A film by Tate Taylor, The Help (2009) focuses on extreme racist stereotypes and thus supports racial thinking. Black people in this film are largely represented as ordinary maids or domestic slaves, but more specifically as oppressed, unfortunate, poor and products of poverty through the use of racist stereotypes and juxtaposition with the life of affluent white people in the American South. juxtaposition that immortalizes the racial divide between whites and blacks. The actions of the black characters support the cultural stereotypes that are pervasive throughout this film. A stereotype is a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of ​​a particular type of person or thing (Iftkar, 2013). Black people are stereotyped as loud, ultra religious, uneducated, gullible, thieves, impure and sick, irrational, and fried chicken lovers. A scene of a loud, boisterous, singing Southern Baptist church service, a church filled with dancing and worship of black characters lends itself to the idea that these characters are ultra religious. This scene also lends itself to illustrating another cultural stereotype. Historically, black people have been stereotyped as constantly ready to break out into song or dance. This stereotype was based on the creation of minstrel shows in the early 1900s and the notion of the "Stage Negro" stereotype. Among other characteristics, this stereotype presents black people as musicians with “natural rhythm.” The same church scene in which the entire all-black congregation sings and dances with emotion and without inhibitions accurately illustrates the belief behind the stereotype. These same characters are portrayed as uneducated because of their use of slang and inappropriate English. Middle of paper This was obviously not the subject of the film. The stereotypes, scripts, and portrayals of the characters demonstrated the racial division between blacks and whites. Although not overtly racist, these protests encouraged racism and endorsed racial thinking through racist thinking. References Iftkhar, S. (2013, September). Narrative. COMM 101. Lecture given at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Iftkhar, S. (November 2013). Race. COMM 101. Lecture given at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Iftkhar, S. (October 2013). Representation. COMM 101. Lecture given at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Iftkhar, S. (September 2013). Semiotic. COMM 101. Lecture given at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Iftkhar, S. (November 2013). Women. COMM 101. Lecture given at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.