In 2013, race is inescapable in pop culture. Perhaps the Trayvon Martin killing, the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington or the racially tinged debates of Barack Obama’s presidency have spurred this trend, but whatever the causes, the theme has been everywhere. “Django Unchained,” “Lincoln,” “Yeezus” and “Fruitvale Station” are just a few of the more prominent recent explorations of the legacies of slavery that have resonated with both critics and mass audiences. “12 Years a Slave,” however, is the most resonant because it gets at a crucial truth that is too often obscured: upon close examination, the differences between slavery and capitalism are murky and cannot be distinguished with bright lines. This is not to say at all that the United States today is anywhere close the same country it was in 1861, but “12 Years a Slave” proves it hasn’t changed as much as could be hoped.
Directed by Steve McQueen, “12 Years a Slave” adapts the narrative of Solomon Northup for the cinema in a way that takes great care to draw parallels between the America of 1853 and the America of 2013. A free black man living in Saratoga, Northup journeys south with men he believes to be entertainers only to find himself drugged and in a slave pen in Washington. At the moment Solomon awakes and screams for help, the camera pans up to the Capitol, literally showing a government sitting above a foundation of bondage. Here McQueen subtly counters the popular perception that with the abolition of slavery in 1865, America entered a decidedly new chapter in its history; instead, the wealth accumulated during the 250 years of slavery survived mostly intact even if the system changed in appearance.
Though we assume them to be distinct systems, relentless profit seeking characterizes both slavery and late capitalism. In his film, McQueen takes care to highlight the the decidedly economic angle of the exploitation of slavery. For instance, upon being held in a hangman’s noose in a state of near-death for an entire day by an overseer, Northup exclaims to his supposedly benevolent and sympathetic master that he is not actually a slave, but the master replies that he cannot hear Northup’s tale for fear of jeopardizing his credit. There is more insulation from exploitation today, but the scene draws disturbing parallels with corporations who’d rather not hear about or deal with the miserable working conditions of developing countries (like factories in Bangladesh so poorly constructed they cause their workers to be burned alive) so they can continue to purchase cheap goods. Today, of course most workers are not actively held in bondage, but the poorest have a degree of personal autonomy so limited that their livelihoods are still constantly imperiled.
The University is not immune from the lessons of “12 Years a Slave” either. The beautiful grounds and buildings Jefferson designed would not exist if not for the slave labor that built and maintained them for almost half a century. And with the discovery of a slave cemetery in 2012 and President Sullivan’s September decision to appoint a commission on slavery at the University, we are being forced to understand more about how are lives are shaped by the ugly past whether we like it or not.
An encounter between Northup and a poor white laborer highlights similarities between the myths used to back up exploitation in our era and in Solomon’s. Forced to pay off debts after falling on hard times as an alcoholic, the white hired help tells Solomon that he was told if he worked hard enough in the fields, he could one day be as prosperous as an overseer or perhaps even become a plantation owner.
The man’s actions, however, illustrate the power of such myths in using division of race to perpetuate a class hierarchy. The white man claims that he has seen though this delusion and realizes he is being manipulated, but when Solomon begs his assistance in delivering a letter to secure his freedom, the white worker tells the plantation owner of Solomon’s plan in hopes of someday earning a promotion. Instead of showing solidarity with Solomon and helping him in his quest for liberation, the white day laborer does exactly what the plantation master wants him to sustain exploitation.
Echoes of this scene are evident in a more modern setting with rise of the Southern Strategy embraced by Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. Seeking to bring down the New Deal coalition that had enacted legislation like Social Security and Medicare, Pat Buchanan and Lee Atwater among others played upon racial antagonism to pave the way for policies that ultimately benefited the rich at the expense of the working class of all races. As Lee Atwater, “You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.” The language and severity of the policies may be different, but the ghosts of the previous age of slavery underpin our present economic inequality and dislocation.
For instance, more African-Americans are a part of the corrections system than the entire population that was enslaved in 1850. The 13th Amendment did ban slavery, but it allows for involuntary servitude in the prison system, which has allowed private prison companies like the Corrections Corporation of America to collaborate with the Drug Enforcement Agency in order to institute a newer albeit more hidden form of slavery that has been enormously profitable for a few. These corporations have an incentive to agitate for harsher sentencing laws especially on drugs in order to fuel growth in their industry, as just recently happened in Indiana. Meanwhile in California, the prisons are so overcrowded because of mandatory minimum sentencing, three strikes laws, and racial profiling as to create a humanitarian crisis. African-Americans comprise 13 percent of the population and use drugs at roughly the same rates as whites, but they make up 45 percent of the prison population. If these facts don’t echo a thought-dead plantation society, it would be difficult to say what else does.
Harvard historian Walter Johnson argues, “the conventional distinction between slavery and capitalism fades into meaninglessness,” and if we wish to consider the society we’d like to become, we must be realistic about where we are and where we’ve been. “12 Years a Slave” holds profound lessons for us as individuals, as a community, and as a nation, and if we are not honest about what is still to be done, we delude ourselves.
Gray Whisnant is a Viewpoint Writer for The Cavalier Daily.
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