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By jamie, February 22, 2012 4:28 pm

After I saw the film, one of the scenes from The Help that stayed with me was where Hilly (the worst of the racist white women) tells her black maid that she will not loan her the money to help her twin sons attend college because she is a good Christian, and Christians don’t help people who can help themselves. Fast forward to today, and we still have people with this kind of philosophy – it’s as though they skipped the entire New Testament.

Back to Hilly: I read though page 332 (through chapter 25), and Hilly in this book is far worse than the one in the film. After the infamous toilet scene (I think it was in the trailers), she gets her husband to install the toilets into segregated bathrooms as part of her “home health sanitation initiative.” This “good Christian” can easily destroy someone else’s life if they do anything to cross her. And her friends might not agree with her, but she manages to keep them under her control – they seem to admire her, but maybe it’s just fear.

It seems that a major purpose of the League (led by Hilly) is to raise funds for “The Poor Starving Children of Africa” – Skeeter tries to point out the irony of this, but she misses it completely. My mom has always said that “charity begins at home” but I think sometimes people find it easier to contribute to an idea rather than something in their immediate vicinity. And of course they are doing something, which is a good thing, and there are plenty of worthy causes that are outside of our immediate surroundings. I guess what I’m trying to say is that what matters most is how we treat people right next to us – that comes first.

I wish I could have heard Stockett’s thought process when she was writing the following scene:

“Lord, I say, getting irritated all over again. “What am I doing? I must be crazy, giving the sworn secrets a the colored race to a white lady.”
“It’s just Miss Skeeter, she ain’t like the rest.”
“Feel like I’m talking behind my own back,” I say….”I just… I want things to be better for the kids,” I say. “But it’s a sorry fact that it’s a white woman doing this.”

I should probably let it go already, but she is a white woman writing a book about a white woman writing a book about black women – what was she thinking put that dialogue in there? Is she saying that someone else should have written this story but since no one did, she took care of it? Is she acknowledging that she might be crossing a line by writing this book in the way she did?

I can’t let it go because some of her choices are downright awful – it’s as though she looked up every negative stereotype about people of color and made sure not to miss a single one. We have the woman with a ton of kids, and of course she conceived the first one as a teenager – in a car. We have the woman beaten by her drunk man, the one she swore she wouldn’t be with after growing up with a drunk father – A white woman figures out her secret, but only because she “saw things” while she was being raised in a “white trash” family. And there is that one scene where a black woman stares at a roach (crawling on the floor in her house – she actually mentions roaches more than once in describing the maids’ homes) – she compares her skin color with the color of the roach. Are you kidding me?

The bit I liked in this section was a conversation between two of the maids about whether color/social lines really exit. Is it alright to be honest with someone of a different race? How honest? How much can you care without crossing the line? The book is set during the Civil Right Movement, but I guess some people have those questions today, too. Look at any high school cafeteria and you will see how segregated it is – my students tell me that they spend most of their time with people from their own race/ethnicity. Why? Because “that’s just the way it is.”

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By jamie, February 21, 2012 5:35 pm

I am fascinated by horticulture. We bought a lime tree over a year ago, and spent a lot of time talking to the nursery worker about the huge variety of trees that can grow in Florida – with the right care. The most fascinating was the olive tree – she told us that, while it normally takes decades for an olive tree to mature enough to bear fruit, tree experts are now able to graft a small tree into an established root system of another type of tree and get fruit in a couple of years or less. This is amazing to me, and mysterious. Plant scientists (and gardeners, too, I suppose) can also cross-breed plants with certain desirable traits and, over several seasons, end up with new fruits and vegetables. Note: This is NOT the same thing as what (Evil) Monsanto does, which is manipulate seeds quickly in a lab, producing genetically engineered “franken-foods.”

I read Chapters 7-8, and learned more about the process of cross-breeding plants the “old fashioned” way. Tomatoes have changed dramatically over the years – sadly, tomato breeders have mainly focused on making them perfectly round, rugged enough to withstand harsh handling, and increasing the amount of tomatoes each plant will produce (per acre yield has increased “fivefold since the 1930s”). In other words, they have completely ignored flavor. Here is a quote that sums up why this is the case:

Klee is convinced that tomato breeders took a wrong turn fifty years ago. “If you ask commercial seed companies why they are making tomato varieties that have lost all their flavor, the answer is very simple,” he explained. “They have focused all their energies on their customers. Who are their customers? The commercial growers. What does a grower get paid for? Yield, size, and appearance. They make more money for very large tomatoes than they do for small ones. The grower is not paid for flavor. So you have a fundamental disconnect between what growers want and what consumers expect.”

It was fun to read about Klee’s work – he does extensive taste-testing, trying to isolate the individual components that make a tomato delicious (this section reminded me of the Jonah Lehrer book, where we learned about deliciousness). Evidently, the flavor of a tomato is a delicate mixture of several different individual flavors (actually – volatiles, the essences we smell first), and we aren’t sure exactly which ones they all are), about half of which have not been identified yet.

