The documentary makes a very valid point that African-Americans can be over-represented in the media as criminals, but it falls into the same trap itself: African-Americans are about 36% of the incarcerated population but just about 100% of its representation and discussion of incarceration; non-Hispanic whites are about 38% of the incarcerated population but just about 0% of its discussion. Outstanding critique! "13th" was directed and written by Ava DuVernay who has also directed "Selma", and "A Wrinkle in Time". For instance, while explicitly segregated bathrooms or schools have been outlawed, black men are still seen as criminals by many, just as they were in a film from 1915, according to the documentary. Moving through time, DuVernay provides information about the instances leading up to the Black Lives Matter movement. Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special, the Republican Party's appeal to southern white conservatives, the rate of crime in the United States has continued to decline since the late 20th century, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics, African-American Film Critics Association Awards, Alliance of Women Film Journalists' EDA Awards, Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Motion Picture Documentary, DallasFort Worth Film Critics Association Awards, Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special, Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming, Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming, Outstanding Cinematography for a Nonfiction Program, Outstanding Picture Editing for a Nonfiction Program, Outstanding Sound Editing for Nonfiction Programming (Single or Multi-Camera), Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Nonfiction Program (Single or Multi-Camera), Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association, Manohla Dargis, "Review: '13TH,' the Journey From Shackles to Prison Bars", "O.J. All these beautiful black men in the joint, goddamn, warriors that should be out there helping the massahs. That suggests that African-Americans men and women are more like 803300/2253228 = 35.7% of the prison/jail population; so African-American men are perhaps more like 33% of the prison/jail population than 40%. Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment. ), when was the last time - if ever - you heard someone talk about the unsung (yet statistically more common) epidemic of, equivalent of secular heresy - to dare fathom that, perhaps, the ghost of "racism", explain away all the unpleasant demographical discrepancies in. During that time, Black people were subjected to criminalization without just cause, thus resulting in many African-Americans fleeing to various places throughout the country in an effort to escape the threat of wrongful criminalization by the government and law enforcement officials who aimed to keep Black communities oppressed. A large portion of the movie is basically an engaging walk through a very standard narrative of mass incarceration. The film builds its case piece by shattering piece, inspiring levels of shock and outrage that stun the viewer, leaving one shaken and disturbed before closing out on a visual note of hope designed to keep us on the hook as advocates for change. Those prisoners were tasked with providing the labor to rebuild the economy of the south after the Civil War, thus making them slaves yet again. Convicted criminals can still be deprived of liberty. To keep repeating that Black men are 40.2% of the prison population, year after year, is to miss one of the biggest demographic trends in incarceration: It is getting less Black and more White and/or more Hispanic (depending on how you account for changing demographics in the total population), more rural and less urban, even as racial disparities remain enormous: As for the racial trends: The White male state/federal prison incarceration rate per 100,000 rose from 449 in 2000 to 465 in 2014 as the White female rate rose from 34 to 53; the Black male state/federal prison incarceration rate dropped from 3457 to 2724 as the Black female rate dropped from 205 to 109. Remember! (919) 682-1149. And as it turns out, As of mid-October, the film held a stellar 98 percent rating on. , a 14-year-old African American boy who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 for allegedly flirting with a white woman. 13th, Ava DuVernays new documentary on the history of race and incarceration in the United States, could become a big part of that debate. You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers. Again, Im not sure what explains this odd graph. (The Hispanic male state/federal incarceration rate actually dropped from 1220 to 1091 while the Hispanic female state/federal incarceration rate rose slightly from 60 to 64, but Hispanics generally seem to have risen as a share of the incarcerated Whites may not have and there was more absolute growth in Hispanic state/federal prisoners than in White state/federal prisoners.) "The author makes no mistake about using rates and not just raw numbers. subsequent Harvard research revealing that there are no - I repeat, 58,000 or so black cops in the United States, the much maligned private prison contractors barely generate $5 billion annually, even if you include the estimated $1 billion in economic growth derived from prison labor, Since racism is an abstract, metaphysical concept that cannot be quantified or even, Patrick Moynihan was sounding alarm bells about the, a wealth of child neurological research indicates that the environmental impacts of early developmental stressors not only produce cognitive deficiencies that are irreversible, but many, you first attempt to disprove your own hypotheses, like setting elderly women on fire during home invasions, drowning