Help Hullabaloo

So, the talk of the African American (AA) literary community (writers and readers) for the past few days has been about the book that has recently been turned into a movie called The Help.

Before I get into what other people have said, let me start with that I think.  First and foremost, I have not read, nor do I intend to read this book. I don’t doubt that this author is very good at what she does, nor do I question the level of entertainment that others have gotten from reading this book. I will not read this book because I have no desire to read about circumstances surrounding the disenfranchisement of black people told by a white author. While I do read all races of authors, I just don’t have the need to read about my history from the creative mind of a white author. In the same vein, I wouldn’t read a book about the Jewish historical experience written by a Nazi sympathizer or a book about the Native American experience written by someone other than a descendant of Native Americans.  While I do believe that all authors have the ability to tell any story and tell it well, I don’t feel that you can write about someone else’s experience with the same amount of authenticity as that person, or a person directly related to that experience, could.  Could a white person give an apt portrayal of Jim Crow South? Yes, absolutely! Do I feel a white person can give an accurate portrayal of Jim Crow South from the black perspective? HELL NO!

Having said that, I will also not see the movie. At least not in theaters. After all, I do have Netflix. I have an issue with the fact that this book was optioned for a movie so quickly when there are so many excellent portrayals of the black experience by AA authors. Although I am not an author, I feel slighted by this occurrence and have found myself wondering why so many AA written books are not optioned for films when they are just as good and just as well read as books by white authors. Through reading some posts on FB I have gathered that there are many factors that we as readers can control, that hinder books by AA authors. Things like lending, borrowing and bootlegging AA works by members of the AA community work as a disservice to the AA artists. This affects more than just AA book, but also AA movies, hence the adding of bootlegging.

It seems obvious what needs to be done to fix this issue. Black readers should spend more of their resources purchasing AA authored books, if they like to read. I’m not saying this as someone who doesn’t practice what I preach. I am well aware that you spend your money on what you want to spend it on. I enjoy spending my money on books and the majority of the books I purchase are by AA authors. I do it because I like to spend my money on books. I will take my last $6.00 and buy a book. Now, I am oh so guilty of reselling books. I have bought books that I didn’t like, books that I know I’m not going to read again and I look to sell them or give them away. I haven’t been that successful in selling them, but I do it when I can. This doesn’t help with the issue of AA writers, but I must admit that the ones I will reference are not authors I’m looking to sell. Doesn’t make it any better for the other authors, but it is the truth.

I’m going to try and cut this short because I have discovered that I could talk about this for quite some time. That is one benefit of this book. I didn’t know I felt this way about the issue.  I mean, I knew I liked to read AA books. Most of my personal library is AA books, but I was unaware of the fact that I was knowledgeable about the fact that AA authors have portrayed black characters for years and gotten almost no play on the Hollywood scene. I mean, look at something with as much critical acclaim as Roots….TV only. The Color Purple made it to the theaters…with Spielberg at the helm. It would be nice if some of the many books about the black experience written by AA authors would get more play on the big screen.  But then again, if they did, would the black community go see it or bootleg it.

So, that’s all I’m saying at this point about The Help. I repeat, I don’t have a problem with this book being written or its author. To see my issues, refer again to paragraph one.