Since it’s a Singaporean-American writing about Singaporeans, it’s not really analogous.
Guess historians are in big trouble then. The idea that only one race can write about that race is ridiculous.
No. It’s HOW you write about them. If I had written about Singaporeans in an unflattering way, that’s not being a historian.
Also, it’s not analogous because the knock on The Help isn’t that it’s unflattering; it’s that it’s, once again, using black characters as props to talk about the white person.
^But that is NOT the novel at all - although that’s what the film ended up being, much to my disapointment.
Ok, so if a historian writes on something outside her or his race, it must be flattering?
I don’t think history should be flattering OR non-flattering. That’s not its point.
And this is besides the case, since both books referenced here are fiction, not history or otherwise nonfiction, hence free from needing to be fact-based, but more reflection of the author’s beliefs. So if I white person wrote CRA, I do think it would be very problematical and it’s hard to imagine not thinking that.
Art and skill at writing fiction is, being able to find a voice for characters that makes them “real” and true to life. A white person living in Singapour may have found it easier to write CRA than an Asian person living in Minneapolis. However the person living in Minneapolis may have immersed herself in books about the place, read accounts, interviewed various people from Singapour, whereas the person living in Singapour could have focused only on his narrow circle. Basically, if the author’s good, his/her color doesn’t matter. It’s harder to describe that which you don’t know but it shouldn’t be considered inherently impossible.
I read the book “The Help” and found it eye-opening. I am white and grew up in a racially mixed housing project in the South Bronx. I knew both white and African-American women (mothers of my friends, friends of my mother’s) who worked as maids in other neighborhoods but I had no awareness of the horrid way many of the maids were treated in the South of decades ago. The closest experience I had was that when I was in grad school, I dated a guy who was from the South and went to visit his family with him once. I had a pair of espadrille sandals that were old and the string ties finally broke on the trip so I threw them in the garbage. The next morning, the guy’s mother brought them to me and very accusingly asked why I threw them out when, didn’t I know, that the maid would be thrilled to take them home for her daughter! I was shocked by the thought that an actual person that I thought was cultured and sophisticated would think that giving my trash shoes to another person was a good thing. To put it into perspective, as noted, I grew up in a housing project and was poor. I would not have thrown away a pair of shoes unless they were completely useless and these were in terrible condition. My actual thought was if this woman, who was extremely wealthy, thought her maid’s D needed new shoes, why didn’t she buy her a pair instead of picking through a relative stranger’s garbage for a pair to bestow upon her. I think the thought that the maid and her D should be GRATEFUL for getting my worn out, disgusting shoes that I wore without socks was most upsetting. When I asked the guy about it, he sided with his mom. I broke up with him as soon as we got back to NY. The culture divide was just too great. He and his mom really thought that giving my trash shoes to the maid was a beneficent gesture and I thought it was patronizing and demeaning. I hadn’t thought about that incident in years, but when I read “The Help” it brought it back to me.
People really only know what their own experiences are. Books, TV shows and movies are good ways to expose people to concepts and experiences they could not ever hope to get on their own. When I read “The Help,” I was shocked and horrified at certain aspects of it. I didn’t see the movie. As for Viola Davis, I would think that she would regret that horrible TV show she does where she plays a murderous lawyer more than a movie where she helped open eyes about mistreatment that was endemic to a time and place.
I guess our wealthy mostly white neighborhood in the South should feel bad about giving out candy to the 100s of generally poor black kids that come around on Halloween (by the bus full)?? Maybe we should hand out former FLOTUS’s stuff on healthy eating and an apple. They’ll love that.
I was conflicted about the book. One the one hand it was amusing, particularly the parts that centered on Skeeter. On the other hand the book definitely set off my “Oh, c’mon!” radar. Seriously, women in the Jim Crow South who had little reason to trust a white woman who was friends with the women they work for were going to contribute to a book which would publicly ridicule their employers?! Way to invite a burning of your house or lynching of your husband.
I can see why Viola Davis would feel conflicted about being a part of this project.
@barrons you only need to feel bad if you gave them year-old candy your kids refused to eat.
I give candy to anyone who comes to my door at Halloween, I don’t ask if they are from my neighborhood or not. That’s not what Halloween is about in my book.
@mathmom, me too. I don’t look at that stuff when a child is trick-or-treating
at my door. I’m happy to give candy to any kids who come no matter their color or what neighborhood they come from.
“I guess our wealthy mostly white neighborhood in the South should feel bad about giving out candy to the 100s of generally poor black kids that come around on Halloween (by the bus full)??”
If you’ve already eaten and digested the candy, yes, you should feel bad.
I think you should be commended for giving candy to the 100’s of generally poor black kids who come to your neighbor hood to trick or treat since they aren’t likely to get such a nice assortment closer to home. I think there’s a huge difference between your action and that of the woman I mentioned, who pulled used shoes out of the trash to give to her maid’s daughter. Yours is kind and generous to children, hers was demeaning and patronizing.