Literally just walking out of the movie theater and I feel so much. Every emotion you can think of combined into one is what I feel.
The movie entered with so much.I don't want to give away too much, but I want to explain why so much effort has gone into not wanting this film to be seen and why we must see it.He was exposed to his African ancestry before a Bible even touched his hands. So many of us never knew of such a connection. It was so important to remember that those deeply connected to their heritage fought so hard not to assimilate.We then see Nat Turner was a white child's playmate. The very same playmate who would one day own him. Later we see Nat being stripped away from his mother to learn to read by Missus. She "lovingly" told him books, other than the bible, were too complicated for "his kind" to understand. This reminded me of the time Justice Scalia said black people weren't smart enough for more challenging (white) schools. Those roots run deep.Little Nat was seen visiting the church with Missus until Master died. She then said it was the Master's will that Nat returned to the fields. My interpretation of this was Nat was being used until he was no longer useful, like black culture. Our culture is loved, but we are not. So our bodies become disposable. Nat then begins going into town with Master Sam, who used to be his playmate. Nat sees a slave auction block and a slave girl named Cherry who had been beaten, more than likely raped as well. He convinces Sam to buy her. She is apparently suffering from Present Traumatic Slave Syndrome. Nat's mother and nana clean her up and present her to Sam's daughter as a "gift". You know, being a slave, and not a human,makes you eligible to be a gift. Nat and Cherry's joy and love that they have with each other begins to blossom. It reminds me how often we experience so much trauma in this country, but still manage to find a piece of joy.Later, Sam is presented with the proposition of earning more money and getting slaves in line by having Nat preach the gospel of submission into them. We see how slave owners took the Gospel and made it into something so vile as to justify the torture, rape, and enslavement of human beings.As it goes, Nat being a slave had no choice. Nat began to preach only the parts of slaves submitting to their masters to the slaves, but you knew his heart broke as he began to preach about a God of love as man twisted that love for their own sadistic purposes. As Nat began to visit these plantations, the conditions for slaves began to worsen and the money kept increasing. I didn't think it would be shown, but Nate Parker did not sugar coat anything. He showed slaves protesting in shackles over their wrists and their mouths gagged with metal pieces. One slave refused to eat and so the slave owner took a hammer and chisel to knock out each tooth one by one in order to funnel food down his throat. It even made Sam uncomfortable, but not enough to leave without taking the money. A reminder of how white silence is violent.We begin to see Nat's heart turning, but what brings his resistance to a head is the way women, Black women, are being mistreated. Cherry is gang raped, and Ester was requested, and approved by Sam, to be raped by one of his guests. These events show that even a black man's wife wasn't off limits. He had to stand and wait for a white man to do whatever he wanted to his wife and do absolutely nothing to stop it. At this point, I'm angry and crying. I know what it's like to watch your friends get slammed against the hood of a car by police and all you can do is stand on the side and watch. Then you have to accept them back broken physically and emotionally and go on with life as if it never happened.Ester's husband asked Nat "Where is your God now?" In the past 2 years I have been guilty of asking God this question. Where was he when Daniel Holtzclaw raped over 13 women? Where was he when Dylann Roof shot up a church? Where has God been with these constant murders of black people on camera? Nat reminded us that God was always there. The scripture that revealed God's wrath upon the oppressors came on the screen and became all too real. You should be glad back people seek equality and not revenge.The same Bible that slave owners used to oppress us would be the same to free us. The same can be said about evangelicals today only condemning racism as a sin issue and claiming to just leave it in God's hand to justify ignoring our struggle in this nation. We see how Nat waited on God to make his move, almost in a sense of how Moses waited until God said it was time for the Israelites to be freed from bondage. Nat gathers other slaves, who were sick and tired of waiting for their freedom. They were prepared to take their freedom. Neither death nor imprisonment would keep them from it. They had faith that God called them to spark the match that would lead to the liberation of black people. History, that none of American schools have taught us, says Nat was hung, and to make an example of him, they skinned him and used his flesh to make lamps and furniture (the sadistic slavery America wants you to forget). Many other slaves and free blacks were hung because of white fear. The same white fear that can claim "he looks like a bad guy" so you shoot him and claim to temporarily go deaf can be related to this.After watching this movie, I can see why so much effort has gone into not wanting it to be seen. If you do not feel the revolution brewing, you must not know your history. Our people have constantly fought back, despite the efforts of trying to erase our past. We are not meant to endure the numerous videos of police shooting unarmed black people. We are not meant to endure our moments of joy constantly being stripped from us. We are not meant be hunted like animals, have our rights taken away from us,watch our babies bleed in the streets, our husbands murdered next to broken down cars, our mothers die protecting us. Now, we are peaceful. We endure. We march on, but it makes me wonder, how long will we be expected to continue going on like this?
Check out Alandrus David's Blog 8 Arms & Counting.