In the book, The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, the main issues pertain to discrimination towards African Americans (racism).

            The Help is about a black maid in 1962 in Jackson, Mississippi. Like most of the other African Americans in the story, the main character, Aibileen Clark is discriminated against by white people and is treated unfairly. The Caucasians feel that they are superior to the African Americans and that there needs to be more segregation between blacks and whites.

            There are many examples of discrimination in this text, however, one of them that really stood out to me so far is when the woman that Clark works for was being pressured by her friends (right in front of Aibileen) to get a colored bathroom for Clark in her home because they felt that it was unsafe and didn’t want to have to share the same bathroom as the black maid. In the text it says, “ ‘All these houses they’re building without maid quarters? It’s just plain dangerous. Everybody knows that they [African Americans] carry different kinds of diseases than we do. ‘ “ Aiblieen was being disrespected by them and was being discriminated against because of the color of her skin.

            Being African American myself, I think that we’ve come a really long way with these issues. In certain countries, there may still be discrimination towards certain people because of their race, physical attributes, sexual orientation, etc. , however I think that the people in this world have made a lot of progress when it comes to discrimination and that people are excepting that not everyone has to be the same.