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12 Years A Slave is perhaps the most powerful movie I’ve seen all year.

You see, there is something about this story that hits close to home. The first thing you need to know about 12 Years is that this isn’t just another slave movie. I know a lot blacks get upset that Hollywood seems to love the period piece and stereotypical “black films.”

Just look at some recently released movies.

The Help was about black maids serving their rich white families. The Butler is about black butlers who serve the president. Then there are movies like Django Unchained, where the n-word is mentioned about 115 times.

Yeah, we know we were once niggers! We were once slaves, we were brought to America on boats, treated as 3/5ths a man, and Martin had a dream so Barack Obama could run.

But this movie is different! It shows how life isn’t always fair, but if you stick it out, things will get better. It shows the strength of black people. It shows that the whole foundation of slavery was wrong and unjust. Main character Solomon Northup was an educated black man in a time when blacks were not treated equally.

It’s a compelling story that is graphic and a bit difficult to watch, but while watching, you realize how important it is to witness things like this.

I used to think Django was a great movie. Hell, it still is, but after watching 12 Years A Slave, I realized what all the protest was about. I’m not one to get all upset about things like this. If Quentin wanted to make a blood fest slavery fantasy, more power to him, but after watching 12 Years, you’ll see just how much of a fantasy Django truly is.

I’m not going to ruin the movie for you, but I will say, this trailer for 12 Years A Slave doesn’t give anything away. The most powerful scenes will make your cringe, cry, feel disgusted, but you will know just how resilient we are and how resilient we can be.

So go see 12 Years A Slave tomorrow, tell your friends of all colors to go see it, take your parents to go see it and please, don’t think this is just a black movie. This is a must see!

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Xilla is the Sr. Entertainment Editor for GlobalGrind.com as well as CEO of the number 1 relationship blog BlogXilla.com/M2TB.com. He has been featured in XXL, The Source, Essence, LA Times and is considered one of the premiere bloggers in the industry. Follow him on twitter @BlogXilla