This section of the book was much more positive than the earlier chapters. We learn about organic growing, and paying workers a livable wage and providing them with healthy work conditions (including a farmer who occasionally uses chemical fumigants – I think it said he as done to once, but he applied them applies them himself and not when workers were present). Among other “good guys,” profiles a daycare and school program for children of farm workers, a Harvard-trained attorney who has devoted his career to fighting for justice for farm workers.

Organic vegetables cost more to produce – it is much harder (especially in Florida) to battle pests and plant diseases without using powerful (dangerous) weapons. One grower explains that he provides safe conditions, free housing, and a livable wage for his workers, but still makes more per acre than non-organic farmers to because people are willing to pay more for his healthier, tastier, food.

There is so much positive information in this section that I no longer feel as helpless and hopeless as did through most of the rest of the book.

One more thing – one of my readers suggested that I stop refrigerating my tomatoes (the ones from the garden rarely make it onto the house, but I refrigerate every tomato I buy). I am afraid they will spoil if I don’t keep them cold – I can’t even keep apples out too long in Florida, despite the air conditioning – they get soft so quickly. Here is what the book says about my habit:

Whether it happens in a truck, warehouse, produce section, or home refrigerator, a tomato that is held at temperatures lower than 50 degrees soon becomes a tasteless tomato. For reasons unknown, chilling reduces the fragrant volatile chemicals that are all-important in giving the fruit its distinctive flavor. Unfortunately, keeping tomatoes cool extends their shelf life, too, so the temptation to refrigerate dogs tomatoes every step of their journey to the table. Years of efforts by a plant breeder can be destroyed by a few days in a refrigerator.

Maybe I will have to rethink my immediate refrigeration habit. How long do your tomatoes keep if you leave them on the counter?

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By jamie, February 20, 2012 8:35 am

I used to eat way too much fast food. Those who have been with me awhile know I have read a few books on the subject of the food industry, but even with all I have learned, I have struggled in the past to avoid the comfort and convenience of food handed to me through my car window. I am doing much better today: In 2011, my New Year’s Resolution was to not eat anything from McDonald’s (this was extremely difficult at first, but now, over a year later, I still haven’t had so much as a french fry from there) and I gave up all fast food for Lent (this was a challenge). I can’t remember how many times I have had fast food so far this year. I think it was once, but it may have been twice. The fact that I have lost 20 pounds has certainly helped me stay motivated, but it’s more than that – I feel better overall about the choices I’m making for myself and my family.

I read chapters 5-6 of the book, and learned about a national anti-fast food campaign that did not sound one bit familiar to me even though it originated right here in Florida. This part of the book talks about what the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) have accomplished through grassroots efforts. It took them several years, but they were able to talk several major fast food chains to pay an extra penny per carton of tomatoes (not sure how many tomatoes this is) and have that extra penny go directly to the workers who pick the tomatoes. One penny. They started with Taco Bell over ten years ago, and moved on others. Now they have moved on to grocery stores (more on that later).

They have also put themselves at risk to stop modern day slavery and to end the practices of terrorizing (beating, etc.) farm workers to force them to put up with horrible working conditions. The group actually started after a man was beaten by a crew leader. “The next morning, when the crew boss who had beaten Edgar pulled up to the parking lot in his bus, not a soul would get aboard. Other crew leaders took note. That happened in 1996.” Coalition members say that beatings stopped after this action – before this, workers were so afraid for their own safety that they would look the other way instead of banding together.

This chapter really exposed gaps in my education and cultural knowledge. Not only was I not away of the CIW, I was also very unfamiliar with the methods used by civil rights groups to train victims on how to protect their own civil rights. Estabrook specifically mentions “popular education” techniques, developed by Paulo Freire in the 1960s. I had to look up his book: Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which is still in print. Estabrook elaborates on some of the popular education techniques, namely how they use nontraditional teaching methods – using music, theater, etc. in part to help bridge language barriers while establishing solidarity. I would like to learn more about Freire’s teaching methods.

About grocery stores, the book says that Whole Foods penned a deal with the CIW, but that other grocery stores did not (at least they had not at the time this chapter was written). According to their website, Trader Joe’s recently signed with them, too (how I miss you, Trader Joe’s). Guess what store they are targeting now? Publix – the store I shop at. On the CIW “take action” page, there is a letter template to take to Publix managers (you have to scroll down a bit) – I have already printed my copy and will advise our family to take copies to the store as well. There are letter templates for others grocery chains, as well as a generic one for everyone else.

