Essay on Racism in 13th

The 13th is a documentary that is directed by Ava DuVernay, which is about racism, justice system, and the prison system. They bring on multiple people to interview to support their claims better because it’s coming from different point of views. The intended audience for this documentary is for the media to consume to generate a conversation of why this is all wrong. Also, I think some of the audience that watches this film are people who are part of the black lives matter movement, or are seeking information on the topic. This documentary is successful about the information it gives, it goes more into depth about the flaws of racism, the justice system, and the prison system. 

The first thing the movie does is introduce “shocking facts” to grab the reader’s attention like for example, “1 in 17 white males will go to jail/prison in their lifetime, while for black males the odds are 1 in 3.”(The odyssey). Than the film goes over some of the history of what the 13th amendment is which frees all slaves in the United States. Before than black men were used to help rebuild the south. Than it plays a few visual scenes of Birth of a Nation that showed black men were criminals and then the Ku Klux Klan returned after this film was produced. “Birth of a Nation was responsible for the return of the Ku Klux Klan.”(The odyssey).   

The second thing the documentary shows is the flaws of the justice system. Mandatory minimums are a sentence required for much drugs they had and takes the control out of the judge’s hands for certain situations.  For example if you got a few grams of drugs than you’re required to spend a certain amount of time in prison. But also, if you’re black you’re more likely going to be hit with the mandatory minimum “Black men are 65 percent more likely to be hit with ‘mandatory minimum’ sentences than the average defendant.”(daily beast). Another reason why the justice system is flawed is that we have so many people behind bars, I assume some of these people are innocent. “In the United States, we have over 2.2 million people behind bars. Our rate of approximately 716 prisoners per 100,000 people is the highest in the world” (Washington post). 

The last thing the documentary talks about are the flaws with the prison system. The prison system does not stop crime and there is a good chance that the people in the prison will end up right back in the cell. “More than two-thirds of criminals released in 2005 were arrested by the end of their third year (Lichtenberg, 2016). Each extra year in prison raises the risk of reoffending by 6%” (sites.psu.edu).  The conditions of the prisons are not very good, it’s understandable if they want it to make look bad so they don’t come back but some prisons go without power for days. Some cells don’t have windows and have terrible food that is out of date so prisons don’t treat people like humans in there. Also the prison is a business and needs to make money to keep running so one of the ways they profit is phone calls usually they will ramp up the fees of the call.

In conclusion I think this documentary explains racism with information and scenes of films to support their claims. It explains the flaws of the justice system through interviews of people and information. It explains the flaws of the prison system that dehumanizes people and profits off of it. This will for sure generate a conversation in our media on different platforms. Also it finds the intended audience well through Netflix and YouTube so it will be talked about.

Sources

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/6-facts-13th-hurt-read 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/ava-duvernays-13th-explores-the-intersection-of-racism-and-criminal-justice/2016/10/06/cd8e4414-8a38-11e6-875e-2c1bfe943b66_story.html

https://www.thedailybeast.com/95-of-prosecutors-are-white-and-they-treat-blacks-worse

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/07/14/12-reasons-to-worry-about-our-criminal-justice-system-from-a-prominent-conservative-federal-judge/

https://sites.psu.edu/aspsy/2019/03/04/americas-prison-system-is-flawed/