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Synopsis Of The Film 13th By Ava Duvenay

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13th
13th, directed by Ava DuVenay, is a Netflix original documentary released in 2016 which brings to the table many individuals to discuss the evolution of the criminalization of African Americans using the thirteenth amendment and the growth of the U.S. prison industry.
About the Director
Ava DuVenay was born on August 24, 1972 in Long Beach, California. Mostly known as a director and filmmaker, DuVenay directed the Oscar-nominated film Selma (2014), which depicts the role Dr. Martin Luther King Jr played in the struggle for voting rights. DuVenay is the first African American female director to receive a Golden Globe nomination and a Best Picture Oscar nomination, making great strides as an African American female.
Synopsis
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This strategy was continuality used by Republicans and even Democrats to gain the popular vote. It resulted in millions of people being incarcerated for minor infractions and breaking up families across America.
After these methods were no longer employed private prisons placed clauses in their contracts with the states that their facilities must remain full or they would fine the state. In addition, a corporation called ALEC would allow companies and legislators team up to propose legislation that that would benefit the company such as the …show more content…

“Uncle Remus” was a fictional character created by Joel Chandler Harris as the narrator of a collection of various African American stories. This gave the American people a perception that African American were kind people with many songs and stories to tell. However, after Birth of a Nation was screened that image was quickly replaced with the notion that African Americans were rapists, murderers, and a threat to society. Since slavery had been abolished and the country still need “black bodies” working this film was successfully able to keep African Americans enslaved in prison. This shows the massive impact media has on our everyday lives even in the 1910s. It brought to light a stereotype that everyone was thinking but keep repressed until the film had aired. This perception of race is further perpetuated with the usage of William Horton in 1988 presidential campaign. Al Gore and George H. W. Bush both used Americans fear of criminality in African Americans to gain the vote and/or decimate their opponents. Ever since after the Civil War, race has played a big part gaining popularity among the white populace. In Michelle Alexander’s novel, The New Jim Crow, she calls this mass incarceration of African Americans simply another version of the Jim Crow laws which were abolish long ago but clearly never forgotten. Society never has

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Although slavery ended over 150 years ago, the director wants to give the audience the idea of how prison system links to slavery. Another positive thought is that they take in consideration social class on this social problem. They talked about corporations such as the CCA, which benefits from the prisoner’s punishment. For example, the SB1070 in Arizona which gave the right to the police to stop anyone and ask their status in the country. In addition, it is also mentioned that the corporation ALEC has a financial interest.

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Racism and racial inequality was extremely prevalent in America during the 1950’s and 1960’s. James Baldwin shows how racism can poison and make a person bitter in his essay “Notes of a Native Son”. Dr. Martin Luther King’s “A Letter from Birmingham Jail” also exposes the negative effects of racism, but he also writes about how to combat racism. Both texts show that the violence and hatred caused from racism form a cycle that never ends because hatred and violence keeps being fed into it. The actions of the characters in “Notes of a Native Son” can be explain by “A Letter from Birmingham Jail”, and when the two texts are paired together the racism that is shown in James Baldwin’s essay can be solved by the plan Dr. King proposes in his

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In 2010, author Michelle Alexander wrote the truly insightful book, The New Jim Crow. Throughout the book, Alexander displayed that by targeting African American men through the War on Drugs and racial biases within communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system is still functioning as a modern day system of racial control while hiding behind colorblindness. The New Jim Crow is an eye opening account of how African Americans are still being denied the very rights supposedly won from the Civil Rights Movement and makes one think about the modern day racial stigmas African Americans are facing. Although there has been many reforms to America, stigmatization is a still growing problem within the African American community and the lasting

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