13TH Documentary Essay

The Netflix original documentary, 13TH directed by Ava DuVernay explores the racial inequality in the United States throughout history. The documentary focuses mainly on the fact that most of the nation's prisons are unfairly filled with African Americans and colored people. The documentary educates the audience of the horrors the African Americans and colored people went through history and today beginning with slavery, to convict leasing, to Jim Crow Laws, and lastly to present mass incarceration. Ava deeply examines the economic history of slavery and Civil War racist legislation and practices that replaced it as "systems of racial control" and the present forced labor from the years after slavery was abolished. The powerful film 13TH represents

The documentary begins by an audio clip from the former president of the United States Barack Obama and then continues with various of facts and reports from historical figure and other educated people adding on to the facts and ends with photographs of African American families and finally concludes with a closing rap song. The documentary begins by informing the audience of the past historical events and actions due to racial discrimination and the increasing of incarceration and concludes with persuasive tone for the audience to take action for a change. The major shift are seen in the tone and the people that presented the facts, for example adding a quote by a historical figure and the shifting to the scholars analyzing what happened during that time period. The overall structure was helpful towards the audience as a form of establishing persuasion, but it did lack on including other people of color, rather than just African Americans to analyzing the facts, this may have affected their facts or point of view towards the subject. Beginning by indicating the prison population “the united states had during 1972 was 300,000, today we have a prison population of 2.3 million… the U.S. having the

Through the use of famous historical figures like presidents, and activist, these historical figures contribute to the influence of the audience’s opinion by establishing credibility through the higher authority and position these people represent. The documentary opens with Barack Obama stating “the united states is home to 5% of the world population, but 25% of the world's prisoners,” Obama establishes credibility because he is the former president of the United States and him saying this statement is more powerful in the fact that he is trusted and loved by many. He is a person in of high position and he was once the leader of our country. Another powerful persuasive leader used is the activist Martin Luther King Jr that states “And I think we should start now preparing for the inevitable and, let us, when that moment comes go into the situation that we confront with a great deal of dignity and reasonableness.” Another activist used to establish credibility is Malcolm X stating “we were brought here against our will we were not brought here to be citizens, we were not brought here to enjoy the constitutional gifts that they speak so beautifully about.” Using these influential activists establishes credibility by proving that incarceration is a big issue that is occurring and we should act on it immediately, especially using one of the greatest know activists and most visible spokespersons