Racism In Elie Wiesel's The Help

The theme of racism is shown is The Help because the black maids of the white families are treated terribly because of their race. In the story, many of the white characters believe that blacks are dirty and carry diseases that white people are nonimmune to. Because of the oppression they face, every black character has a difficult time living their most fulfilled life. White children are taught from a young age that they are superior to black people. This is displayed when Aibileen, the maid of Elizabeth who takes care of Mae Mobley, when Aibileen says, "I want to yell so loud that Baby Girl can hear me that dirty ain’t a color, disease ain’t the Negro side a town. I want to stop that moment from coming—and it come in every white child’s life—when

The maids fear their employees terribly, knowing that they are capable of much more than just firing them. The feeling grows in the women when they agree to help write Skeeter's book because they know if it is discovered that they wrote stories about their life as maids for white women and the joys and well as the sorrows that come with the job, they will be at the hands of the deadly white women. The white women have the power to destroy a maid's reputation, making it impossible to find work. Sometimes, the black women fear more than just their occupation. Aibileen mentions this when she says, "She don’t know about them sharp, shiny utensils a white lady use. About that knock at the door, late at night. That there are white mens out there hungry to hear about a colored person crossing whites, ready with they wooden bats, matchsticks. Any little thing'll do." (Stockett, 224). Although a white woman would never kill someone herself, her husband is always ready to pull the trigger. In the song My Worst Fear by Rascal Flatts, the lyrics say "It's gonna make it hard to tell you that I'm leaving...But staying here is my worst fear" which is true for the maids because as much as they are scared to disobey their employers, staying an employee with the constant threat of making a mistake and being exploited is even more frightening. This constant fear, however, fuels the women's' desires to change the situation that they are in. With fear as their fire, they are can fight for what they think is