MovieChat Forums > 12 Years a Slave (2013) Discussion > I'm not White or American and this movie...

I'm not White or American and this movie made me really ashamed

posted 9 years ago by bobloblah
44 replies | jump to latest

I just finished watching this movie and it has wrecked me. Just the fact that even the decent slaveowner couldn't hear Solomon's truth and needed to tell himself that he saved his life. What don't we see? Why do we live with such complacency when so many terrible things are happening in the world?

The wife of the nice slaveowner comforted the mother by saying she would forget about her children....

This movie made me reflect, if I was in those times and subject to that society, would I have the courage to be an active abolitionist? Or would I consign myself and be a guy who goes along with a monstrous system with some *beep* notion of being a nice guy? I would like to tell myself I'd be an abolitionist but I'm not that sure...

Even though I'm indian and canadian, I'm still privileging from sweatshop labor, colonialism, racism, inequality, and all that other *beep* I feel closer to a slaveowner than I ever thought I'd imagine.

I loved this movie to death. The acting and direction were the best of any recent movie I've seen except maybe Birdman (although with much more substantive subject matter). Did anybody else feel this way? Do you feel any moral impetus upon experiencing his plight?

[–] 8 years ago

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[–] TheMadHattress 8 years ago

To be honest, there is no need to feel shame for something you did not do.

The point of this film is not to make people who had/have no part in slavery feel guilty or ashamed.

The point is to depict honestly a period in history and encourage us to reflect on why this happened? Could this happen again? I mean if you look at the world right now, we are all as humans doing pretty crappy things. Look at how we rape the natural world, look how many animals are on the verge of extinction, look at rape/sex trafficking/slavery statistics.

The truth is, the rights we all hold as humans we could lose any day. All it takes is a change in the law, in whose in charge and the rights we have fought hard for, whether it's the rights of workers, of women, of an ethnic group etc, are reversed, are gone.

Films like this remind us to fight for our freedoms and the freedoms of others. This isn't a film about shame or guilt but it is an awakening to collectively treat humans as HUMAN.

[–] 8 years ago

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[–] Mehki_Girl 8 years ago

This book was based on the person who wrote a book about his experiences. It is based on a true story. Some people who live in this country can't handle the truth.

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[–] Danny-Sichmeller 8 years ago

More white Americans should feel like you . They all say I didn't do it and just sweep it under the carpet like it never happened

[–] 8 years ago

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[–] rupert-ian 7 years ago

There's a huge difference between someone not feeling guilt over the possible actions of some of their ancestors, and acting like it never happened.

What good does guilt or shame do for anyone? You don't have to feel guilt to support the civil rights of all human beings.

My ancestors were raped of all of their possessions and land in Europe and forced to flee the country in order to survive, just because of their religious beliefs. Out of several hundred, only a handful survived the journey. I wouldn't expect a single person alive today to feel guilt or shame for that.

Stories like this movie do need to be told. Not to make people feel guilty or ashamed, but to educate them so that they are sure to never let it happen again.

If you go back far enough, most people would have someone in their family tree that did horrible things to oppress some other group of people. There are many dark days behind us in history, and what is important is not to keep pointing fingers and talking about shame and privilege, but to unite and unify people as PEOPLE.

Ignoring the past isn't the answer. Nor is denying it. But dividing people more and more sure isn't helping either.

[–] jackspicer (4) 5 years ago

It seems rather unhealthy to feel shame over something in which we had no part.

Also, in Solomon Northup's book of the same name, he never tells Master Ford that he was a free man who was kidnapped, and Madam Ford never tells the black mother that her children will soon be forgotten.

The two incidents you are most upset about were made up for the movie.