I’m a grown man; too old to be easily moved. In two minutes and thirty seconds, that trailer sent chills down my spine. I didn’t cry, but I can’t make any guarantees about what’s going to happen in the theater.
I’ve been waiting for this since Daughters of the Dust. A tale about Black folk that isn’t well trodden and beat down. Most movies that depict slavery or Jim Crow seem to grow out of those two paragraphs that slavery gets in the typical High School history book. Slavery is so much bigger and more complicated than that. It goes to the brutality of capitalism and sheds light on the psychology of mass religion and man made bias. It’s no shock that our country is becoming a more brutal and heartless place, when we never atoned for the sins upon which this republic was built.

I heard some folks walked out of the movie during a Toronto film festival. It was too much for them.

It reminds me of when a friend tried to get me to see The Passion of the Christ. He told me that if I saw how Jesus suffered, I would want to join him in Church. I told him that I didn’t have to look back 2000 years to find great suffering. The slaves had suffered mightily in this country, just two or three generations ago, without so much as a “My bad…” from the people who had perpetrated those crimes against humanity. Slavery was harsh. If suffering is the greatest criteria for deciding who to worship, I’ll set up an ancestor shrine.

I’ll see the Passion of the Christ after he sees 12 Years a Slave. Hear that Jack?

The Butler. Don’t like it. I don’t even like the idea of it. So I didn’t see it.
If those words confuse you then read my anti-Butler manifesto, in which I acknowledge that it is probably pretty good, and then call it “shuffle porn”.
Then there’s Ask a Slave. A web series that uses humor to address racism and ignorance. It was made by a woman who was historical actress at Mount Vernon – you know, where George Washington lived.

Finally, check out Panhandling for Reparations for a glimpse at how reluctant people are to look at the legacy of slavery in this country. Shout out to Damali Ayo.