Read This!: The Help

By Kathryn Stockett

It's Jackson, Mississippi 1963. Skeeter Phelan, a white woman, has just graduated from Ole Miss with aspirations of becoming a writer. Soon finding inspiration from the black maids employed by both her friends and family, Skeeter begins working on a book that tells their stories. This is highly dangerous for both sides as racism is high, Jim Crow laws are still in effect, and consorting with the other side by either race is not looked well on and the consequences of being found out are dire. Even still, her friend Elizabeth's maid, Aibileen, agrees to work her and tries to convince other maids to tell their stories as well. Aibileen's best friend is Minny, another maid with a habit of talking back. Told from the perspectives of Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny, one gets an idea of what life was like for these women in a world where the black maids raised their employers' children, some of the babies even calling them "Mama" instead of their mothers, but weren't trusted with the silver. (I may be paraphrasing from the book jacket on that one).

I loved this book. I found it to be extremely interesting. This took place, what? 40 some years ago? It's not that long ago when you think about it. People my age's parents were in high school at this time and yet it was acceptable in the South, in Jackson, for a black man to be beaten blind because he accidentally used the "white" bathroom. I haven't been to Mississippi or travelled really in the Deep South but I wonder what it is like there today. I also wonder what it was truly like for these women who, in some cases were "part of the family", but who were ultimately treated like second class citizens.