12 YEARS A SLAVE AND COUNTING
Yes, I went to see the movie, 12 Years A Slave.
I will probably be the least popular person on earth right now but I hate to say this, I have seen this movie a thousand times before. And to be honest, I have liked others better, Django Unchained for example, because there was some redemption.
When I sat in that movie theater, I was hoping against hope that Steve McQueen, the director, had exercised full creative license in telling this story. I wanted him to focus on the Freed Slave and all that he had accomplished before delving into his capture into slavery. And then, I was hoping he’d come full circle and show us how this strong man rebuilt his life after experiencing the brutality of his capture. How he came to write the book, for example. I wanted that, maybe even needed that…to be taken full circle into the before and after life of Solomon Northup.
That was the story I wanted to see.
I know that story is not in the book but that’s where creative license comes in. Right? Can we re-imagine and right history?
To be frank, I’m so very tired of the slave story in the way that it is always told…broken, fearful, and valueless. I know for sure, that there were triumphant slave stories to be told. Those are the stories I am interested in…the heroic acts of people in bondage. The revolution being televised.
I’m not minimizing this horrific Holocaust of African Slaves but my God how can we tell the same story for 400 years…without asking why we are still here…still fighting…still winning…still forgiving…where did that indomitable spirit come from?…where is our Schindler’s list story….12 Years a Slave was not it.
I am ready to see the story of the Maroons defending themselves successfully against the British. The Peace treaty of understanding…come to the hills and you no longer exist…The Amistad revolt, the story of the ‘enough is enough’ position that so many slaves took, ready and willingly died for…the mother who jumped ship rather than bear a child into slavery…
Where is the story of their dignity and their nobility?
I want to see the story of slavery through the eyes of a conscious white man such as the one Brad Pitt played in the movie and I want to see the psychology and pathology of rabid white slave owners who believed the evil of slavery was their right. I want their madness and inhumanity expose like the flesh on the back of slaves.
I want to see the stories of the Warmth of Other Suns…I want to see the winners of this history both in black and white. I am not that interested in the story which has been told over and over again…I need a new angle…And who really lost? Everyone.
I think it is extremely important that we teach our history. It provides our off-springs the knowledge and appreciation of our collective stories and the fierce quest we raged for freedom. This is the history that must be taught: a story of strength and resilience rather than a pity story.
The survival history of people of color is a story that is as great as any story of the bible…David and Goliath, Sampson and Delilah, the Israelite’s quest for salvation and deliverance from persecution. We must teach our story in that way…the way that uplifts and motivates rather than one that creates shamefulness and distortion.
The truth is, and everyone knows it, there would be no modern world economy without slaves…and those slaves came in every shade of color, East Indians, Native Indians, Aboriginal Indians, Asians, Africans, Irish, Australians, English, French and Spanish.
I truly think that this is the perfect time for a conversation about all the co-creators of the world. A global conversation that allows all parties to face the true reality of how this world economy was created. A conversation that gives rise to new stories.
I know what Slavery was for Blacks in America and the world over…heinous and evil…and in America more evil than the world had ever seen… Isn’t it time to sit at the table of prosperity and simply ask for our share of the wealth we created plus interest….when are we going to make that story? When we do, I’ll be in the front row, center of the theater because that will be a story within a story and I’ll be interested.
