The book that I am currently reading (again) is The Help by Kathryn Stockett. This book takes place in the early 1960's, so an obvious social issue in the book would be racial discrimination. Even though it was after the Civil War and there were laws that officially integrated blacks and whites, some people (particularly in the south) still had the same hate for African Americans as they did before. In this book, Aibeleen is the main character and she is the house maid for a rich white family in Jackson, Mississippi. Even though Aibeleen does have her own house and her own family and the white family treats her with a substantial level of respect, she still feels intimidated and maybe even a little scared. Even though slavery was something of the past, the events that occurred before scarred her, so she could never do regular things like trust someone who's white, or go to lunch with someone who's white, or just even feel comfortable around them. It's always the things that we do in the past that effect what happens in the future.
Besides for Aibeleen, there are other black maids in the town of Jackson that she knows, like her best friend Minny. Now Minny's story is a smidge different from Aibeleen's, but not because of something that's her own fault. Minny is the maid to a family that doesn't treat her as well as Aibeleen's family treats Aibeleen. The family that Minny tends to is a lot harsher, and theres no kids to make the day just a little bit better. There's only a grumpy old lady that treats Minny like garbage. She tells her what to do without even being nice, she taunts her and makes her do unreasonable things, and she even accused the poor girl of stealing the silver wear and fired her, knowing that she wouldn't get another job when she told the other white ladies what Minny "did."
This racial discrimination is unbelieveable to me, especially because the Civil War was over, and everything should have been all nice and dandy. Not really, but at least there should have been some racial let up from the white people of the south. With knowledge that slavery ended not even so long ago, it's sad to see that people haven't come around to seeing what's right. With the knowledge that there is still racial discrimination today, I hope that in the future we actually come to our senses.
Besides for Aibeleen, there are other black maids in the town of Jackson that she knows, like her best friend Minny. Now Minny's story is a smidge different from Aibeleen's, but not because of something that's her own fault. Minny is the maid to a family that doesn't treat her as well as Aibeleen's family treats Aibeleen. The family that Minny tends to is a lot harsher, and theres no kids to make the day just a little bit better. There's only a grumpy old lady that treats Minny like garbage. She tells her what to do without even being nice, she taunts her and makes her do unreasonable things, and she even accused the poor girl of stealing the silver wear and fired her, knowing that she wouldn't get another job when she told the other white ladies what Minny "did."
This racial discrimination is unbelieveable to me, especially because the Civil War was over, and everything should have been all nice and dandy. Not really, but at least there should have been some racial let up from the white people of the south. With knowledge that slavery ended not even so long ago, it's sad to see that people haven't come around to seeing what's right. With the knowledge that there is still racial discrimination today, I hope that in the future we actually come to our senses.
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