Later this evening, millions will tune in to watch the Oscars. One of the movies drawing lots of attention this year is The Help. Our guest blogger, Sharon Kyle, adjunct professor of law at Peoples College in Los Angeles and Publisher of LA Progressive, discusses her thoughts on the movie and the attention it's receiving.
The movie, The Help, has received accolades from across the Hollywood spectrum. Heralded as the most popular film of 2011, it’s been recognized by the NAACP Image Awards, The Golden Globe, The Hollywood Film Festival, The Screen Actors Guild, The People’s Choice, and the Academy Awards – with millions scheduled to tune in this weekend to see if it picks up any Oscars.
But before all of those accolades started rolling in, there was evidence the cast had concerns over how the film would be received, particularly by the black community.
Early on, in anticipation of potential African-American backlash over yet another major studio offering that puts the heroic deeds of a white person at the center of a civil rights-era story, both Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer (pictured here) put out statements in an article entitled, “Why You Should See “The Help” in the August 8/15, 2011 edition of Jet Magazine.
Addressing Jet’s overwhelmingly African-American readership, the actresses wrote:
Viola Davis: “If you protest ‘The Help’ and don’t want to see it onscreen, then you will see nothing. It will be replaced by nothing. If you don’t see it you are giving a very strong message to Hollywood because it is a predominantly African-American cast in a project released by a major studio. So go. If you don’t like it, have the honest and passionate discourse and come away with something. Then we can move forward. You’ve got to be the change you want to see.”
Octavia Spencer: “If anything you should come and support us because how many African-American-based films are there going to be this year? Not very many. How many African-American movies show the gamut of age, size and beauty? Not only are two of the three leads African-Americans, but there are several of us with substantial roles.”
In spite of their fears, The Help has been both a financial and popular success, grossing over $205 million at the box office, according to Boxofficemojo.com. This weekend, as I reflect on The Help‘s broad based popularity and renewed interest sparked by its many Oscar nominations, I think back to other moments in our movie history and can’t help but be reminded of the Oscars of 1973.
It was the 45th Academy Awards. Marlon Brando had won the Oscar for his performance as Vito Corleone in The Godfather. Rather than accept the award, Brando invited Sacheen Littlefeather, a member of the Apache tribe, to speak in his stead. Bringing attention to the plight of America’s indigenous people, Littlefeather stood before the world voicing opposition to the manner in which American Indians were typically depicted in popular culture at the time. This was particularly poignant because this was 1973 the year of the Wounded Knee incident. For a little over two minutes, this young woman shifted the focus from the facade of Hollywood to the reality of the lives of America’s indigenous people, giving many watchers their first dose of Native American reality.
The Help takes place during the Civil Rights era just before and after the assassination of Medgar Evers in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1963. For many whites, this era represents the successful end of the long struggle for equality for African-Americans. Polling data consistently shows that white Americans tend to believe racism or race-based inequality is something that ended in the 60′s. But African-Americans poll very differently on this topic.
Harvard professor Orlando Patterson offers an insightful explanation for this difference of opinion. According to the professor, the Civil Rights movement was successful in bringing about racial equality in the “public sphere” of American life. Patterson maintains that pre-civil rights blacks were virtually excluded from every public area of life in the United States. But – and this is important – after the Civil Rights era, blacks in America became publicly prominent in sports, music, theater, film, TV, politics, the military – and exhibited disproportionate influence in popular culture in ways that continue to be unprecedented among white-majority nations.
Speaking of the comparison between Black public achievements and the Black private reality, Professor Patterson recently wrote in The Nation Magazine:
. . . accompanying this historic public achievement has been a stunning failure: the persisting exclusion of blacks from the private sphere of American life. Outside elite circles, blacks are as segregated today from the private domain of white lives—their neighborhoods, schools, churches, clubs and other associations, friendship networks, marriage markets and families—as they were fifty years ago. The failure of school desegregation tells one part of this tragic story. A recent report by the Civil Rights Project of the University of California shows that black and Latino schoolchildren are more segregated from whites than at any time since the 1960s: some 40 percent of black and Latino children attend schools that are almost entirely composed of blacks or Latinos. Religious institutions are as segregated today as in the ’60s, when Martin Luther King Jr. famously observed that 11 o’clock Sunday morning is America’s most segregated hour.
To put this bluntly, Professor Patterson is claiming that racial segregation is almost as prevalent today as it was in the 60′s but is masked by what appears to be racial equity in the public sphere. Still, in the private sphere of America we have what the United States Supreme Court deemed inherently unequal– separate worlds.
Professor Patterson’s comparison of public vs. private is oddly appropriate as we look at the glitz and glamor of the public face of America – this thing called “Hollywood” and contrast it to America’s private reality. But as we compare the two, we – taken to mean “I” – should bear in mind that movies are merely products generated by studios to turn a profit. The studio’s overwhelming goal is to serve the bottom line, not to educate or enlighten.
However, as was demonstrated in 1973, the Academy Awards can be used as a megaphone to reach those who are oblivious to the continued state of segregation and, as a result, racial inequality that continues to exist in the United States. There are even rumors that Viola Davis might make a political statement if she wins the Oscar.
When The Help was released, I wrote a piece laying out my interpretation of the issues it raised. That piece got a lot of feedback. You can read my original piece and the comments it received here. Peter Dreier, Chair of the Urban and Environmental Policy Department at Occidental College in Los Angeles wrote a compelling piece on this topic which can be found here.
My husband Dick and I have spent many a Friday night at the movies. Even though we generally prefer independent or foreign films and I’m not a fan of awards shows, we’ll probably tune in to the Oscars Sunday night to see how The Help will fare. And while I admire Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer for their outstanding performances in The Help, I look forward to the day when Hollywood’s portrayal of Black life in America can be shown in its fullness and not just as a shadow of white America. Even more, I look forward to the day when the public sphere and the private sphere of Black life are more aligned — where segregation in school, in church, in the workplace — are truly a thing of the past.
To read Sharon's entire piece, including comments she incorporated in her post, click here.
