Secret Life Of Bees Segregation Analysis

The theme of segregation is of significant importance in the novel the Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, the films Selma by Ava DuVernay, The Help by Tate Taylor, and the documentary Crips and Bloods: Made in America by Stacey Peralta. I chose this theme as it plays an important role in all texts and greatly contributes to the main problems and situations in each.

Although the Civil Rights Act supposedly ended all state and local laws requiring segregation the year before the film was set in 1964, there are still many cases of it seen in Selma, such as restaurants that solely serve white people or not allowing black people to vote. A lot of white people featured in this film were segregationists; unable to accept the fact that the era of

For example, black people were to step off the sidewalk for white people and were to address them formally regardless of their age. Coloured people were shut out and denied access to certain resources and opportunities such as well-paid jobs, affordable housing, politics and even children’s clubs such as boy scouts. Residential segregation was also very particular at that time, and black people were restricted from buying, renting, and even visiting certain areas of Los Angeles. One day, the black community decided they’d had enough, and so began the Watts riots of 1965. The Los Angeles Police Department needed help from the National Guard in order to quell the riots, which unfortunately resulted in much death and destruction. Despite the fact that the march for voting rights in Selma was strictly non-violent, the Watts riots are similar in the sense that coloured people fought against the way they were being treated by white people, thought the white policemen decided to restrain them by force, much like the police officers did in Selma. Stacy Peralta featured the Watts riots to show the viewers the unbridled anger and frustration that was pent-up inside the black community as a result of segregation and

Such laws enforced the segregation of public facilities such as transport, restrooms and drinking fountains, public schools, and places like restaurants and motels. Much like the gang members in Crips and Bloods, black people in The Help were restricted to low level jobs with minimal skill requirements and pay such as table service and housekeeping. In Crips in Bloods, however, majority of black people living in the gang-ruled neighbourhoods of Los Angeles weren’t offered such positions, so were forced to resort to dealing illegal substances in order to get money. The black maids in The Help also decided to raise awareness about the hardships endured by a coloured person. Skeeter Phelan, a 23-year-old white woman and member of the Junior League, decides to help the black maids to get their story out there to raise awareness of the way they were being treated by publishing an anonymous book. Unlike the marches in Selma and the riots in Crips and Bloods, this is a much more secretive way to raise awareness about the way society was treating coloured