I intend to see 12 Years a Slave; it sounds like a very good movie. But I was somewhat daunted by the discordant note struck at its debut in Toronto: Toronto festival artistic director Cameron Bailey, who is black, introduced the film by noting its personal significance. "My great, great, great grandparents were involved in plantation slavery," he said. "And chances are, many of your ancestors were involved in it as well ... one way or another." The uncomfortable laughs were the last the audience would have for a while...  [itallics mine] This, of course, translates as "you whites are all descendants of slave owners and should be ashamed of it." I feel obliged to protest this sort of innuendo by dissecting Mr. Cameron's remark. First of all, ancestral guilt is nonsense. Going back five hundred years or so, each of us has about a million ancestors. Probably, every one of us has a rotten apple or two among them. However, if one of mine committed a murder in 1625 -- or...(Read Full Post)