August 4, 2011, - 3:39 pm
“The Help”: Lib Author Rails Against Racism, Then Rips Off Black Maid; My Black Housekeeper
It’s never a surprise when White limousine liberals who lecture us about racism are, in fact, racists and users of Black people, themselves. Liberals are hypocrites.
Liberal Hypocrite Kathryn Stockett, Author of “The Help,” Ripped Off Her Black Maid
And so it goes with Kathryn Stockett, author of “The Help,” the best-selling novel, in which Stockett decries the way White Southerners allegedly treated Black maids in the ’60s. You’ve probably heard of the book and seen publicity for the movie, “The Help,” which debuts in theaters, next week. (I grew up with a Black maid, too, and it was nothing like this book. More about that, later, below.)
While Stockett made many appearances and gave many lectures against the “racism” and “poor treatment” of the Black maids, she ripped off the identity of her brother’s Black maid for her book, defamed her, and refused to compensate the maid for the use of her name and likeness out of the millions she made off the book.
Ablene Cooper, a Black woman who was Stockett’s brother’s maid, was used for the book, despite her express request that she not be included. She has since filed suit against Stockett in Hinds County, Mississippi. Read the lawsuit complaint. Rather than admit that she is a racist hypocrite who stole from this poor Black woman and settle the case by giving Ms. Cooper her due, Stockett and her lawyers are fighting the suit and seeking to have it dismissed. Read Ablene Cooper’s response to the motion to for summary judgment, as written by her terrific lawyer, Edward Lloyd Sanders. If you read the complaint and the response, you will see how very obvious it is that Kathryn Stockett is a thief, a fake, and–yes–a racist.
Cooper’s lawyer, Sanders, granted interviews with only three media sources: The New York Times, Ebony, and DebbieSchlussel.com. He declined to respond to ABC News and other similar mainstream media outlets.
To those of you who are not lawyers and may not know this, every person has an exclusive right to the use of his/her name, likeness, and/or image in commercial use. The law is very clear about that. And, yet, despite the law and despite Ablene Cooper’s express wishes not to be in the book, Kathryn Stockett, being the uppity White liberal do-gooder-against-racism that she is, did it anyway. And, again, she gave Ablene Cooper–who babysat her daughter–not a single penny from the millions she made from the book, movie deal, appearances, and countless other money-making opportunities she got from ripping off Ablene Cooper and defaming her in a book that lectures us against racism. If that isn’t hypocrisy, I don’t know what is. And I think it’s quite clear that the real racist here is: Kathryn Stockett. And she’s a fraud.
It’s funny. In the book, “The Help,” Skeeter–the character based on phony “anti-racism” crusader Stockett–gives a significant portion of her book advance to the Black maid named Aibileen (which is pronounced the same way Ablene pronounces hers). In real life, Stockett gave Ablene nothing as she continues to make money off of her.
In addition to having essentially the same name, the character in the book has a gold tooth, a son who has died, and employment as a maid for a White family in Jackson, Mississippi–all characteristics of Ablene Cooper. But, far worse than that, the book portrays the maid as being ashamed of being Black, comparing herself and her skin color to that of a cockroach, and discouraging the White children for whom she cared from drinking coffee because it might make then turn their skin black. All of this has dismayed Ms. Cooper, who is an older Black woman and didn’t want to be embarrassed this way or be in the book at all.
But Kathryn Stockett expressly refused Cooper’s request and right to privacy, and ripped off her name and destroyed her reputation. The movie is being heavily marketed to the Black community and to liberal White women, none of whom know the real story here about the dissing of Ablene Cooper. The New York Times even referred to “The Help” as a “history lesson.” PUH-LEEZE. Some real history is missing, like what Kathryn Stockett did.
Yes, none of the media hype for this book and next week’s movie includes even a mention of Ablene Cooper’s lawsuit. Watch this disgusting video interview by liberal fraud–and new ABC syndicated talk show hostess–Katie Couric. These chicks are liars.
I am told that, in the book, a Black maid takes revenge on the White woman who fired her by giving her a chocolate pie in the batter of which she defecated. You stay classy, Kathryn Stockett. (Hey, someone’s been taking racist cooking lessons from Jesse Jackson, who famously bragged about spitting into White people’s salads, when he was a waiter.)
Looks to me like the only woman who should be eating fecal material pie is Kathryn Stockett. Her book is full of it, apparently.
Remember how this racist author treated “The Help,” when you consider seeing the movie of the same name, next week.
***
When I grew up, we had a Black maid, and we treated her quite well. Her real name was Velma, but she preferred that we call her, “Wilma.” And so we did. But you’ll never see a novel or a Hollywood movie about our relationship with Wilma. It bucks the typical liberal narrative of the evil White people mistreating the saintly, magical Black maid.
My parents often picked up and dropped off Wilma at her Detroit home, rather than asking her to take the bus. When Wilma’s house in Northwest Detroit burned down, my father gave her the money to buy a new one, although he could never afford to buy us a new home. My father helped Wilma pay to put her kids through private school. And, although my father could never afford to retire, Wilma retired to Scottsdale, Arizona because my parents paid her well.
My parents were very generous with Wilma, feeding her, giving her expensive gifts at Christmas-time, providing her and her family with free medical care, and helping her out when she was in a financial bind. My paternal grandparents, for whom Wilma worked, treated her equally well. We never made her use a different bathroom from the ones we used, as they do in the fictional “The Help.” My father always told us to treat Wilma with the utmost respect, as he and my mother did. She was like a member of our family (whom we treated far better than we treated family).
Yes, our experience–and the experience of many American Whites who employed Black housekeepers–is nothing like the preachy, hypocritical view put forth in “The Help.” And that’s why you’ll never hear about it.
I make no apologies, just as my parents and grandparents did not, for the fact that we had a Black maid and gave her a job and an income. After Wilma retired, we had Russian and Polish maids who were White. No one wrote a book about that, either, because, hey, there’s no liberal racism narrative involved.
I’ll remember how generous we were to Wilma, and how our relationship was one of very generous employer and employee and even better.
Race had nothing to do with it.
Tags: Ablene Cooper, Edward Lloyd Sanders, Kathryn Stockett, The Help
Its amazing millionaires are so stingy with their money. I read in the tabloids that’s former California Governator Schwarzennegger won’t pay his wife alimony, child support or her lawyer’s bills. Unlike many divorced fathers, he certainly can afford to be generous, considering the dissolution of his 25 year old marriage was his fault. With some rich people, greed isn’t simply enough. Its showing those beneath them their place. And like the old true and trite saying has it, “charity begins at home.” That’s true regardless of whether you’re a best-selling author like Kathryn Stockett or a famous ex-Gov. Treating the people in your life badly is never a way to win other people’s sympathy or lasting respect.
NormanF on August 4, 2011 at 4:45 pm