Jeanine Cummins thought she had snagged the Golden Ticket, a la Charlie Bucket of "Willy Wonka" fame.
Cummins wrote 2020's "American Dirt," an immigration novel that earned raves from Stephen King and Oprah "Book Club" Winfrey.
What happened next? The woke mob targeted her to the point where she feared for her life. Why? Cummins was (mostly) white, allegedly committed cultural appropriation sins and trafficked in stereotypes.
She became the literary face of Cancel Culture. And Kathryn Stockett knows how Cummins feels.
Stockett wrote 2009's "The Help," the popular book made into a blockbuster film starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Emma Stone and Octavia Spencer (who earned an Oscar for her performance). The 2011 drama earned a stunning $169 million stateside.
The film's success eventually gave way to guilt and apologies. Co-star Viola Davis later regretted appearing in the film.
“I just felt that at the end of the day that it wasn’t the voices of the maids that were heard. I know Aibileen. I know Minny [Octavia Spencer]. They’re my grandma. They’re my mom. And I know that if you do a movie where the whole premise is, I want to know what it feels like to work for white people and to bring up children in 1963, I want to hear how you really feel about it. I never heard that in the course of the movie.”
Howard also retroactively trashed the film in the wake of the George Floyd Summer of Love riots. Why revisit the film? It was trending on Netflix, and that was a bridge too far.
'The Help’ is a fictional story told through the perspective of a white character and was created by predominantly white storytellers. We can all go further.
That cultural reaction wasn't lost on Stockett.
Winfrey recently quizzed the author about her new novel, "The Calamity Club," and suggested she stick to writing white characters.
Now, imagine if anyone said something similar to a black author.
Stockett, fearing another woke blowback, said she tried to follow that unwritten advice. Capturing Mississippi life wouldn't allow it, due to its cultural melting pot.
And, yes, she's worried she'll face another round of woke finger-wagging. Assuming it starts and stops with that.
Stockett's comments feel filtered through a hard-Left lens. She refers to the "White Gaze" - telling stories from a white character's perspect. But if she's white, isn't that what she's being told to do? Later in the chat, she alludes to Orange Man Bad just to keep her critics at bay.
I'll probably get in some trouble for this one, a fate I'm drawn to ... Above all, the story embraces a woman's right to determine her own fate, which feels increasingly relevant these days.
None of her woke tap dancing will keep the mob at bay if it deems her newest novel problematic. You can never be woke enough, and the more one apologies, the more the mob advances.
She should have learned that the first time around.
Still, The New York Times' review suggests she's been sufficiently schooled. The new story's voice is exclusive to major white characters, and the far-Left outlet suggests the author's "Help" was correctly attacked.
Every time we think the Woke Mind Virus has run its course, the Left proves they still want it alive, well and able to punish those who don't agree with its restrictive worldview.
