I have just finished reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett. A fantastic read.
Apart from messing up the few bits of the English language that I have tried to master, the book was one of the best books I have read in recent times. As a black person you feel sorry for the black women who worked as maids in Mississippi but you also get the sense that they were strong and had the resilience required to survive. It is that resilience that makes me feel proud that I’m black and female.
I’m glad that I’m not a maid and that slavery, segregation etc… were way before my time but there are still similarities in the present day particularly in the corporate world. Just like Lou Anne / Louvenia (good) and Hilly / Minny (bad) in The Help – you have similar relationships still existing today. The good ones are in abundance and can be seen between neighbours who invite you to their homes for coffee, offer you a ride in their cars or strangers who make space for you on the train. The bad ones are still thriving too. It is more subtle but it exists. It is there when you are passed over for promotions because you are too “aggressive” or you are not social enough; when people give up their space on the toilet queue because you just came out of the toilet; when people refuse to collect their change from you at the checkout till.
The divide is no longer black vs white. It has new dimensions – Oxbridge educated vs the other graduates; black vs brown; Asians vs Caucasians; employed vs NEETs (Not in Employment, Education or Training); poor vs rich. It is part of life and I don’t think it is ever going to go away completely. These artificial divides provide us with some incentive to improve ourselves. Sociologists probably know the advantages of having these divides. I’m not one, so I’m going to drop this topic but before I do, Kathryn Stockett suggests that the book was written for women (I think it applies to men as well) to realise that “We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I’d thought.”
Another thought that I had from reading The Help was how closely God and doing good are linked. I noticed that the more good or morally upright that Skeeter became, the more awareness of God she had. I think that people do good because God in His invincible manner makes us do good. Sometimes we are not aware that it is God working in us but we feel compelled to do good – we help others, show love to the down trodden. Society often refers to doing good as having a moral coding. What is a moral code and who did the coding?
