Is 'The Help' helping in stereotyping?

I can understand why the book is seen as aiding the stereotype of African Americans in the U.S.. The novel is centered around black domestic maids in Jackson, Mississippi who have to deal with horribly cruel employers and a harsh environment. I get that the author is white and that she writes in a southern dialect that some find offensive. However I don't see the novel as stereotypical as it is only telling it how it was. The author herself was raised by a black maid and wants to tell the story of how unfairly these women were treated. This is really how society treated the African American maids of the south and it was probably worse. The help actually had separate bathrooms in which they were required to use and were forced to return home in fear of violence from white extremists. Unlike Mammy in Gone with the Wind the African American women in The Help are strong and inspiring. The maids know that they are endangering themselves and their families by talking about the injustices done to them but decide that they must take a stand. They are brave women who leave their home and children in order to raise the children of their employers and provide for their family. The relationship between the children and the maids is like that of a mother and daughter or a mother and son and is appreciated by those children when they are old enough to realize who their true caretakers were. They are forever grateful of their maids who raised them and provided them with the affection they hadn't received from their parents. However when it comes time to hire a maid of their own they seem to conform to the mob mentality of society and refuse to treat these women with respect. They are the true cowards as they turn their backs on the women who raised them.