
As much as Americans like to believe we are a country accepting of all that is simply not true.  Ever since the age of slavery racism has been very present in our Country.  Slavery opened a window for white supremacists, a window which has been slightly ajar at times and totally open at others but it has yet to be closed.  Over the years racism has been expressed very differently throughout American history and many stories of racism have been told.  In wake of modern day racism many directors and authors have addressed this issue whether it had been in the past or is current day.  Two very popular representations of this are the moves The Help and The Blind Side.  Released only two years apart both of these movies went straight to the source of racism in two different time periods.  The Help is a story about the help, African American women who act as maids, during the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s.  The amount of racism in this time period was very high and was a constant presence throughout the film.  The Blind Side is based in the 2000s and is the story about Michael Oher, a modern day NFL star, who came from nothing and was taken in by the Tuohy family who then helped him become a national football star.  Even though this story is based in the 2000s racism is still alive and well during this time, it is just expressed in different ways.  In the films, The Help and The Blind Side the story of racism towards African Americans is told in two very different eras, yet in similar ways.  

Anyone who watches both of these films can notice the presence of the white person in the lives of both main characters.  Aibileen Clark is the focus of The Help as she is a maid to very racist white family.  Aibileen soon meets Skeeter Phelan who then writes about Aibileen’s experience as a maid and how racism has impacted her career.  Aibileen soon becomes the talk of the town and quickly becomes popular across America after the book is published.  Aibileen’s success, even though rare for that time, was due largely in part to a white person.  Without Skeeter Aibileen would have never been able to get about herself published, so instead a white person had to write about her.  This trend is continued in the blind side as Michael Oher would never had become a football player if it wasn’t for the Tuohy family.  Michael was an orphan, left behind by his drug addict mother, who attended the very white school of Wingate.  Michael was quickly taken in by the Tuohy family, whose kids also attended Wingate.  As the family took care of Michael they encourage him to go out for football which he quickly exceled at.   He was offered scholarship to numerous SEC schools for football and ended up going to Ole Miss, and soon after being drafted into the NFL.  Again we see that an African American would have never reached this point of success if it weren’t for a white person.  Even though these stories are set 40 years apart one can still see how similar American’s attitudes towards African Americans are to the point where success seems close to impossible without the help of a white person.  

Even though Michael and Aibileen owe their success to a white person this does not necessarily mean that they were dependent on them.  Aibileen was especially independent from the white person.  At first she was very skeptical of Skeeter and can be heard telling her that she doesn’t need a white person’s help.  Many of the women featured in The Help are very independent, empowered women.  It took a lot for these women to start forming relationships with white people, and they never really get to the point where they depend on them.  Aibileen would have been just fine without Skeeter’s help, however since she chooses to assist Skeeter in writing her book she benefited from it.  Michael on the other hand is a different story.  For a short time, he is very independent from Leigh Anne and her family but he very quickly became dependent on them.  Everything he received was due to them; his license, his car, his education, and even his NFL football career.  This is one of the differences that you would almost expect to be the opposite of what it is depicted as.  During the civil rights movement an African American really couldn’t get anywhere without the help of white person, you would expect that the women in the story would be more dependent on the white women who employ the but as mentioned, it is the opposite.  Even more so you would expect that in modern day African American’s would be very independent from a white person because they have overcome all of the discrimination which was present during the civil rights movement.  But, that is not the case as Michael is very dependent on the Tuohy family.  This idea of codependence vs. independence is really what sets these two stories apart, as the version of racism within the era determines whether the character was codependent or independent of their white counterpart. 

Discrimination usually spurs from racism and there are numerous moments of discrimination in both texts.  Since The Help was set in the 1960s discrimination was visibly present in everyday life.  From segregated bathrooms to segregated buses the 1960s was an era full of discrimination.  In the film on particular moment of discrimination is when Aibileen is forced to go to the bathroom in an outhouse instead of using the bathroom inside of the house where she worked.  This was one of the moments where Aibileen broke down because of discrimination.  In The Blind Side Michael also suffers from discrimination even though the civil rights movement has passed and it would seem as if discrimination should no longer be present.  During the movie Michael plays against a team whose fans are racist and the players are racist.  In a moment during the game Michael gets tackled and the play which brought him down kicks on the head and calls him racial slurs.  After this point the coach for Wingate asks the referee if he is going to call a foul and the racist referee proceeds to call a foul on the coach.  It is sad to believe that racism still exists in our world today, but it would be naïve to believe that it did not exist.  

Since racism is continually present in both of these texts it is safe to assume that the versions of racism would be similar yet different between the two. In the ways that it is different it is usually due to the change in time era.  The old ways of discrimination are exemplified in The Help while the newer versions of discrimination are exemplified in The Blind Side.  Through Aibileen and Michael we learn that the life of an African American really hasn’t changed much in America.  African Americans still face adversity even 40 years after the Civil Rights movement.  The one positive take away is that the intensity of racism has most definitely decreased during these 40 years.  Hopefully as more movies similar to these come out the amount of racism will continue this decreasing trend until there is none left.  