I resisted reading this best seller by Kathryn Stockett. So many people recommended it, but I was hesitant. I'm not sure why, but something about it kept nagging at me. I finally read it this summer when my book club selected it. I was drawn into the story. The book is well written which makes it an easy summer read. The characters are very real and I appreciated the humor sprinkled throughout.
The movie will start showing in theaters everywhere this week...but I still have a nagging feeling about this book. What is my problem with it? I think it comes down to the sense that in the story, the black maids needed white intervention to join the civil rights movement. Don't get me wrong. I know white people played a role in the civil rights movement; however, it was a supporting role. Black men and women fought that fight. They were the main characters.
Why do books and movies find it so compelling to center the civil rights movement around whites?
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