Film Discussion / Analysis: 13th Documentary, 2016

Film Analysis: 13th Documentary, 2016
Institution:
Instructor:
Name:
Date:
Film Analysis: 13th Documentary, 2016
The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was meant to ensure an effective abolishment of slavery and involuntary servitude with the exemption of penalty for a crime where the individual involved shall have been convicted (Carter Jr, 2006). However, this clause has been criticized on many occasions concerning today's criminal justice system. The U.S. prisons are modern day slave quarters instead of being correctional facilities for crime convicts. In DuVernay’s documentary, 13th, modern prisons are characterized by large-scale manual labor activities, including manufacturing, corporate warehouses, and even sweatshops (DuVernay, 2016). These are forms of cheap labor by which the prisoners can neither support nor enjoy under all circumstances. The 13th is an interesting and enlightening documentary that shows that the injustice system in the United States is yet to completely evolve from the slavery days in history. The number of black people in America is about five percent of their total number in the globe, yet more than a quarter of prisoners in the world are blacks in American prisons. The prison system in the U.S. has become a part of life for many non-native Americans. The Netflix documentary, 13th, directed by Ava DuVernay presents the complex prison system with a focus on how modern prisons are misusing the 13th Amendment loophole.
Discussion
According to the documentary, the war on drugs has intensified from time to time since Nixon’s presidency. During his time, Nixon termed the African-Americans as a menace to the rest of the American society. His presidency thus created a system that had black Americans apprehended without direct implication of injustices in the U.S. criminal system. The justice and criminal systems during Nixon’s presidency advocated for drug war instead of a war on black Americans. The war on drugs was upheld during Reagan’s presidency and other presidents up-to-date. Today, the war on drugs wholly directed to the Americans of African descent, yet most consumers of illegal drugs in the United States are whites in the middle class. Although the Black American communities are associated with poverty and structural inequalities, those living in urban areas such as New Jersey and California are not the primary beneficiaries of the illegal drug trade industry. It is evident that both state and federal U.S. administrations use the war on drugs to purposely put black people in prison. Having as many black people as possible in prison has become a private venture. The 13th documentary is based on historical occurrences which significantly influenced racial and criminal injustices in the American history.
The overall picture of the documentary is that black lives matter. The aim of the 13th amendment was to grant all former slaves a legal human status, but with a condition. According to Duvernay (2016), the clause states that: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or place subject to their jurisdiction.” Thus, only those who committed a criminal offense could be enslaved, otherwise, slavery was illegal. It also means that black people can be re-enslaved. A large proportion of convicts in prisons in the United States were white until the 13th Amendment was implemented. It was after the amendment when things changed and prisons become majorly for the black Americans. They could be fined or put in prison for the least crimes such as “petty theft, vagabondage, and lack of keeping a steady job” (Duvernay, 2016). Those who could not afford to pay the fines were sold back to their former southern plantations or to high-labor demanding industries such as timber and mining companies. Due to the uncontrolled nature of the convict lease program, prisoners worked in an unfriendly and humiliating environment. A significant number of prisoners died because of diseases and physical tortures. The black prisoners were forced to work while chained together. The documentary is a reminder of the historical criminal injustices that the American society could have forgotten. It serves this role by reflecting and relating the current war on drugs which could ignite the consciousness of the white population in America. In her documentary, Duvernay asserts that one gets severe imprisonment if convicted of possessing crack cocaine than when convicted for the possession powdered cocaine today. In addition to the above highlights, the documentary is a revelation that slavery and the 13th amendment affects the lives of black American communities today.
Through the 13th documentary, the director seeks to create awareness to the American people. It challenges perceptions of the white Americans on democracy, justice, and equality in relation to black Americans. A reflection on the American history in the narration calls for the American society to rise and reclaim humanity, rule of law, ju...