Naler

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Rebekah Naler

ENG 102

Michael Benton

March 22, 2017

The Help Speak Out

The social situation of the Civil Rights Movement contains the broad view of intersectionality,

The Help by Kathryn Stockett, shows the overlapping views that revolve around racism, class,

and gender while experiencing the stories of the maids throughout the book to explain the

“behind the scenes” of the 1960 as an African American fighting for freedom.

During the Civil Rights Movement, society had a different outlook on the color of

people’s skin, that had developed over the generations. The differences throughout the years

consisted upon the denial of service and rumors of disease, “Say they wasn’t a sign up saying

so. Two white mens chased him down and beat him with a tire iron” (Stockett 101) and,

“Everybody knows they carry different diseases than we do” (Stockett 8). The term of racism is

described as discrimination against a race that is different based on the belief of the superior

race, “Dominant power in the world, everyone else needs to be named” (Kimmel 107), the view

of racism through intersectionality during the 1960s defined societies judgement of African

Americans. White Americans have always seen themselves as the superior race throughout

generations but was fought against during the Civil Rights Movement, activist Edward Meyers,

Martin Luther King Jr, and Malcom X tried explaining to everyone around the world that, “We

must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools” (MLK Jr.). Racism continues
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to have its ups and downs, “I see a black woman. To me, race is visible, because it is how I am

not privileged in society” (Kimmel 106), the discussion among the classmates listening to him as

he describes intersectionality, a black woman steps forward describing life through the eyes of

black woman seeing what white women don’t experience, she can be related back to Aibleen

when she is describing skin colors to Mae Mobley, “So we’s the same. Just a different color”

(Stockett 200), Sockett does a great job explaining that the color of your skin means nothing

through the eyes of an innocent little girl, “You got hair, I got hair…I got a nose, you got a nose”

(Skockett 200). Aibleen, described by Stockett, understands racism in Mississippi and wants

equality but at the same time, “The privilege of privilege is that the terms of privilege are

rendered invisible” (Kimmel 106). Racism will always be in the world, people looking down on

those that others view differently.

When we think of class, do you think of everyone that could possibly fall into a middle

class category? Do you consider everyone of a difference race having the same class category as

you? In the poem, “With No Immediate Cause”, Shange talks about everyone from young girls,

adult men, and older woman, “Every five minutes a woman is raped/every ten minutes a lil girl

is molested” (Shange lines 2-4) and, “…Man who might have held his old lady onto a hot

pressing iron” (Shange lines 28-29), do you considered these men white middle class society?

Most would answer and argument that it isn’t right for someone to do that to someone or

maybe race and class play the same role when talking about a society in the means of being

considered equal. Class is seen as a financial stability about the people in society, class is broken

down into categories that seem to fit so that everyone will fall into a stereotypical expectation

based on your income and where you decide on living. Class should not describe who you are in
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society, why should something as small as your class determine something that doesn’t mean

anything once you die, it should determine what you should be in society. Resilience during

your life is how

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Works Cited

Stockett, Kathryn. The Help. Place of Publication Not Identified: Penguin, 2016. Print.

Ferguson, Mary. "Poem about My Rights by June Jordan." Images of Women in Literature.

5th ed. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 335-38. Print.

Ferguson, Mary. "With No Immediate Cause." Images of Women in Literature. 5th ed. N.p.: n.p.,

n.d. 324-26. Print.

Kimmel, Michael. "Why Men Should Support Gender Equality." Www.lehman.edu. N.p., n.d.

Web. Feb.-Mar. 2017.

Welter, Barbara. "The Cult of True Womenhood: 1820-1860."

Http://www.colorado.edu/AmStudies/lewis/1025/cultwoman.pdf. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr.

2017.