13th, By Ava Duvernay

Do you remember reading about the slave trade in our history books? And how Abraham Lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation which abolished slavery. But yet, under the 13th Amendment one is forced to involuntary slavery when convicted of a crime. Yes, it is the year 2017 and we can say slavery still exist. Saying that slavery was “Abolished” would be deceptive from my part, I believe it was put to an end but then reconstructed into the American Prison System. In this documentary 13th by Ava DuVernay she argues there is a direct link between American Slavery and the modern American prison system and I believe that there happens to be a connection between the both based on the Mass Incarceration and the War on Drugs that Nixon and Reagan influenced. The 1970’s mass incarceration can prove that the African Americans were targeted by the system the most. Richard Nixon’s launch on the War on Drugs was the main reason for this mass incarceration. So, if slavery was really abolished in

Wouldn’t that beat the whole purpose of our unalienable rights to “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness?” In the 1970’s Richard Nixon had launched the War on Drugs which mainly targeted the minorities in America. The black community was affected the most when they were being sent to prison for minor crimes such as loitering or vagrancy which would give you several years in your sentence. The war on drugs was one of the biggest reasons for the mass incarceration and why the prison population kept increasing over the years. One of Nixon’s aide named John Ehrlichman admitted to the real reason why the War on Drugs was introduced, he stated “You want to know what this was really about. The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m