, mind you), instead of using ones undies if you couldn't make it to the toilet provided outside the house, in this wonderfully told and presented story, which all should go see by the way, that lead these black women to open up to our heroine. All of these scenes I just alluded to are in the trailers, so I didn't give anything away, lol.

By the time the movie was over, I was thoroughly entertained, very happy I came to see "The Help", and thinking about this Hub; it had me in a very reflective mood about racism in America, what our history has been regarding this pus-filled abscess in our heritage, where we stand now in healing it, and whether it can ever be contained; I am not naive enough to believe it can be eliminated, humans simply aren't built not to be racist when the cancer of racism is left alone to fester.

JUST BY SIMPLE observation, you can see throughout history numerous examples that lead enevitably to the conclusion that racism is core to the make-up of all humans, to one degree or another. Before going on, I need to define racism, for me Wikipedia does just fine:

Racism is the belief that there are inherent differences in people's traits and capacities that are entirely due to their race, however defined, and that, as a consequence, racial discrimination (i.e. different treatment of those people, both socially and legally) is justified.

I defy anyone to find any sustained period of history among any culture where racism at some point in time didn't finally exhibit its ugly head; I just don't think it can be done; I have looked at a lot of history over my years and it is ubequitous. On the other hand, I can also find many, many periods thoughout history, in many, many cultures at different and sometimes cyclical times where coexisting races got along famously; for a while. But, in time, it didn't last.

Nevertheless, what that tells me is that racism can be contained, IF YOU TRY; it can be done but, you have to work at it. If you don't work at it hard and continuously, you will fail and nature will take its course; the latent racism that is in all of us will rise up and consume us once again.

AMERICA HAS been a violently racist country for most of its existence, some 345 of the last 395 years since white man and black man shared the same soil on the East coast (the first slaves arrived in Virginia in 1619, a year earlier than when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, MA); that is a very long time, y'all. From then, 1619, until 1964, the Conservative, both the religious and secular, side of America has fought, including a Civil War, to keep the Black American an oppressed people, either in absolute servitude through the mechanism of legal slavery or effective servitude, like that depicted in "The Help", through such legal subterfuge as "Jim Crow" and "Separate but Equal."

I only draw the line at 1964, because that was the year in which the Civil Rights Act was passed by a Progressive Congress. With it came, what are today such dirty words as, "Equal Opportunity", "anti-discrimination", "fair housing", "affirmative action", and the like. Before continuing though, I want to expand my scope a bit to include the "father" of racism, Bigotry. Racism is, after all, just Bigotry applied to race. Trusty 'ole Wikipedia defines a Bigot as:

"a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices, especially one exhibiting intolerance, and animosity toward those of differing beliefs. The predominant usage in modern English refers to persons hostile to those of differing sex, race, ethnicity, religion or spirituality, nationality, language, inter-regional prejudice, gender and sexual orientation, homelessness, various medical disorders particularly behavioral disorders and addictive disorders. Forms of bigotry may have a related ideology or world views."

When one speaks of racism in America, one must speak of bigotry in America, which is a much larger issue but speaks of the same problem with the landing the Puritans at what today is today, Plymouth, MA.

So, back to 1964. The Civil Rights Act was the first major act by the federal government since the Emancipation Proclamation and, starting 1865, the ensuing XIII, XIV, and XV Amendments to the Constitution designed to harness the rampant, endemic race-based bigotry in America. There was plethora of programs put in place to do several things 1) try to correct the institutional and cultural imbalances created by three centuries of purposeful, concerted individual and governmental active and coordinated policies designed to dehuminize and subjegate a race, 2) try to undo the impacts of individual, corporate, and state governmental discrimination, as depicted in "The Help" and in defiance of the U.S. Constitution, in order to maintain the status quo without slavery, 3) try to level the playing field and keep it level from here on out, and 4) try to prevent discrimination in the future. In the following 47 years, the religious and secular conservatives in America have, in a largely successful effort, attempted to roll back each and every one of these initiatives on, of all things, Constitutional grounds.

REALLY, I AM NOT! I am not trying to be mean, either. Or, unfair. Let me digress a moment in order do some consolidation. A few times now, I have made reference to religious and secular conservatives. For the purpose of this of this hub, they can be considered one in the same. When I speak of religious conservatives, I include all religious fundamentalist from each of the "Great" religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Also, although in America it is rare, when I speak of secular Conservatives, I don't just mean the political right, but would also include the politically very far left, Communists, as it were. Generally speaking though, I am talking about the Social Conservatives that control the Republican Party today.

As I have already made note of, America started out as a violent and lethally bigoted society; in 1619 we began importing and abusing Africans as slaves; the Protestant Puritans ostrasized and punished Catholics and hung, in 1692, 14 women and 5 men because they weren't good Christians. These God-fearing Protestant, pre-Americans also crushed one man to death beneath heavy stones attempting to get him to confess to his sins; these famous atrocities, the Salem Witch Trials, were not isolated, just the only one that made its way down the annals of history. This bigoted conduct, although dimished, continues to this day in the good Christian people of Rutherford County, TN in 2011, are carring on the good fight using the courts, protests, and yes, some terrorism of their own.trying to stop the construction of a mosque for the people from that "non-religion" (that is what they tried to prove, unsuccessfully, in court) Islam, to pray in; their sole reason ... the same as for the Puritans 409 years earlier, wrong religion, or in this case, non-religion; in other words, pure bigotry.

If you are a careful observer, it will occur to you that the political and philosophical of all of those I just described would clearly not be described as "moderate" or, heaven forbid, "liberal"; either from a secular point of view or a religious one. The one thing in common is the social conservatism, again whether it be secular or religious, behind the philosophy that drives these behaviors that have been such an embarrasing part of American history.

IT IS QUITE revealing, actually, and "The Help" got me thinking about it; it just so happens I wrote of this in another hub regarding President Obama's accomplishments so I thought I would add it here; it is very hard to refute.

Be they Democrats, Whigs, anti-Federalists, Republicans, or Republican-Democrats, all large political parties at one time or another in the history of American politics, social conservatives have been consistent, very consistent in their philosophies regarding social, economic, political, and government issues. What has that record been by social conservatives, evangelical and fundelmentalist Christians? To name just a very few, they fought tooth and nail, often violently, over the years against

1. making slavery illegal
2. allowing blacks and whites marry
3. social security
4. Medicare
5. the Civil Rights Act of 1964
6. homosexuals fighting for America
7. allowing homosexuals who love each other to marry each other (stll being fought out)

"The Help" brought all of this sadly to mind again and, frankly, made me angry which is why I am wrote this hub for I hope it makes you angry as well.