13th Ava Duvernay Analysis

Emerald Nau

AF AM 110

Dr. Colapietro

Exposition and Critique of 13th The documentary 13th by Ava DuVernay was a visual masterpiece. The documentary provided its viewers with an array of information that spanned throughout centuries and was eloquently executed in less than 2 hours. The central focus of the film was about how the 13th amendment shaped this country and its prison system. The 13th amendment was the building block for mass incarceration and as time has gone on, new laws and amendments strengthened the process for more people to get incarcerated. Slavery benefited the country as a whole and as the Civil War was winding down, slavery was coming to an end. As the documentary states, the South especially relied heavily on slavery

From the ending of slavery, began a new norm of imprisonment. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Kevin Gannon, a history professor from Grandview University, made an excellent point about why blacks and whites are where they are now. He stated “We are the products of history that our ancestors chose, if we’re white. If we are black, we are the products of the history that our ancestors most likely did not choose.” Within the documentary, a segment focused on the critically acclaimed motion picture, Birth of a Nation. The motion picture was not only a major blockbuster, but according to it also confirmed the beliefs of “White America” wanted to see. The movie depicted blacks in a lewd and terrible manner. The white political elite needed black bodies working, and the Birth of a Nation provided with cause to make blacks criminals. By being deemed criminals, whatever human rights a black person had, were automatically taken away. Which in turn, caused them to pay back society through labor and hard time. According to a speaker within 13th, Birth of a Nation accurately predicted how race was going to operate in the United States. The movie created a new wave of terrorism and was the main cause for the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan. D.W Griffith created the burning cross symbol enclosed in the movie, and the Ku Klux Klan adopted it. Birth of a

The war on drugs was first proposed during that decade and instead of treating the problem as a health issue, it was heavily criminalized. The war of drugs ideology was proposed to America by Richard Nixon, in a figurative sense, but when Ronald Reagan came into office, it manifested into becoming literal. Citizens were being criminalized and arrested for small amounts of drugs such as weed. As well during this decade, Southern Strategy began to be practiced. Southern Strategy was the political method of recruiting Souther Whites to join the political party. The War on Drugs became a witch hunt to arrest blacks. Reagan’s era was transformative for our society in the negative sense. Reagan’s War on Drugs during 1982, is the “war on drugs” we are currently fighting. Drug imprisonment rates skyrocketed and campaigns such as “Just Say No!” were born. When crack came onto the market, introduction of mandatory sentencing as well came into existence. Cocaine was seen as more sophisticated and whoever was caught with it, would not face the reprimanding as someone who had crack rock. Being that cocaine was much more expensive compared to crack rock, communities of color were being targeted. Blacks representation in the media is continuously negative. Whether they are being portrayed as slaves, thugs, criminals, violent, animalistic, etc. Blacks are overly represented as criminals in the media. George H.W Bush