Twelve Years A Slave - A National Wake Up Call

Down through history there have been many movies that have had significant social impact. Then there have been an elite few that have had an even greater impact. For example, Gone With the Wind certainly belongs on this shorter list; although it's harder to develop criteria with which to evaluate others. There's an intensity and eternal truth in the burning of Atlanta scene that transcends time and represents the horrors of every war. Of course, Gone With the Wind alone cannot show us the complete depth and width of the horrific Civil War. For example, my school history books never mentioned the horrific scene of hundreds of bodies laying for days in the hot sun at Gettysburg; the need for mass graves and battlefield amputations without anesthetic. I'm not trying to bring everyone down here. But it's not just a cliche that we are destined to relive what history we do not know or remember.

Now a wide range of discussions have sprung up around Twelve Years a Slave. I suspect many adults can articulate the atrocities of the our period of slavery. However, perhaps we have chosen to see ourselves apart from the very worst of this period of our history and it's long-reaching effects. From living in TN and KY for a total of ten years, I came to realize that the Civil War was not as much an "ancient" event for the white and black people who lived in the South. While both sides saw their share of sorrow, the South took the greatest hits perhaps: in terms of structural loss, battle scenes and largely the loss of the only way of life many of them had ever known.

But in more specific ways, Twelve Years a Slave has retaught us just how brutal slavery really was on a regular basis. While we might want to cling to the stories of "good" masters and mistresses that no doubt existed as a minority, the raw, breathtaking truth is revealed. The institution was based on keeping a race of human beings under control, enslaved by brute force - the constant threat of serious injury and instant death. Unfortunately, to achieve this level of control by brute force many white slave owners fell prey to the very worst aspects of their nature and this had to eat away at them in sad ways. Maybe some owners hired men to handle this horrendous aspects to shield themselves?

I hope I will always remember spending a record hot day in downtown Charleston, SC. We went through the old, brick open-air slave auction quarters. At the time it was a flea market. Now I hope it is a teaching museum of some sort? Anyway, it was so crowded and hot and humid I finally had to duck into a little fast food place for AC and a cold drink. I felt like I couldn't move or breath any longer in the crushing crowd and saturated, super-heated air: almost in panic. But my rotten feelings at that point must pale in comparison to the feelings of my fellow human beings who once stood in that area and watched their families, their loved ones, split up and sold like animals in a most inhumane atmosphere. 

Without comparing numbers head to head, I wonder if some of the citizens of our country and others did not unwittingly, slowly but surely perpetrate a kind of pre-Black Holocaust? How many of those Africans went on to live in tortuous conditions and see their families die in bondage as their fate also seemed emphatically sealed. And, not unlike the Holocaust, how many lived their lives never knowing what eventually happened to their loved ones after their fateful day at a slave market?

I don't want to beat a dead horse here! However, I do still believe in many kinds of Affirmative Action. What was done over hundreds of years to black individuals and families during slavery, when coupled with the lack of civil-rights for a hundred more years after official slavery, has not yet been repaired. While current whites like myself might say we didn''t have anything to do with enslavement and little with discrimination, we still benefit in general from what sociologists refer to as "White Privilege."  There may be other things going against us, but defacto, when we walk into the majority of situations we are subtly afforded privileges that many times people of color are not. I believe this is getting better and is certainly not all inclusive of our country. However, it and other subtle forms of racism are still alive and well and much too evil and strong to ignore. Obviously, as always, I don't have all the answers here. But let me say in conclusion that I strongly believe that all of us in the majority have a special responsibility to all minorities to continue to work for their equality.