Watching 12 Years a Slave is difficult for two reasons: it depicts human cruelty, brutality, and insensitivity, and it is a true story. The last time I left a movie theater suffering anywhere close to what I felt last night (i.e., anger, fear, shame, guilt, and hope) was when I watched Schindlers List and Hotel Rwanda. You may disagree, but I am not being cynical in observing that, although we spend much of our time engaging in evil, we do not like to see ourselves actually participating in it. We resent it when someone holds up the mirror of truth wherein we see our whole self-reflection, including our dark and ugly side. Nevertheless, I left the theater with a residual of mixed emotions that I tempered with some facts. I reflected on the fact that, when it came to the establishment and maintenance of the institution of slavery, all whites were not guilty and all blacks were not innocent. The reason I think that all Americas generations (Boomers, Xers, and Ys) should suffer through 12 Years a Slave is that I want us to conquer racism, and to do so we must come to terms with slavery: Racism is the legacy of slavery. As a student of American history and in every sense a product of it, I trace the roots of racism directly to slavery. My research shows me that racism arose to justify slavery. That is, even though there were African Americans living in America, there was no racism in the Early period of U.S. society, no discrimination against them, until the widespread importation of African slaves. As the wealth from the exploitation of slaves grew, planters were inspired to import more slaves. As the numbers of slaves increased so did the wealth. With great wealth and frequently outnumbered, planters realized a need to control the slaves and justify the subordination of slaves in an emerging democratic and free society, one wherein All men are created equal. Out of this confluence of conflicting interests - economic exploitation, social control and subordination, and professed human equality - racism was born: Although All men are created equal, blacks are not men and thus not equal to whites. The narrative of racism is based on various versions of naturally occurring, i.e., divinely ordained, inferior-superior human species: Blacks are inherently inferior and whites are inherently superior. This narrative not only explained slavery but justified the obvious social inequality between blacks and whites, establishing a hierarchical social order that places whites at the top and blacks at the bottom, the system wherein, still today, whites enjoy greater access to social resources than blacks. Institutionalized in U.S. society, this order can be seen in education, business, military, politics, law enforcement, sports, and other such organizations: whites at the top, blacks at the bottom. This order is so prevalent, that the colorblind generations perceive it as normal if not natural. The upshot is that, while slavery died, racism lives on. Indeed, it recently morphed into its colorblind form that we see today. The narrative of colorblind racism runs like so: Black males are not being targeted and profiled by law enforcement because they are black. They are more likely to be arrested, convicted, and placed under judicial control than white males who commit similar crimes because they commit more crime than white males. In education the narrative is that whites score higher on standardized entrance exams and thus obtain admission to colleges at greater rates than blacks, not because they enjoy advantages that blacks do not but because they are smarter. Ideally, I want our generations to understand that racism in U.S. society is the legacy of slavery. This understanding is the beginning of freeing oneself from the grips of racism, including being tempted to deny that racism continues to plague U.S. society and even worse to ignore it. If we do nothing or adopt the popular colorblind perspective, racism continues. Watching 12 Years a Slave is difficult, but not nearly as difficult as living in a society that not only denies that racism is a problem but also encourages its beneficiaries to blame the disadvantages that the racism sustains on those most harmed by it.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 16:28:11 +0000
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