Race, Class, Food and the Movie the Help

Courtesy of the US National Archives

As a foodie I loved the food scenes in the movie The Help. However, I found the one dimensional  betrayal of women and in particular black women with no agency to resist their employers disturbing. In addition the movie made Mississippi look far less violent than it was and the city's black community more homogeneous than it was. Jackson had a historically black college with black PhDs, lawyers, doctors, and entrepreneurs who lived far better than the black characters in the movie. It is true however that as in the south of the 1950s and 60s, the current recession and flooded labor market has kept wages low for domestic workers. 

Mississippi Foodways and Recipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Mississippi