Prejudice And Segregation In The Help By Kathryn Stockett

Beatriz Santos Mrs. Vega English 11-1 10 March 2015
Starting the fire
“I’ve never in my life had a white woman tell me to sit down so she can serve me a cold drink” (Stockett, 3). In the book The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, an open minded southern white girl, who wants to become a writer, returns to Jackson, Mississippi from college and decides to privately interview several black women that have spent their lives working as maids for white women. She writes a book based on their stories full of prejudice and segregation. In the 1960s, civil rights activists and segregationists fought like never before. Blacks were denied to vote, could not use public facilities, bared with insults and violence, and were discriminated in their employments and
In this case, segregation is the enforced separation of different racial groups within the same country. This makes it easier for the politically dominant group, the whites, to maintain the economic advantages and superior social status. Early in the century, many states imposed Jim Crow laws. These were racial segregation state and local laws demanding racial segregation in public facilities. These laws created a racial caste system. They created two separate societies; one of blacks, and one of whites. Blacks had separate communities, facilities, education, employments, and transportations from whites. "So Jackson's just one white neighborhood after the next and more springing up down the road. But colored part a town, we one big anthill, surrounded by state and that ain't for sale. As our numbers get bigger, we can't spread out” (Stockett, 7). They were restricted to stay at only a specific part of town. No freedom to growth and expansion was given to black communities. The help had a separate bathroom in the back of the house. Whites saw them as filthy people. They ate at the kitchen.They worked alone, isolated behind closed doors. Black women worked as domestic workers. The position of a domestic worker was considered inferior to the family for which they were employed. This lead to an unbalanced society and black
Immorality is used as a synonym for this. There were strict laws based on white and black interactions. There were serious consequences for white women who were seen as friendly and compassionate to blacks at the time. Skeeter, the southern white girl who decides to interview the lives of the maids, puts her life at risk by going to the houses of Aibeleen and Minny, the black women. Aibeleen and Minny have a retelling risk because they allow her to go. No one could know of these reunions and exchange of