R.A.B. Annotations

13TH Documentary. Directed by Ava DuVernay, produced by Kandoo Films, Netflix, and Forward Movement, 2016.

In the 13th Documentary on Netflix, we get an analysis of the 13th Amendment and how it reinforces modern day slavery and how it contributed to America’s history of racial injustice. The documentary explains how African Americans were filled inside of prisons at a much faster and disproportionate rate than any other race. Throughout the documentary, multiple laws that affected the rate of African Americans being arrested were also brought to light as well as how corporations capitalized on the exploitation that African Americans faced. I believe that this documentary was incredibly informative about the depth of the racial injustice that exists in America. Many people aren’t aware about a lot of the policies being created or that were created that directly harmed many minorities. People are usually only aware of the general idea of racial injustice but not the specifics of the situations going on. I believe that this documentary will be very useful in helping me write my research annotated bibliography because it has a lot of information for me to use that is related to my research question. In fact, I picked this topic and my research question because of this documentary. I believe that Ava DuVernay chose this genre because she wanted to inform everyone about the history of racial injustice in America within the prison system and how the 13th Amendment has a loophole that people have used to exploit African Americans. In my opinion, this was a very good genre for everyone to view to learn more about racial inequality. It tackles the subject of more recent times regarding racism and it still affects people’s lives to this day. It may be a little bit explicit in some parts because it shows footage of actual cases of police brutality, but it’s not overbearingly explicit. This documentary is definitely something people could watch or share to help be more informed on subjects like this. 

Kusha, Hamid. Islam’s Challenge to American Penology. New York, Ashgate Publishing, Routledge, 2009

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/citytech-ebooks/reader.action?docID=438776#

In Hamid Kusha’s book titled, “Islam’s Challenge to American Penology,” we get a look into how Islam impacted African Americans lives in prison as a form of redemption. Specifically in Chapter 7, “Islam’s Challenge To American Penology,” the author talked about the disproportionate and mass incarceration of African Americans and how it’s a form of modernized segregation. Kusha claimed that the American criminal justice system fails to execute true justice because of the “socioeconomic priorities and proclivities of the American Justice Market.” Chapter 7 was especially interesting and most related to my research question. The 13th Amendment was to end slavery, but that amendment allowed for African Americans to be placed in a situation not identical to, but similar to the previous conditions. This chapter touches up on some of the faults within the criminal justice system and what the intentions behind so many of the failures of the criminal justice system are. It connects to the loophole of the 13th Amendment because this amendment enabled exploitation through the criminal justice system where African Americans get filled inside of prisons and do harsh labor for not nearly enough money. Kusha chose to write this book because he wanted to inform everyone about the conditions that African Americans went through through America’s prison system and how the criminal justice system is failing to bring real justice and instead is targeting minorities. Also, he wanted to inform everyone about how Islam helped many African Americans in prison reach a better condition. This was also a very informative piece, it enlightened the audience about the intentions of the people in power in law enforcement and the criminal justice system, corporations, and politicians. It also offers insight on one way African Americans found a way to persevere through the conditions that they were faced with.

Frykholm, Amy. “Criminal injustice: Michelle Alexander on racism and incarceration.” The Christian Century, Vol. 129, Issue 10. April, 2012

https://go-gale-com.citytech.ezproxy.cuny.edu/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=cuny_nytc&id=GALE|A294506176&v=2.1&it=r

https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2012-04/criminal-injustice

Amy Frykholm’s article, “Criminal injustice: Michelle Alexander on racism and incarceration” is an interviewing piece where civil rights lawyer Michelle Alexander gives her take on racial injustice within the criminal justice system and law enforcement within the past 40 years, claiming that “these policies have created a permanent underclass of disenfranchised convicted felons who are overwhelmingly black and Latino.” Reading the article gave a deeper perspective of systemic racism. Alexander talked about how there are communities that actually rely on prisons to maintain economic stability and growth. The labor in prisons is cheaper and minimum wage laws are allowed to be ignored with prison labor, so prisoners get paid very low wages and get charged extremely high prices for services like using the phone. Alexander performed very passionately and was especially informative about how the upper class and many corporations benefit from the mass incarceration of African Americans and prison labor. Because of how profitable it is to use prison labor compared to any other method, many corporations including private health care companies have invested in prison labor. I believe that Frykholm chose to interview Alexander because she wanted to report from the perspective of someone who worked in the law enforcement system about racial injustice. This article was intended for anyone to read and was an excellent choice because of the professional and informative nature of it. The information came from someone credible, a civil rights lawyer herself, and the interview was very specific and it didn’t take mental gymnastics to understand what the message was. Alexander articulated herself very clearly.