Yes, Richard Cohen, a journalist and columnist for nearly half a century, a college-educated, award-winning commentator, thought slavery was not such a bad thing until he saw a movie about it in 2013. Richard Cohen admits, in a major American newspaper, that until this month, he believed an archaic, widely discredited “Lost Cause” white supremacist myth. And in his nearly 70 years of literacy, he has not seen or heard or read anything to challenge that myth until he saw a Hollywood film on the subject. This is ignorance on a staggering scale. That paragraph should only preface a retirement announcement. “I am a deeply ignorant and cloistered old man,” should be the next sentence, “and no one should pay me for my views and opinions, because they are worthless.”

"There are reasons why films of this vein are more readily produced than others. Both economic and social values influence the resurrection of historical accounts like the Amistad while Gabriel Prosser, Harriet Tubman and Charles Deslondes suffocate in obscurity.

One thought is that white audiences should never be left feeling guilty about their ancestors’ sins. Many can walk out of the theater and say to themselves: 'I would’ve been more like Brad Pitt if I was alive during Slavery,' even though residue of the system still permeates around them today — and one could argue that there’s a shortage of mass white outrage over the fact.

In essence, the Prossers and Tubmans of our past deny Hollywood this safety net. They resisted oppression and sacrificed their lives to liberate others.

But more importantly, they don’t leave much room for white saviors. They are the black Bravehearts. And for many of us, we hope to see the day when they’re finally seen in full heroic form on the big screen."

“Think of how Lincoln left Frederick Douglass out of the story of abolition and The Help was Emma Stone making her first black friend.

This is one of Hollywood’s most annoying habits that pervades in the absence of analysis.”

I was part of a cult that believed you can live without food or WATER, admits actress Michelle Pfeiffer

Clearly there are some in Hollywood who lead very sheltered lives, have not been broadly educated and therefore lack perspective.

Conservative firebrand Sean Hannity unleashed another volley of racially charged polemic on his radio show Thursday morning, this time targeting the critically acclaimed drama “12 Years a Slave.” Hannity called the film, which recounts the true story of a free slave, Solomon Northup, who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841, “a sham” and “nothing more than an attempt to exploit white guilt and divide America.”

Director Steve McQueen’s historical drama has been lauded by critics for its unflinching portrayal of slavery’s horrors and drawn equal praise from filmgoers. Those who caught the film in its limited release last weekend assigned it an average grade of A, according to market research firm CinemaScore.

But Hannity encouraged his loyal supporters to “avoid falling into the liberal trap of a slavery guilt trip” as the film heads for wide release this weekend. “Seriously, how long has it been? How many times can you keep bringing [slavery] up after 150 years?” Hannity admitted that he has not seen the film, but said he could “tell that it draws out and exaggerates the bad parts of slavery the way only Hollywood can.”

“The only thing another slavery movie does, on top of pitting blacks against whites, is enable a minority culture of laziness and excuses. Maybe they should make a movie about black students who run away from hard work and responsibility. Call it ‘12 Years in School.’...”