As Black Lives Matter protests sweep the world and calls to defund the police grow louder, many of us are trying to educate ourselves. To address our own white privilege. To listen, finally, to how black people face explicit racism and prejudice, and more subtle but undoubtable micro aggressions, on a daily basis. We are taking steps toward being an ally in the fight against this injustice, joining a cause that we should have been more concerned with all along. For some of us, education starts with talking to black friends, reading books about race, watching films about the black people who have fought injustice. Unfortunately, though, many of us are falling into the trap of consuming white saviour narratives that masquerade as pro-equality, anti-racism content. Case in point? The resurgence of The Help.
In the past week, Netflix US has stated that The Help - the 2011 film about the black maids, nannies and cooks and the white women they serve - has become the most-watched piece of content on the streaming service. One imagines that this is because people are sitting at home, wondering how they can educate themselves, and are settling on a film that is billed as an empowering ode to equality. But you'd be advised to start elsewhere: you're not helping anyone.
Yes, The Help is about a group of black women. But it is centred firmly around the white woman who helps them find a voice. Their struggles with racism, with humiliation, with brutality and loss is framed by the primary storyline of Skeeter's journey of self discovery. Played by Emma Stone, her heart seems firmly in the right place. But it is nevertheless all about her. Her attempt to become a writer. Her exploration of her relationship with her mother. Her romantic journey. We applaud her for having the courage to break bread with and support a group of black women. This is the focus, and the black characters fit in somewhere in between. In publishing a book about these black women, Skeeter becomes a published writer. Her success, much like that of the US and indeed the UK, is built completely on the tragedies of others. It does not matter that these women find succour or contentment as a result.
If that's not enough to convince you, note the actions of those involved. Viola Davis herself has practically disowned the film and says that she wishes she had never made it. 'I just felt that at the end of the day that it wasn’t the voices of the maids that were heard', she said in 2018.
Bryce Dallas Howard, who plays racist housewife Hilly Holbrook in the film - you'll recall she eats the 'chocolate' pie - has echoed her sentiment. 'The Help is a fictional story told through the perspective of a white character', she wrote online this week. ' And was created by predominantly white storytellers. We can all go further.'
Indeed, Ablene Cooper, the black nanny to the real-life author of the novel The Help, Kathryn Stockett, filed a $75,000 lawsuit against her. She argued that her likeness had been used for the depiction, which she found 'embarrassing.'
The Help, and others of its kind like Green Book, The Soloist and Dangerous Minds have received critical acclaim, major awards and box office success. Banning them or removing them from streaming services would be extreme. Watching them doesn't make you racist. But if you are seeking guidance on a path to being a better person, an ally, an anti-racist, then you'll need to do better than pressing play on what are, at best, deeply flawed films.
READ MORE: 23 Things To Watch If You're Trying To Educate Yourself About Racism
What to watch to educate yourself about racism
1 of 23Dear White People
A Netflix series following several Black college students at a largely white Ivy League school – based on the film of the same name (which can be rented on Amazon Prime).
2 of 23Fruitvale Station
Michael B Jordan stars in this biographical film about the events leading to the death of Oscar Grant, who was killed in 2009 by a BART police officer, Johannes Mehserle. Available to watch on Netflix.
3 of 23Malcolm X
A biographical film of activist Malcolm X, directed and co-written by Spike Lee and starring Denzel Washington. Available to rent on Amazon.
4 of 23Hidden Figures
The true story of three African-American women working at NASA as mathematicians, starring Taraji P. Henson as Katherine Johnson. Available to rent on Amazon Prime.
5 of 23Dark Girls
A documentary about the prejudices and cultural bias dark-skinned women face around the world. Available to rent on Amazon.
6 of 23Get Out
A horror film written and directed by Jordan Peele starring Daniel Kaluuya as a man who uncovers a disturbing secret when he meets the family of his white girlfriend. Available to rent on Amazon.
7 of 23Just Mercy
The true story of lawyer, Bryan Stevenson, battling to overturn the wrongful murder conviction of Walter McMillian. Available to rent on Amazon.
8 of 23Selma
This Ava DuVernay-directed film is based around Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) and his followers' historic march from Selma to Montgomery. Available to rent on Amazon Prime.
9 of 23Mudbound
Two Mississippi families – one Black, one white – confront the brutal realities of prejudice, farming and friendship in this Netflix series.
10 of 23The Color Purple
Based on the Pulitzer-winning book by Alice Walker, the film follows Celie, a black woman growing up in the early 1900s. Available to rent on Amazon.
11 of 23The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975
Many of the interviews that have been shared on social media this week feature in this film – a documentary about the Black Power movement through the eyes of Swedish journalists and filmmakers who'd travelled to report on it. You can buy the film on DVD.
12 of 23The Hate U Give
This movie, based on the book of the same name by Angie Thomas, tells the story of Starr Carter, who witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend by police. Available to buy on Amazon.
13 of 23I Am Not Your Negro
Told in the words of James Baldwin, through personal appearances and the text of his final unfinished book, I Am Not Your Negro touches on the lives and assassinations of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr and Medgar Evans to discuss how the image and reality of Black people in America today is fabricated and enforced. Available on Amazon.
14 of 23King In The Wilderness
An HBO documentary chronicling the final 18 months of Martin Luther King Jr's life. Available to stream on Amazon.
15 of 23American Son
Kerry Washington stars in this film about an estranged interracial couple awaiting news on their missing teenage son in a Florida police station. Available on Netflix.
16 of 23When They See Us
A series created, co-written and directed by Ava DuVernay about the events of a 1989 rape case, and the Central Park 5, who were wrongly imprisoned for a violent rape and assault. The series is available on Netflix.
17 of 2313th
This documentary by Ava DuVernay includes scholars, activists and politicians, analysing the criminalisation of African-Americans and the US prison boom. Available on Netflix.
18 of 23See You Yesterday
This sci-fi film sees two teen prodigies trying to master time travel, as a tragic police shooting sends them on a series of dangerous trips to the past. Available on Netflix.
19 of 23If Beale Street Could Talk
Barry Jenkins wrote and directed this film, based on James Baldwin's 1974 novel about a Harlem couple torn apart by a wrongful arrest. Available to watch on Amazon Prime.
20 of 23Belle
Amma Asante's film is inspired by the 1779 painting of Dido Elizabeth Belle – the illegitimate mixed-race child of Sir John Lindsay – alongside her cousin, Lady Elizabeth Murray, which hangs in Kenwood House, London. The fictional story centres on Dido's relationships within her family and wider society, amidst the reactions to the Zong massacre, where slaves were thrown overboard from a slave ship and the owner filed for the losses with his insurance company. You can hire Belle on Amazon Prime.
21 of 23Reggie Yates: Life and Death in Chicago
Many of Reggie Yates' ongoing documentaries and Extreme series for BBC Three are important watches. This documentary, which saw him travel to Chicago to examine gun crime in 2016, is available on iPlayer now.
22 of 23This Is England
The Shane Meadows film that spawned the Channel 4 series shows the development of skinhead culture in the 1980s in the UK and how it became hijacked by racist voices. The film is available on Amazon Prime.
23 of 23Shame In The Game: Racism In Football
This BBC Three documentary, still available on iPlayer, examines the devastating impact of football racism in the UK, as incidents soar and players at every level of the game call for drastic action.