The Help

I recently finished Kathryn Stockett's novel, The Help (Berkeley Publishing Group, 2009). It's a beautiful novel, the type that makes you laugh out loud, cry a little and feel warm in your heart. It's a glimpse into what the life of an African American maid working for upper-middle-class white women in the south in 1962 might have been like. Aside from being a great read, it was also a good reminder about the racial problems of my country.

I tend to forget that the African-American civil rights movement was in the 1960's, only 50 years ago. Reading about it in a high school history book made it seem very long ago indeed, but when I think about the fact that both of my parents vividly remember the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.... it's really not so long ago. Only one generation.

Likewise, the end of the Civil Rights Movement in no way ended the problems with racial segregation and discrimination in the USA. One need only examine the race statistics for education, income, homelessness, incarceration and the like to know that discrimination, segregation and other problems between races still exist.

This novel is a good reminder about the problems of my own country, as I prepare to leave for a country with conflict between races. Although the USA does not have a literal, physical wall separating groups (at least, as far as I know...), it has plenty of its own problems to consider.