Helpless in Mississippi

Yeah, I heard about the civil rights movement in U.S. History last year and it made me feel awful about how African Americans used to be treated. All the violence towards them and they really didn't have to do anything to provoke white people, except exist. As I have been reading "The Help" I have found a better understanding of what really went on in Mississippi. These women, the hired help, basically raised white women's children for them but received none of the credit. White women wanted their baby to show off at first, but at the first stinky diaper, heck, they couldn't run away fast enough. They would punish the children not only physically, but emotionally as well. One dad would whip his 6 year old with a garden hose and they it was the job of the help to bandage, and ice his wounds only so the father could do it yet again. They were helpless to stop any of the cruelty. I love the humor that the African American women use. Although they were treated worse than anything I have ever witnessed, they still found ways to have jokes with the other help. One servant, Minny, has the attitude of a typical rich white woman trapped inside an African American body. At one point, a white man discovers that she is in his house after his wife had hired her to do the chores without telling him, she stands at the door and yells at him. He just happens to be holding an axe and she is convinced he is going to chop her into pieces. In other part, one white woman, who starts to become friends with the help, sabotages her snooty white friend who loudly declares her opinion that the help should have their own bathrooms to use outside of the house so that the whites don't catch diseases from the sharing of toilets. She edits the friends article that is to be published in the newspaper and has everyone bring their old toilets and put them all in the snobby rich white woman's front lawn. At one point, there is a count of 30 toilets just scattered all over. While this book makes you laugh out loud, it also tears at your heart strings when the women get honest about what exactly goes on behind closed doors at their work. One woman took in her grandson Robert because he had nowhere else to go. After he accidentally used a white man's public restroom because it was not displayed which was which, men attacked him and as a result, he lost his sight in both eyes. He was only a teenager. One maid steals a piece of unused jewelry from her employer so that she can pay for both of her twin boys to go to college. She has been saving for years to support them both but realized that she only had the money for one. She couldn't bear the thought of having to tell one of her boys that he is not going to college but his brother is instead. Even when she asks for a loan from her boss, that she promises she will attempt to pay back with each of her week's pay, the woman would not hear of it. In fact, she told her it was even more Christian for her to let the woman suffer than it would be to help her out. Snotty people just bug the heck out of me and its awful to see one human being treat another like the women in this book do. Its definitely one of the best books I have read in my life and I 100% suggest it to anyone that needs something to read.