twelve years a slave I am
yesterday I I spent the whole day yesterday basically just
rest in and waiting for antibiotics to kick in
which seem to happen around midday amazing how they
how I you know you work all day before yesterday I was in the middle the show I
was having to run out and buy cough syrup and stuff in
something which just taken hold by longs in it
I woke up and it was just on fire I
the wonders of modern science ending his I am a member of the Screen Actors Guild
a and after the American Federation
of television and radio performers and
after an sag have have merged and so I must say and as a consequence that
I've been getting net DVD's in the mail from sag from the Screen Actors Guild
forward the vote in for the SAG
awards for the best movie and
a I got a copy the so yes they
I watched a couple movies its I is just you know
I do watched American hustle which life out but was rather disappointing
and watch twelve years a slave which I'd been wanting to see for some time
and it's just getting off to a theater for me is quite difficult
the given the hours I work in and I hate going to the movies on weekends
I'm so this is perfect I could just I could just lay on the couch and watch it
which is what I did %uh one with the Wii's
and and then I started askin friends who might have you seen this
the after americans i kno have all seen it
I not I don't you know it's not a very large circle of friends it's
I think three or four people that I've
ask they've african-americans have said yes i've seen
arm I don't know any way people who have
have you since you haven't you jim have you seen
yeah I you know I really for a long time
I wanted to see it because I felt like okay I
you know this is a horrible time in our history and I really should see this
but it wasn't like I wanted to you know because
it it's like this is just another reminder of the horrors that were
visited on african-americans
by frankly in some cases my ancestors
I meanwhile my father's parents came over here from Norway in 1917 my
mother's parents have been here since the sixteen hundreds
James Madison as a distant relative of mine
and he was a slave owner and
so I was I i confess I
I A was you know washer with some trepidation
I gotta tell ya let me talk to the white people in the audience here
you gotta see this movie because
what other things the it does is that helps you understand
that it's really not always just about race
that it's about misogyny
that it's about you know there's this power thing here
his plantation owners are basically Kings with little kingdoms
and they had I you know Lords under them or who were
by and large white they had you know people working under them but those
people were
you know is servants in the system to as it were
and then of course the slaves were at the bottom of the above the pile in
terms of power
and there was one scene where
a woman who was the constantly sobbing
because for children have been taken away from her and sold is hauled away
because she's just disrupting things with her crying all the time
and the hero of the the film is
watching her being hauled away any basically can't do anything about it
and it
struck me
that
even if he had gone over and done something
to help her in some way and there was really at that point her kids were long
gone
i mean you know maybe he could have taken a couple water or something but
you know it's like it was the system
and I just the feeling I got was the same feeling
that I got the other day when when you know almost down the street as me for
for a meal it's like it's not
I mean we you know we all do it we can
but it's not just the people it's the system
this was this this movie beautifully portrays
a mind-bogglingly corrupt system
another AHA I gotta us
is that
I believe that the beginning up the me society mentality in the United States
you know we've got basically two kinds have
love societies in the United States to can to stew Kansas State's the red
states and blue states
and the blue states they there's this sense a you know this is a Wii society
we're all in this together
and the red states there's the sense so this is it this is a mi society
and you get that you get there her ankle came clip
and a few if you could easily find that play it it's because it perfectly
exemplifies this
this whole you know me society thing
that it's all about
so what you know I got mine know kinda thing
and it struck me
watching this movie that this me society mentality
began with slavery and and and
to prove that it's not always about a race that saw it's also about class in
fact you could argue that it's
even more about class in about race years Herman Cain express in the Sun
if you don't have a job and you not bridged blame you I'll send you don't
think
there you go arm there's there's another
the seen where this the black girl a patsy is hit with a bottle by the white
slave owners wife
and she demands that the the white slave owners sell patsy
because she's got it that the white slave owners
getting it on with Patsy or at least wants to
and he says to his wife this is the woman who
who is the wife of the plantation owner he says to his wife
that he will sell you get rid of his wife before he will get rid of this
female slave patsy
and you get it that it wasn't just race it was misogyny
that the power misogyny is just mind-boggling
I mean we still don't have a female president
the power misogyny I think trumps the power racism in many cases
and that comes through in this movie
this movie twelve years a slave it's just amazing amazing movie
there's a scene where them the
a woman whose run whose husband runs a plantation
gives the hero the movie a shopping list and says take this to the store and get
these things and says
you don't know how to read or write to your knees as well sorta a little bit
she says
don't tell anybody you know it all there they'll kill you for that
and you get it that the way that power was in force was by keeping people
stupid
by keeping people unable to you know it uninformed
and uneducated and it hit me that's what we're doing with our public schools in
with Fox News
is like we're still working on keeping people stupid