The Help and Hidden Figures

After I had watched the movies and based on the observation I made, the same core values that these two movies share are about racial segregation. In United States history, segregation maintained of African Americans from whites. Racial segregation is the systemic separation of people into racial in daily life. On the other hand, we should be brave with the necessity of courage in fighting injustice. First of all, the movie “The Help” is telling about the black women were hired by white women. Their jobs were cooking meals, raising the children, cleaning while the white women were filled with playing cards, gossip, and charity work. Moreover, the black women also had to endure bullying and discriminating by their employers. For examples, they had to use a special designated bathroom, no matter how inconvenient and use their own tableware. Until a recent graduate of the University of Mississippi and aspiring writer called Skeeter, she and the other maids were written a book about the collaborative project between Skeeter and the struggling, exploited “colored” help. Before the maids had agreed with that, Skeeter was struggled to communicate with them and tried to gain their trust because it was dangerously of writing about African Americans speaking out in the South during the early 1960s hover. Afterward, Aibileen( Elizabeth’s maid ) agreed to share her stories and experiences with Skeeter. In succession, more and more maids wanted to join and speak out their voices of resentful with the white women.

On the other hand, the movie of “Hidden Figures” is telling about the black woman who was a genius at math and very sensitive to numbers called Katherine Johnson and her two friends, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson. Three of them were worked in NASA alongside at West Computing in Langley where this place was all black women. And all the black women who worked in NASA were faced segregated, they were had to eat separated with the white people which table marked “colored computers” and only allowed to use the colored toilet. Suddenly, there was an attempt to beat Russia to the moon, NASA had to find for the nation’s best mathematicians and they had found Katherine. While facing segregated, Katherine insupportable about the white men who did those actions to her because Katherine was black and a woman. So, she stood up to talk about the problems. I think that it is important for each individual to possess these core values because intelligence is colorless and genderless. No matter what color skin we’re or what gender we’re, we should be treated fairly. Don't cause you are afraid of those moments and let your next generations to be in the same situation with you. In particular, wealth is not just financial, it’s in the loved ones you have cherish, your emotional comfort and your level of happiness; to assume a hierarchical position in the world as you see it, for whatever reason ( race/age/gender, etc ), and putting yourself above or below your contemporaries is wrong on so many levels. Also, no one is completely perfect, or indeed completely happy.

An outstretched hand can make a world of difference. For instance, Rosa Parks was an elderly black woman who spontaneously kick-started the modern African American civil rights movement. It started from December 1955, when Parks was arrested for civil disobedience as she had rejected to give up her seat to a white passenger on the bus in the racially segregated town of Montgomery, Alabama. Therefore, her defiance sparked the push for racial equality. And another person called Malcolm X, he was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist. He also was a popular figure during the civil rights movement and best known for his controversial advocacy for the rights of blacks. Hence, if I were Skeeter in the movie “The Help”, I wanted to be a writer especially to be a part of a journalist but so far I was just having a small job of compiling the household hints column for the local newspaper. And I wanted to make something bigger so I will try my best to strive for every opportunity and show my abilities for those people who despise me. Believe myself that I could do it even though I was rejected by the maids many times. Also the problem was I couldn’t have any easy access to the women house; in fact, I could get into trouble just going to Aibileen’s house. But I had to do it because it can let more people be concerned about this topic and changed their old ideology. Let the others know that black people are also human, they weren’t born to serve white people and everyone is same.

Furthermore, if I were Katherine Johnson in the movie “Hidden Figures” since I worked as the mathematician who made significant contributions to several of NASA’s aeronautics and space programs around with all the white men, I had been segregation and discrimination by them. For examples, I had been provided by a “colored” coffee pot which they did not fill with any coffee and I had to forth to the only “colored” restroom where on the entire NASA campus because I was only able to use designated bathroom even though outside rained heavily I had to run there. In addition, I also faced discrimination as a woman in a scientific field because even the reports were written by myself but I couldn’t see my name and I couldn’t invite any meetings just because I was a woman. Therefore, I had to prove and train myself to remove the imaginary perception barriers and see me as capable of succeeding in any job. I should adhere to mine ideals or stand because I had the abilities to do the job than other people. I might use capabilities to speak with them and fight for my own welfare.

References:

Robert Cook,2015. The Conversation. Available at: Michael McKinney,2019.Leading Blog.Available at: Written collaboratively,2019.Wikipedia.

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