Twelve Years a Slave portrays a society in which racism is endemic. This means that everyone who acquiesces and participates in the social order is effectively racist, whether or not they embrace a racist ideology. The men who capture and sell Solomon Northrup—Brown, Hamilton, and Burch—do not appear to have principles of any kind. They engage in the slave trade for profit. Even the outrage with which Burch receives Northrup's statement that he is a free man seems little more than a strategy for protecting his investment.

This dehumanizing form of racism is set against the attitude of William Ford. In his memoir, the real Northrup has nothing but praise for Ford, but the film portrays him as weak and hypocritical, despite his attempts to be a good man. Ford's character demonstrates that one cannot participate in a racist system without being racist. It is arguable that he is the worst racist in the film, since his attempts to be charitable are ways of normalizing an intolerable system and making it appear less oppressive than it really is.

At the other extreme is Ford's fellow slave-master, Edwin Epps. Epps is unashamedly brutal and sadistic, but it is not clear whether his abusive behavior is motivated by racism or general misanthropy. It is Ford, however, who sells Northrup to Epps, perpetuating the system because he is too compliant to stand against it.