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 10 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?

[–] raymondoz2007 (2098) 2 years ago

Africans took hundreds of thousands europens as slaes.

[–] TearofLys (2656) a year ago

This movie is fiction. Slavery has been around as long as there has been humans. If you really want your hair blown back, read about the Islamic slave trade, which existed centuries before the western slave trade. Sub-saharan males that were tasked with serving high ranking Islamic women had their twig and berries cut off, and most didn't survive that. The rest had to spend the rest of their lives as eunuchs, getting beaten for every little mistake they made. Learn about world history. Do that, and the modern world will make so much more sense to you.

[–] Kendricks (2239) a year ago

Also don't forget who sold African slaves... other Africans. But no one wants to talk about that, wonder why! xD

[–] PaladinNJ (21525) a year ago

There is no reason to feel shame. The people responsible are long dead. Even their grandchildren are now dead.