The documentary film "13th" directed by Ava DuVernay delves into the deep-rooted history of systemic racism and mass incarceration in the United States. Through an exploration of the 13th Amendment, the film reveals how this constitutional provision created a loophole for the continued oppression of Black Americans through the criminal justice system, ultimately resulting in a modern-day form of slavery.
In "13th," Ava DuVernay exposes the unjust practices of the American criminal justice system and its perpetuation of systemic racism. The film comprehensively examines the history of slavery, racism, and mass incarceration in the United States. By analyzing the 13th Amendment, the film argues that although slavery was legally abolished, it persisted differently through the criminal justice system. The documentary exposes mass incarceration's root causes and dire consequences, particularly for Black Americans, and calls for change in the current system.
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Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime. This loophole enabled the creation of a system in which Black Americans were disproportionately targeted and criminalized, leading to the mass incarceration of Black people in the U.S. The film traces the history of how slavery was replaced by mass incarceration as a means of subjugation and highlights the ways in which this system has been perpetuated through government policies and practices.
"13th" explores the complex web of factors that led to the current state of mass incarceration in America. The film highlights how the War on Drugs, launched by President Nixon in the 1970s, played a crucial role in this process. The documentary argues that the War on Drugs was a thinly veiled attempt to criminalize Black communities and disrupt the Civil Rights Movement. The film also examines the role of the media in perpetuating stereotypes of Black people as dangerous and
The film 13th was documentary that explains mass incarceration, Jim Crow, and slavery as being the same forms. Through use of statistic, testimonies, and stories, the documentary portrays a message of what is and has been going on and has a call to action. The film starts off with explaining how there is a loophole a clause of the 13th amendment that makes it unconstitutional for anyone to be a slave except criminals, and ever since that loophole was discovered there was a mass of African Americans arrested. Although the film was able to show evidence for the parallels between slavery, Jim Crow laws, and mass incarceration, it did not provide solutions for this problem.
Ava Duvernay's documentary "13th" does a great job of capturing the problems with the criminal justice system in North America. It draws attention to problems with excessive minority representation and racial injustices in the system. This paper will examine the central issue and main message explored in the documentary "13th". It will also explore my initial reaction to the film and whether any specific case or facts challenged my pre-existing views on the prison system. Additionally, a comparative analysis will be conducted between the intersection of race, crime, and criminal justice in Canada and what is presented in "13th".
The Film “13th ” “13th” Is a film on racial inequality and systemic racism in the justice system of the United States. The film makes the point that the 13th amendment in the Constitution, responsible for abolishing Slavery and slave labor has been used to create a system of racial oppression to control the population of minorities specifically the African American community, by using the 13th amendment. Which states that slave labor can be implemented as punishment for a crime. In the film 13th much of the conflict stems from how racism is not only systemic through institutions in the United States and the criminal justice system, but also how it went from individuals implementing their beliefs and power to laws and policies that allow for
The documentary “13th” highlighted a major issue facing America currently, mass incarcerations. Racism was the underlining them of both Tatum's book and the documentary. The painful past of America was hard to watch. The current state of America is extremely frightening. I would like to believe that the truth would have come out earlier.
The New Jim Crow was a thought provoking documentary detailing the mass incarceration of black men in America. The author tells how these men, as prisoners, are treated of quasi-slaves. In fact, the prison system is now the new plantation system of slavery in America today. It was more shocking for to learn what type of low wages the prisoners earn; and how refusal to work could be grounds for disciplinary action such as isolation cells or extended time added to original sentence time.
The movie 13th makes connection with prison sentences and different policies that were made over historical times against black or color. So overall the film is hitting on the believe that color and black people were treated very unfair in the rule of justice in the laws by providing example like longer prison sentences for color people over white people for similar crimes that they commit. The 13th movie goes into depth about different crime bills that has had a major effect on the black
One of the most detrimental things that happen to the black community was the declared “war on drugs” which lead to mass incarceration. The war on drugs was a direct target on minorities. It was a failed attempt to eradicate the drug problem in the United States. African-Americans did not see policy changes on drugs until
The issues brought to the forefront in the film have real life implications. For instance, while African-Americans comprise 13% of the U.S. population and 14% of monthly drug users, they account for 37% of the people arrested for drug offenses--this is according to 2009 Congressional testimony by Marc Mauer of The Sentencing Project. (Quigley, Loyola Journal of Public Interest Law, 2012). This again shows that there is a propensity toward injustice for minorities. It’s important to consider the affect this type of discrimination has on people as a group but also individual.
Michelle Alexander, similarly, points out the same truth that African American men are targeted substantially by the criminal justice system due to the long history leading to racial bias and mass incarceration within her text “The New Jim Crow”. Both Martin Luther King Jr.’s and Michelle Alexander’s text exhibit the brutality and social injustice that the African American community experiences, which ultimately expedites the mass incarceration of African American men, reflecting the current flawed prison system in the U.S. The American prison system is flawed in numerous ways as both King and Alexander points out. A significant flaw that was identified is the injustice of specifically targeting African American men for crimes due to the racial stereotypes formed as a result of racial formation. Racial formation is the accumulation of racial identities and categories that are formed, reconstructed, and abrogated throughout history.
13th Documentary Analysis Ava DuVernay’s documentary mentions that the United States makes up five percent of the world’s population yet is home to twenty five percent of the world’s prisoners. One out of four prisoners in the world are locked up in the U.S. The United States now has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. The thirteenth amendment of the constitution makes it unconstitutional for someone to be held as a slave.
There is a scene in the movie that shows a white women jumping off of a cliff and plummeting to her death than to be raped by a black man. This is an exaggeration because black people as a whole were portrayed by white people as outcasts, low class citizens, and criminals and there were many white masters raping their black female slaves. In addition to that the 13th also
The Netflix original documentary, 13TH directed by Ava DuVernay explores the racial inequality in the United States throughout history. The documentary focuses mainly on the fact that most of the nation's prisons are unfairly filled with African Americans and colored people. The documentary educates the audience of the horrors the African Americans and colored people went through history and today beginning with slavery, to convict leasing, to Jim Crow Laws, and lastly to present mass incarceration. Ava deeply examines the economic history of slavery and Civil War racist legislation and practices that replaced it as "systems of racial control" and the present forced labor from the years after slavery was abolished. The powerful film 13TH represents
13th is a documentary directed and produced by Ava Duvernay. The documentary dives deep into America’s prison system and America’s history of racial inequalities. The documentary contained many forms of rhetoric, including, kairos, logos, ethos, pathos, and visual rhetoric. Using these methods of rhetoric helps director Ava Duvernay get her point across to the audience.
The “13th” is a documentary about the American system of incarceration and the economic forces behind racism in America especially in people of color. One of the claims that the author mentioned is that today incarceration is an extension of slavery. It is also mentioned that most of the time in society we are defined by race. In the documentary, we can see how African Americans are sentenced for many years since they are too poor to pay their fines or sometimes most of these people plead guilty to get out of jail fast. However, African Americans are separated from their families and also treated inhumanly in prisons just because they are of a particular race.
Over the decades, mass incarceration has become an important topic that people want to discuss due to the increasing number of mass incarceration. However, most of the people who are incarceration are people of color. This eventually leads to scholars concluding that there is a relationship between mass incarceration and the legacy of slavery. The reason is that people of color are the individuals who are overrepresented in prison compared to whites. If you think about it, slavery is over and African Americans are no longer mistreated; however, that is not the case as African Americans continue to face oppression from the government and police force.