13th, By Ana Duvernay

Ana DuVernay’s documentary, “13th” explores and brings light to how the 13th amendment makes it unconstitutional to be held a slave with the exception of being labeled as a criminal. The documentary explains that due to the language used in the 13th amendment, the rights that black people fought to have during the Civil War can be stripped away from them once labeled a criminal. The film states that 1 in every 17 white males are incarcerated during their lifetime, while 1 in every 3 black males are incarcerated during their lifetime. Statistics like these act as evidence for the racial injustice and inequity that is still found in our police and prison system today. Once labeled a criminal, your rights to vote, get a job, take out loans, etc.

Once you have been accused of a crime and labeled a criminal, your rights are taken away and you in turn become a slave to the state. Educator and author Michelle Alexander explained that,“so many aspects of the old Jim Crow are suddenly legal again once you’ve been branded a felon. And so it seems that in America we haven’t so much ended racial caste, but simply redesigned it” (13th, 1:17:50). The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world which is attributed to the wording of the 13th amendment. This amendment implies that slavery can be used as a punishment for crime. After the Civil War, people of color were arrested in mass numbers, as the words, “except as a punishment for crime” allowed them to be enslaved and used for free labor to rebuild the economy (13th, 3:50). The documentary explains how several presidential campaigns, the war on drugs, the 1994 crime bill, the portraying of black people as “super predators” in the media, and the impact of ALEC and its partnership with the CCA have largely affected the rates of people of color being incarcerated on the terms of injustice and the racist system that history has

Access and attention to this information has become easy and immediate through social media. Therefore, I find it impossible that anyone could say that they were unaware of the injustice within our police and prison systems towards people of color before watching this documentary. However, I was unaware of some of the moments in our history that have built up this injustice that we see today. Although I have studied the constitution's amendments several times throughout my education, it has never been brought to my attention that the wording of it allows people to be treated as a slave once they are labeled a criminal. In my memory of learning about this amendment, I was taught that this amendment abolished slavery after the Civil War. Attention was never brought to the fact that the amendment also states that this abolishment of slavery is an exception if you are a criminal. The 13th amendment is worded this way as an attempt to keep people of color oppressed, treated with injustice, and ultimately as slaves. When reflecting on this, it makes me realize the systematic racism built within our education system as these things are not taught in our classrooms. In our country, if you have been incarcerated (typically unfairly) as punishment you are treated as a slave, which is allowed through our constitution. Before watching this