Introduction:
The Help and No Sugar both represent the same ideas of racism and inequality in a society with the mistreatment of African-American and Aboriginal people from white people. No Sugar is a play written by Jack Davis and is about the Millimurra family’s stand against government ‘protection’ in Australia during the 1930’s. This play portrays the inequality between aboriginals and white Australians. Davis displays inequality and racism through language conventions such as emotive language, figurative language and imagery. The Help is a film directed by Taite Taylor and is about a young writer, Skeeter, who interviews African-American women who have …show more content…
Taylor displays racism through language features and camera features in the film The Help. This film represents the racist viewpoints of the majority of white Americans living in Jackson in the 1960’s. The frustration against racism is shown through the viewpoints of the African-American maids. Abilene, an African-American maid looks after the prominent white families children. She reacts to the young children she once raised who have now become just like their parents – racist and discriminative. “I want to yell so loud that baby girl can hear me that dirty ain’t a colour, disease ain’t the Negro side of town. I want to stop that moment from coming – and it came in every white child’s life – when they start to think that coloured folks are not as good as whites.” This quote shows that racism is something that is taught not something that comes naturally. It also shows that they are taught that the African-American people are inferior to white people. Davis shows how the ration system is designed to control and humiliate Indigenous Australians, in the play No Sugar. “I’m afraid that soap is no longer included as a ration item.” The ration system reflects the patronising attitude of the government; the government relies on the ration system to justify their heavy-handed policies and systems of control. The idea that indigenous people do not need the same ‘necessities’ as whites reflects the …show more content…
In The Help, this idea is shown when the African-Americans are forced to have a separate bathroom because they are accused of having different diseases to the white people. “A disease-preventative bill that requires every white home to have a separate bathroom for the coloured help.” This shows how the white people think the African-Americans are uncivilised and must be isolated from white facilities. This represents the way that white people think African-Americans are an uncivilised race. In the text No Sugar, white people treat Aborigines as ‘animals’ and they’re legally seen as animals. The Aboriginals have a government department that discriminates them as non-human. “Miss Dunn enters an office with a sign displayed, reading ‘Government of Western Australia, fisheries, forestry, wildlife and Aborigines’.” Davis represents this idea of an uncivilised race through the use of imagery, painting a picture in reader’s minds of how Aboriginals are treated as an uncivilised race. Both The Help and No Sugar represent the idea that white people think that African-Americans and Aboriginals are an uncivilised