Actor Wendell Pierce Pissed @ ‘The Help’ : “This passive segregation lie was hurtful.”
Actor Wendell Pierce took to Twitter to express his frustration after seeing the new movie, “The Help.” The movie was based off of the 2009 novel. The story takes place in the early 1960s and tells the perspective of black maids that worked for whites in the south, Jackson, MS, to be exact.
After watching the movie, Peirce tweeted:
“This passive segregation
lite[lie or life]was hurtful. [I was] watching the film in UptownNewOrleans to the sniffles of elderly white people while my 80year old mother was seething…She told me how she wasn’t allowed in the kitchen. She couldn’t eat during a 12 hour shift. Only left overs if there was any. She couldn’t drink water from the kitchen but had to go to the faucet out doors….Hollywood loves the formula: the Great White Savior. I am tired of this cliche. These black women didn’t need a young white woman be empowered.”
If you saw the movie, please share your thoughts. Was this movie an accurate depiction of a black maid during this time period?
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I read the book & I agree that there were racist undertones all throughout it.
It was set in 1960s Mississippi of course it had undertones. I don’t know what ppl like Wendell expected. I asked him if he read the book he didn’t reply. Ppl are missing the fact that the story is more about the bond and relationships between women! Jim Crow south was moreso the backdrop. Awesome book. Good movie. Everyone relax lol
This is the entertainment industry. It was a movie, not a documentary. Performances were great, black folk got work, and we should lighten up! When a black person tells their story to a white person, it gets retold from a white person’s perspective. It wasn’t our story…it was an interpretation of our story from a white woman.
While I thought the acting was great i also know that what the he is saying is true. My grand mother worked for people in baltimore during this time and when her hands touched their good china during passover they broke all the china and through it away. I also did not like tha the only Black male in the movie was the abusive husband. It sent the message that these women went through this all day and then came home to sorry and abusive black men. That was not the norm in this era. we have many more families and a lot of the husbands worked as butlers and chauffers and went through the same humiliation.
I haven’t read the book or saw the movie, but the Association of Black Women Historians responded with this statement that I thought you all might find interesting.
http://www.abwh.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2%3Aopen-statement-the-help&catid=1%3Alatest-news