Black Women as 'Domestic Workers' in Academia: Or on How We Became the Help

The fictional novel The Help by Kathryn Stockett (2009) brings to modern times a long standing issue among Black women—who can speak for the Black woman. Set in the South, this novel tells the story of how Black women were used in the modern Women's Movement—as it is a story of how Black women's voices were used for the liberation of the White protagonist. This novel can also be read as a story of the relationship between critical Black feminists and feminist studies in academia. Similarly to how the help rescued this White woman from the norms of middle-class life in the South, so too has critical Black feminist thought—specifically intersectionality—rescued some mainstream feminist research. Using articles published in mainstream political science journals, I explore how Black women are treated as research subjects and also how their knowledge production is used in the development of research. The analysis argues that Black women’s voices are being used by mainstream gender scholars in manner that is very similar to how Black women were used in the fictional story.