Ever wonder what it’s like to work for someone else? Not just having a boss you rarely see except for in the office. Imagine working in someone else’s home, seeing him at his best and his worst. Knowing his faults, his personal life, practically everything about him, and still having to treat him with respect and obedience. That takes a lot of patience and restraint, life skills not everyone has.

What if there’s more? Every day you’re being judged with just one look. Not by how you act, who your friends are, or how skilled you are. You’re simply being judged by the color of your skin. If you talk back at your boss, you’ll lose your job. Try to get a job somewhere else; your boss will have ruined your reputation with lies, making this impossible. So you go to work every day, are treated like a leper, and are expected to be submissive and respectful. Think you could do it?

A lot of people think that once all blacks were freed, that was it. They were equal. Never mind the segregation, the racist laws, and the oppression. Black people could get jobs and live in their own homes. Never mind that they were often poor, spat upon, and harmed with very little justice. Never mind that they had helped create America since the first colonies. How could anyone live with this injustice? Why didn’t anyone do anything? In The Help by Kathryn Stockett, someone did something.

Day after day, a young white woman sees the injustices around her. With Dr. King’s march in Washington imminent, she compiles the struggles and emotions of over a dozen black maids. Some have wonderful stories to tell. Their white employers are kind and caring, even helpful. Others speak of insults, unjust accusations, and unfair treatment. When all of this is published in one book, what will the elite white people of Jackson, Mississippi think? Will they go along as they have been, ignoring the need for change? Or will they begin to recognize the equality of all people?

 After all, as the character Aibileen Clark said, “You have hair, I have hair. You have a nose. I have a nose. You have toes. I have toes. So, what is the difference between us?”