The source I chose is a documentary titled “The 13th” directed by Ava DuVernay. This project was released on October 7th 2016. The documentary focuses on racism and the prison system affecting Black and Brown People. It also speaks on matters such as Police brutality and misconduct, civil right activists and the constitution etc.
The title is actually referring to the thirteenth amendment in Section 1, “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 any place subject to their jurisdiction”. There are a lot of cases where people were arrested before identifying if they were innocent or guilty (which the film addresses). In the beginning of the documentary it was said that although slavery was abolished over 150 years ago this issue still exists in the form of mass incarceration. For example after the civil rights movement, African Americans were getting arrested for “Minor crimes” such as “Loitering and Vagrancy” which led to the prison population increase. It was also stated that “While black men account for some 6.6 percent of the U.S. population, they currently make up 40.2 percent of the prison population”.
Throughout the entire film there were several topics discussed, however they all branch out the main focus which is racism. As mentioned before the documentary speaks about civil right activists and how they were portrayed as “Menaces” for simply standing up for basic human rights. An Educator in the film mentioned how black people travelled and moved to different areas hoping to escape racism from the south but they still faced this oppression because of constant racial profiling/stereotyping. Some of the cases that were mentioned is the Central Park 5, Florida V. Zimmerman, Kalief Browder V. New York, unfortunately these were all cases that included African Americans being targets because of racist stereotypes and Injustice. There are many cases where innocent lives were taken away and imprisoned because of discrimination and false accusations.
This documentary was very informative. This portrayed the legal system accurately because it shown how racism still exists, and how Black and Brown people are most likely to be wrongfully convicted then any other race. They provided us with so much facts and statistics. Guest speakers like teachers and some of the survivors of police brutality, and wrongful convictions took the time to talk about their stories. I learned that there were movements passed by some of the past U.S. presidents that I wasn’t aware of until recently, rarely anyone has mentioned them. I recommend you to watch it because it is very educational. Watching documentaries like this makes me want to be something in the legal fields so I can help people who have gone through or are going through these issues.
Link of the Documentary : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krfcq5pF8u8 (Time 1:40:02)
Ava Duvernay interview on “The 13th” project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CK7f8A4tPU (Time – 13:00)
