of racism. The whites where in control of the segregation and decided the rules of segregation in turn ruining the lifes of many black americans.
According to Williams and Jackson 2005, the residential concentration of African Americans leads to inequalities in neighborhoods, socioeconomic status and quality of
medical care. The previous racial segregation in residential areas has maintained its prevalence, even through the twenty first century. It is a vicious cycle, as those who live in
impoverished areas have less access to quality schools, are less likely to graduate and obtain well
- paying jobs and therefore remain in poverty and in the same racially segregated
residential areas. And as stated before, lower income is positivity related to poor and lower standard healthcare Williams, 1999. This institutionalized racism and racial segregation
within income levels has an indirect effect on healthcare and health outcomes of minority races.
The impacts of segregation blacks are segregation forced blacks into separate areas of the city. They were denied access to library, school and public transportation, segregation
results in neighborhoods with high poverty, lower home values and poor job opportunities. High-poverty neighborhoods also have greater exposure to pollution and violent crime. The
novel shows that communities with high proportions of racial and ethnic minorities also have less access to doctors.
4.2.1 The Impact of Segregation in Housing
The impact of segregation happened in housing. Many people of color have a little chance to choose where they live and pay higher rents for less adequate housing.
I LIVE ON GESSUM AVENUE, where I been renting since 1942. You could say Gessum got a lot a personality. The houses all be small, but every front yard’s
different—some scrubby and grassless like a baldheaded old man. Others got azalea bushes and roses and thick green grass. My yard, I reckon it be somewhere in between.
Stockett, 2009: 16
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The quotation above shows that Aibileen lives in a rent and small house. In Kathryn Stockett’ The Help, the black people are identical as the members of the lower class who are
in critical poverty, and the white is identical with the upper class who are in the top of richness. This two race difference in economy is the indication of the discrimination
happened. Although in the reality, it is known that not all of the black people are the members of the lower class, but the society still segregated them.
Aibileen is one of the black who became the member of upper class and who also in this poor condition. This fact is explained in the following quotation:
That evening, it’s raining hard outside. I pull out a jar a Ida Peek’s cabbage and tomato, eat my last slice a leftover cornbread. Then I set down to look over my
finances cause two things done happen: the bus gone up to fifteen cents a ride and my rent gone up to twenty-nine dollars a month. I work for Miss Leefolt eight to
four, six days a week except Saturdays. I get paid forty-three dollars ever Friday, which come to 172 a month. That means after I pay the light bill, the water bill,
the gas bill, and the telephone bill, I got thirteen dollars and fifty cents a week left for my groceries, my clothes, getting my hair done, and tithing to the church. Not
to mention the cost to mail these bills done gone up to a nickel. And my work shoes is so thin, they look like they starving to death. New pair cost seven dollars
though, which means I’m on be eating cabbage and tomato till I turn into Br’er Rabbit. Thank the Lord for Ida Peek, else I be eating nothing.
Stockett, 2009: 16
From this quotation, it shows black women in that novel is not enough money to pay rent. If they had a job they only made enough money to barely pay the rent and enough food
to live on. One of the main constraints on having money for food is having money to pay the rent. In Jakson, Mississippi, most of the rural working classes do not own their own homes.
The South side of the city is over populated with many blacks. They alike are forced to live in miserable circumstances without proper living conditions or enough food. This situation,
known as poverty. They are monopolized on their rent and are not able to advance themselves, just try to survive.
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There is a limit that makes the black cannot live together with the white. The impact of segregation also happened with Aibeleen that she can not use the white people bathroom,
even at home they have to live separately.
She smiling big now. She dont have no teeth showing, just a lip smile, kind you got to watch. “ Mister Leefolt and I have decided to build you your very
own bathroom.” She clap her hands together, drop her chin at me. It’s right out there in the garage.”
Stockett, 2009: 29
The quotation above is the impact segregation that are presented to the reader is the whole incident of Aibileen having to use a special outside restroom built just for black
people. As president of Jackson’s Junior League, Hilly makes it her mission to see that every
white home in Jackson has a separate toilet outside of the home for the housemaids. She calls this mission the “Home Help Sanitation Initiative”. Hilly writes the following advertisement
for Skeeter to publish in the Junior League newsletter:
Hilly Holbrook introduces the Home Help Sanitation Initiative. A disease preventative measure…
Ladies, did you know that: 99 of all colored diseases are carried in the urine
Whites can become permanently disabled by nearly all of these diseases because we lack immunities coloreds carry in their darker pigmentation
Some germs carried by whites can also be harmful to coloreds too Protect yourself. Protect your children. Protect your help.
From the Holbrooks, we say, You’re welcome Stockett, 2009: 158
Hilly’s ideology of racial segregation plays a productive role in her initiative, and it is endurance depends upon the ability to establish and fortify clear physical and mental
boundaries that separate racialized bodies.
The novel shows that segregation doesnt just mean that black and white people must live apart. It means that they can only interact in certain situations mostly in which black people
are serving white people in some capacity and there are strict rules and norms about how they can act toward each other. If they break the rules it could result in violence.
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Louvenia is my fifth interview. She is Lou Anne Templeton’s maid and I recognize her from serving me at bridge club. Louvenia tells me how her
grandson, Robert, was blinded earlier this year by a white man, because he used a white bathroom.
Stockett, 2009: 257
The quotation above describes that Robert is blind because he uses a white bathroom. The novel shows all the white think that the black are dirty who can spread many kinds of disease.
The diases are caused by the black people. This problem makes white people get worried about their healthy. Because of this difference, the prejudice comes and makes the people
build the space which separates the white and the black.
4.2.2 The Impact of Segregation in Education
