Analysis of the Documentary “13th"

The documentary “13th” follows the timeline from when the 13th Amendment was signed to the 2016 presidential election. The documentary depicts how the American justice system has been driven by racism from the days of slavery to today’s era of mass incarceration. It is named for the constitutional amendment that abolished slavery with the exception of punishment for crime. The film opens with a pretty alarming statistic: The United States accounts for five percent of the world’s population, but 25 percent of its prisoners.

In 2014, more than 2 million people were incarcerated in the United States. African American men made up 40 percent of those prisoners. The director, Ava DuVernay, argues the clause “except as a punishment or crime” became a sort of loophole allowing for the mass incarceration for African Americans to keep happening. The film explores the history of slavery and post-Civil War legislation. It touches a lot on how different policies and politicians have had an effect on incarceration rates.

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It focuses a great deal on Nixon’s presidency, who started the movement on the mass incarceration of African Americans. His “war on crime” led to Reagan’s “war on drugs.” This created the fear of blacks, basically holding them responsible for the “war on drugs,” which people decided was why blacks should be locked up. “13th” asks the question of whether Africans Americans were every really ‘free’ in our country. The documentary is very educational, inspiring, and seeks to challenge and expose the legacies behind the 13th Amendment in hopes that our society will open our eyes and advocate for change.

The main takeaway is that change has to come from the hearts and minds of Americans.

Initially, I was hesitant to watch this film just due to the fact that I generally do not watch documentaries in my spare time, but I was thoroughly engaged from beginning to end. I thought this documentary was interesting as it captured historical events and had interviews that provided a lot of insight. Even though the story clearly leans politically to the left, it still was able to criticize both sides. Both 2016 presidential candidates were seen as part of the issue, not sparing either of them in terms of race relations. Because of this, the film created the feeling that the incarceration issue was not a political or ideological issue, but more of a human society issue. Everyone who was interviewed spoke very intelligently about the aspects of history and culture that has led us to this point in time. I think this documentary is good because it brings a call to action. It demands change, and as a viewer, I found it hard to disagree with any of the points being made. Anyone can contribute something to make a change; it can be as simple as being more conscious of inherent prejudices. I chose to watch this film out of the ones on the list because I found the incarceration lecture in class to be one of the most interesting; I learned so much that I was unaware of before the fact. Racism and biases also relate to the film, which are other topics we discussed in class. This documentary restated some things I learned from class, but it was still shocking and interesting to watch.

The film “13th” reiterated the fact that we learned in class, that America incarcerates individuals at a higher rate than any other country (around 700 people per 100,000). The idea that a large majority of prisoners are African American goes along with racism and our lecture about biases as well. The documentary mentioned that blacks were being incarcerated for minor offenses such as loitering, and would get way worse sentences than if a white person were to commit the sane exact crime. Our incarceration rate is high as it is, and the fact that a vast majority of it is black people makes it unfairly disproportionate. Apart from the clear racism of it all, the film made me think back to our bias lecture also. Biases can exist due to stereotypes that have been made about something, such as African Americans being more ‘dangerous’ or things of that nature that just are not true. Racism dates far back as this documentary shows, and people have just come to believe that we should be more weary towards people of color. Racism definitely plays a large role in why African Americans make up a large percentage of those who are incarcerated. People today still believe misconceptions and there is still racial discrimination when it comes to the imprisoning of individuals. A black and a white person could commit the same crime, but the black person would most likely get a worse sentence. This is because of the racial profiling from what was seen in the film, and shows us that there are still biases people hold about others of color. People tend to judge others way too quickly, and the incarceration system has and will be forever impacted by that notion. Going back to my previous point about the film that African Americans were never truly ‘freed,’ still is relevant today. Unfortunately, there is still racism that is prevalent in our society, whether we say we see it or not. It is a problem that some could argue has gotten better, but it is still happening. As a society, we are always having to advocate for change, not just in the case of the incarceration system, but in everyday life. If one person tried to change something, it can hopefully create the canon effect that we all need, making the world a much better place.