The Help

In case you're wondering whether Kathyrn Stockett's novel The Help is as good as To Kill a Mockingbird, here is the answer: No. It's better.

Both stories talk about black African-American maid or housekeeper. Aibileen and Calpurnia were black, and I mention this for a reason. My domestic maid is coloured, as well. I love The Help more as the black maid in this novel, Aibileen, was helping to raise a little girl and that hits a strong chord with me. When I read the chapter in which Aibileen taught the preschooler to potty, I can't stop thinking about my daughter.

It's either unsettling or ironic - or a bit of both - that Aibileen was only allowed to visit her coloured bathroom made for the blacks. She ended up bringing the baby girl out to that weired makeshift "bathroom" with no proper walls but plyboards hammered together. This, of course, is how the girl learned to go in the potty. But anyone with even a cursory knowledge of American history - to be exact, in 1962 for Aibileen - will realize that the white baby's mother is going to throw a fit once she finds out her daughter go to the coloured bathroom. "This is dirty out here, Mae Mobley. You'll catch diseases! No no no!"

Yes, at first blush, it seems like a ridiculous act of racism, but when we think about it some more, it's happening somewhat similarly nowadays. I knew people who set up house rules banning the domestic maid from kissing the toddlers, even if the maid is supposed to love the children.