Important quote:

the life expectancy of a migrant worker in the United States is only forty-nine years. According to U.S. Labor Department figures, migrant workers typically make between $10,000 and $12,000 a year, a figure that is distorted because it includes the higher wages paid to field supervisors. Based on forty-hour work weeks, that means workers’ hourly earnings are between five and six dollars, well below minimum wage. The average household income for farm workers in the United States is between $15,000 and $17,500 a year, well below the federal poverty line of $20,650 and less than half of what is considered a living wage for someone residing in Immokalee.

Once again, we have evidence that our food choices affect the civil rights of others. I am doubly sure we won’t be buying tomatoes from Publix for the foreseeable future.

This section of the book also allows the growers to share their side of the story. It was pretty upsetting to read – I can’t say I felt any sympathy for them.

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By jamie,

When I teach my students about Jim Crow laws, they are always shocked to learn that “separate but equal” did not mean “equal” at all. One thing I like about this book is that Stockett continually emphasizes the unequal nature of Jim Crow – she even has her most racist character chant “separate but equal” when referring to the obviously unfair laws – hopefully this will enlighten some who don’t understand how bad it really was in the South at the beginning of the Civil Rights movement.

The most interesting example of the “separate but equal” clause in action: public libraries. Aibileen, after she establishes a strong rapport with Skeeter (the two are collaborating on a book of stories told by black maids), she works us the nerve to ask her to find books at the “white library,” books she has waited for for months at the “black library.” The saddest example – hospitals. Several stories have already been told about how doctors will not treat people who are not of their race, even if the sick or injured person is dying, and even if that person is a child. She also mentions that, in all of Jackson, Mississippi, there is not a single black police officer – I need to look that one up before I teach about race this semester.

Just like in the film, the women’s organization sends aid for “Starving Children in Africa” – they do not send money, opting to ship canned goods instead. “Hilly rolls her eyes. ‘You cannot give these tribal people money, Mary Joline. There is no Jitney 14 Grocery in the Ogaden Desert. And how would we know if they’re even feeding their kids with it? They’re likely to go to the local voodoo tent and get a satanic tattoo with our money.’” This reminds me of today, when people say we should drug test welfare recipients – it seems this demand is based on the erroneous assumption that poor people don’t know any better and would be more likely to spend their money on drugs and alcohol than on feeding, clothing and housing themselves and their children. (It also shows complete ignorance about welfare reform, but I digress.)

hiding a secret – the white girl is freaking out, while the black maid appears cool and collected – “I guess she’s grown deft at hiding her feelings.”

Unlike the film, the book paints a very clear picture of the risk these women take to even meet together let alone share the stories they are sharing – especially in Jackson, Mississippi. The book depicts some real-life events, including the assassination of Medgar Evers, NAACP leader who devoted his life to the fight for integration. Even if no one arrested them (which could have happened) or murdered them (also a possibility), they could have been punished in other ways – the book takes us through the though process of some of the maids, imagining losing their jobs and their homes, and moving in with their children, resulting in their children losing their jobs and homes (and possibly their lives) as well. I am curious to see how this plays out at the end of the book – in the film, Aibileen does not appear to be in fear for her life after her secret is discovered.

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By jamie, February 18, 2012 4:10 pm

I had a few reservations about reading this one – namely, I was concerned about a work of fiction describing the experience of black maids working for white women written by a white woman. As I read, I am consciously aware of the race of the author and am annoyed with some of the choices she makes. The “Terrible Awful” from the film, which has only been hinted at so far – how dare this woman write this? I wonder why more people aren’t upset about this horrible plot point, or maybe they are and I just missed out on the controversy – all I have heard abut this book is praise. I read through page 103, so if you haven’t read the book (or at least seen the movie), be aware that this post may contain spoilers.

The book is told from various points of view, and the sections narrated by the African American maids are written with poor grammar – sometimes the author is so heavy-handed with this that I find myself rolling my eyes. Some of things she has the women say (and do) seem incredibly inappropriate for this white author to have written.

In one scene, Aibileen is told by Minny that her prayers (which she writes down every night) have more power than everyone else’s. As part of her evidence: “Week after Clyde left you, I heard that Cocoa wake up to her ******* spoilt like a rotten oyster. Didn’t get better for three months. Bertina, she good friends with Cocoa. She know your prayer work.” Really? Is she saying that Aibileen prayed for harm to come to the women her husband left her for? Who does that? That’s not what it means to pray for one’s enemies, as anyone who has been to any church (not just Christian, although I am assuming that the author is writing these women as self-proclaimed Christians) surely knows. What about “vengeance is Mine, sayeth the Lord?”

In another scene, referring to the film, Gone with the Wind: “I sure didn’t like that movie, the way they made slavery look like a big happy tea party. If I’d played Mammy, I’d of told Scarlett to stick those green draperies up her white little pooper. Make her own d*** man-catching dress.” Funny that Stockett would mention another book written by a white woman who inappropriately handled black characters.

Have you read this novel? Seen the film? Do you think I’m being too rough on the author? Not rough enough?