Watching 12 Years A Slave + my thoughts on it - Writing Wednesday
Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post,
I've never seen 12 Years A Slave before but after stumbling across it on one of the channels, me, my mum, and my sister decided to watch it. My mum had watched it before and said it was quite violent and difficult to watch but since it had so much to do with what happened in recent events, we decided to try it out. If you would truly like to educate yourself on black history, I would suggest paying close attention to this film and not necessarily some of the most recent documentaries because 12 Years A Slave, whilst it was created quite recently, was very authentic to the time it was set in and you actually got a better feel of why people are so angry and annoyed at the violent black racism that still exists today.
The film is based on a true story about a free African-American man called Solomon Northup, who accepts work by Brown and Hamilton, after being promised a fortnightly job by them. It begins with Solomon having a drink with Brown and Hamilton at a restaurant so that they can talk about his new job. However, from a drunken daze, Solomon wakes up in a prison cell in Washington D.C. and realises he's been abducted to the south where he is forced to work as a slave. This was set in about 1853 America, where slavery had been abolished in many parts of the north but had yet to be abolished in the more old-fashioned south, hence Solomon's kidnapping to the south, where he is no longer a freeman. From here, Solomon's name was changed to Platt as he entered the world of the slave trade and was sold to a couple different households in Louisiana. The story continues with him working as a planter in the fields.
There's a lot that I've learnt through watching this film that I didn't know before but the most important thing I've learnt is my understanding of what racism could feel like. Whilst I do believe that nowadays, some black people often victimise themselves and use their black history to make other people feel sympathetic towards them, if I put myself in a black person's shoes and I watched a film like 12 Years A Slave, I don't think I would be able to watch it all the way to the end. I'm sure this would be exactly the same if I was Jewish and I watched a film about the Nazi persecution of Jewish people. I don't think I would be able to watch it all the way to the end. This is probably not because black or Jewish people nowadays have been through the exact same form of abuse that was performed in the 1800s or early 1900s. Whilst a couple cases for black people may still be similar, I don't think I've seen many people being tied to a tree and beaten with a whip or kicked and punched continuously as punishment, like many of the white people performed in 12 Years A Slave. I still believe that black people in America and perhaps in the UK, have a lot more security than they did have in the past. However, as a black individual, you would probably feel something more to these sorts of films because it's easier to put yourself in their shoes. It is easier to think that had I been born during that time period, something like that could have happened to me.
I think that this is what makes this film so powerful because me, my mum, and my sister all felt the same way; we could put ourselves in a black person's shoes and understand what they felt and still feel today. I don't think I'll ever believe that George Floyd was completely innocent and I feel like he had a past of extreme criminality that isn't really shown. However, the police brutality against him was just as incriminating for the police officer and I understand why black people are empathetic to Floyd's situation because they know how it feels. All the white people who are showing their sympathy for the situation, are probably doing the wrong thing because feeling sorry for someone like George Floyd is not strong enough. We must take the time out of our day to watch films like 12 Years A Slave so that we can truly understand what racism felt like then and what it can feel like now so that we are empathetic instead of sympathetic.
I don't think I'll ever understand completely understand what it feels like to have 12 years of my life of not being able to see my family and my friends, taken away because of slavery, like in Solomon Northup's case. However, the small bit of empathy that I feel after watching this film at least means that when someone is racially abused, I will try and stand up for them.
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I hope you found this post interesting and informative. Read my post about my views on Black Lives Matter and Blackout Tuesday, here.
Have you watched 12 Years A Slave before? Have you got any other great films on black history? Let me know in the comments below and I'll be sure to reply to them. I ♡ hearing from you!
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Bye,
XOX, Juliette
P.S. I'll be going on holiday to the Isle of Wight as of Friday. We wanted to spend a week away from home to relax but didn't want to go too far because of the situation so the Isle of Wight seemed like the best place to go. I won't be publishing posts at my usual times but I might update you on what I did on holiday, during the week. You can also find out more about what I did on holiday, on my Instagram and Facebook so be sure to follow me on those socials to find out more!
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I am an older white woman from Alabama, and in my entire life I have never heard anyone say that slavery was a good thing. I believe every thinking human knows no one should ever be owned. Sadly, slavery has existed from the beginning of recorded history and continues even today, though it is not so much a legal sale of individuals as it is an illegal control of them. Human trafficking is alive and well all over the globe in many forms.
ReplyDeleteSo true. Human trafficking was something I wanted to mention before and I'm so glad you've brought it up now. It is good to inform ourselves of the slave trade that existed in the past, but is also just as important to use that knowledge to ensure that we are a fighting force against modern slavery as well. It is easy to forget this but it's important that we understand that slavery comes in many forms and has existed for centuries.
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