13th Vs Just Mercy

This summer I had the opportunity to watch the documentary 13th, on netflix, and read the book Just Mercy by Bryan Stephenson. Both were enlightened and when finished with both you walk away sense of awareness for some of the hardships that black people have faced both past and present. The film 13th was a documentary about the racial inequality in this country. It touches on the crack epidemic, and how it led to the rise of unjust arrest and the rise of incarceration in America. Quoting from the film, the prison population rose from 474,368 in 1980 to 2,042,479 in 2001. The film doesn’t hold anything back. The people being interviewed throughout say whatever’s on their mind, and strengthen their arguments with facts surrounding the issue.

Here it is revealed to us the McMillian had a history of cheating on his wife, Minnie. In a TED Talk, Stephenson stated “You are more than the worst thing you’ve ever done”, and believe the same is true for McMillian. Even though he committed a sinful and egregious act, everyone around him including, the judge and the people of the city has written him, and concluded that he must be the murderer of Ronda Morrison. This seems to be the theme of both past and present America. Black men commit one mistake, and the whole world seems to be cut throat with them. Everyone turned against him and assumed he must be the town murder in order to both create a story, and bring down a man of color. Even in today’s world, black men are constantly being pulled down in society, and their achievements are being disregarded. It’s worth noting that McMillian was an accomplished businessman before the murder accusation. Society loves to make black men the enemies of the

It went into depth about concepts that I had never thought for one second about. It discussed the efforts to end the war on drugs, the creation of these so called “super predators”, and the 1994 Crime Bill. Despite all these important topics discussed the most important issue to me was the fact that a black man was 22 times more likely to be prosecuted than a white man. Furthermore this fact was supported with the number of black men put in prisons due to the infusion of crack cocaine into predominantly black neighborhoods. All these figures gave me a whole new perspective on the leadership in this country. Seeing how Reagan and Nixon knowingly damaged black communities and Clinton, forgive his ignorance, signed into a law a bill that was supposed to crack down on the war on drugs and crime that inevitably put young innocent black men into jail, just made me shake my head in shame and disappointment. Being the president of the BSA this year, I hope to show the film to other members of the BSA and hopefully other BSA