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Jackson to allow for such a thing to happen. Minny is just the help, so it doesn't matter if losing
her job and being kept from a new one causes problems at home. Again, we go back to the
harmful nature of flat and stereotypical images of Black women. Defiant women, like Minny, are
punished by society because they do not uphold the mammy narrative, which, according to
Jeanie Weekes Schroer, "...the Mammy...sacrifices her own interests and those of her kindred to
serve an Other who oppresses her." and that is something that Minny could no longer do. Yet,
her pain and trauma are again erased. There is only one other instance where what she goes
through is brought into focus, and then it is done by her new white employer, Celia, and not her.
Minny remains mute on her private life, which feeds right back into the narrative of the mammy
and how their private lives were mysteries and withheld from their white employers.

Aside from the erasure of these women's trauma, we witness how their voices are taken
and drowned out by that of Skeeter, who plays the role of the white savior archetype. Valerie
Smith points out that, "...the black characters are used to humanize the liberal whites and to
frame racial inequality in the context of personal relationships rather than systemic injustice."
(31), and we see this clearly as the revelation about Constantine's departure is brought to light.
Skeeter calls the chapter on Constantine 'her story' during a conversation with Aibileen and
Minny as they gaze on at the nearly finished manuscript for the book and ask what is left to add.
Constantine is used to humanize Skeeter, and show that she isn't like the other white women of
Jackson, that she is a "good" white person. Any feelings Constantine might have had about the
way she was fired and how her daughter was treated by Skeeter's mother are subverted as she's
only shown grieving over being taken away from Skeeter. That focus on the relationship between
a black maid and the white child she took care of further reinforces the mammy narrative in this