Analysis Of Racism In The Film 12 Years A Slave

The portrayal of difficult topics such as slavery can either cause a movie public backlash or lasting critical praise. This reigns true for 12 Years a Slave, a 2013 Academy Award winning movie directed by Steve McQueen depicting the real life events of Solomon Northup, a man who was born free but is kidnapped and sold into slavery. This film was well received for its unforgiving depiction of slavery and for its message of anti-racism and racial struggle. Despite these accolades, many people believe that the film inadvertently hinders race progress as it is more visible than films about racism today, thus allowing people to believe that race issues are no longer prevalent in America. This phenomenon has been studied and captured by many academics, including Miriam Thaggert in her scholarly review “12 Years a Slave: Jasper’s Look.”

Interestingly, this has the problem of associating racism with the past and not continuing it into present day, as it is. One visible supporter of this theory is renowned actor Samuel L. Jackson, who in an interview published by the Hartford Examiner states that 12 Years a Slave may hinder civil rights movements. Jackson proclaims, “America is much more willing to acknowledge what happened in the past. … But to say, ‘We are still unnecessarily killing black men’ – let’s have a conversation about that” (qtd. in Vaughan). To paraphrase, Jackson is not necessarily criticizing 12 Years a Slave’s message, but that people may unintentionally misinterpret the film as a window to the past and not as an origin of society’s current problems. Jackson also encourages filmmakers to put racism in more modern context, as this could in turn lead to even more meaningful discussion on race relations today. As seen in this example, 12 Years a Slave does not simply tackle the issue of racism as many would like to