their own children in strip mall water fountains, South America and pretty much the entire Sub-Saharan continent, when countries like Haiti, Mexico, Burma and Iraq are so prone to police corruption that you can, the horrid conditions prisoners in countries like Thailand, Rwanda and Turkey have to survive -, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia mandate, China's annual number of state-endorsed executions, a gospel endlessly preached by black cultural leaders like Thomas Sowell and almost immediately hushed down by counter-ideologues who cling to the "racism as original sin" creation myth like security blankets to explain away any and all problems within the black community. The one that suggests enormous prison population growth the fastest prison population growth ever, by a lot from 2010 to 2016? Of course, that is still a very disproportionate number. Her documentary "13th" is a powerful look at how the modern-day prison labor system links to slavery. It will be. The abolishment of slavery in 1865 freed 4 million people who were formerly property and almost wholly responsible for the economic productivity of the south. As late as the 2016 presidential election, the eventual winner Donald Trump worked to generate fear of crime, claiming high rates in New York City, for instance, which was not true according to the documentary. 13th is a documentary from Ava Duvernary (known for directing 'Selma,' the movie about the march by MLK), and it tracks the history from the introduction of the 13th amendment, which states that no one can be owned by another person, to present day with the lens of the rights of black people. The answer was in the 13. Sign in to comment to your favorite stories, participate in your community and interact with your friends. If youve read a bit about the subject, then you can probably recite the chapters of that narrative yourself: Jim Crow, the Civil Rights movement, backlash, Richard Nixon, the War On Drugs, Ronald Reagan, the crack/cocaine sentencing disparity, Bill Clinton, the Crime Bill, three strikes and youre out, etc. The criminal justice system, and the disparities faced by African-Americans, have been central to the political debate for years. They also are responsible for SB 1070, which gave the police the right to stop anyone they thought to be an immigrant. takes a well-informed look at this loophole and administers a researched look at the American incarceration system and how it contributes to systemic racism today. Lets start with your neighborhood. After the Civil War, African Americans were arrested in massive groups, often for minor crimes, in order to fill the hole in the South's economy after slavery was abolished. 13th honestly shows two sides of a story Black men currently account for an estimated 6.5% of the U.S. population, however, they currently make up 40.2% of the U.S. prison population. More than a century later, the black educated caste (professors, pundits, foundation-funded 'activists'), bolstered by the privileges of academia and the media, are an embarrassment to DuBoiss prophecy. However, Ava Duvernay explores a loophole, which deems a form of slavery acceptable in the legal form of criminal punishment. Instantly acclaimed as one of the most important documentaries of the year, Ava DuVernays film about the mass incarceration of black men, 13th, wowed audiences at the New York Film Festival and looks like a leading Oscar contender as it premieres in theaters and on Netflix on Friday. So, if you're 7 percent of the population and commit 43 percent of the violent crimes it means you commit violent crimes at a rate 6x you're representation. 2. [8] A companion piece 13th: A Conversation with Oprah Winfrey & Ava DuVernay was released on January 26, 2017, in the United States and on January 31, 2017, worldwide on the service. [1]. After their presidential candidates lost to Republicans, Democratic politicians such as Bill Clinton joined the war on drugs. The current prison population is over 2 million. The federal Bureau of Prisons announced in 2016 its intention to stop contracting with private providers for prison services. Thats how we introduced them. Martin died because Zimmerman exercised self-defense after Martin jumped on Zimmerman, punched him in the nose and pounded his head into the pavement. This kept CCA prisons overflowing with immigrant detainees. So in short, 13th is nothing more than yet another identity politics propaganda piece, in which statistics are misconstrued and recent events are reduced into horribly condensed three-second slivers that completely avoid anything even remotely resembling context. It might just be a visual typo, but I think that the effect is considerably misleading, and that an accurate graph might sit uneasily with quotes like Davis. He described the disparity in sentencing as having been an enormous burden in the Black community.. See how its all connected? Thats how we introduced them. Go behind the scenes of Netflix TV shows and movies, see what's coming soon and watch bonus videos on. *Vengeance 2002* (At least thats in the discussion around the movie; that argument isnt made directly in the movie itself.) (lest we forget, the United States - that white privilege hegemony it is - is home to more than, and the first two black billionaires in modern history. This is an insult to the Civil Rights-era heroes who moved mountains in the cause of liberty and justice. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 89th Academy Awards,[4] 13th is more liberal propaganda to further enslave blacks to the idea they are systemically oppressed and need the help of big government to get out of the city. Select the newsletters you'd like to receive: By clicking Subscribe Now, you agree to our, Things We Learned From Ava DuVernays 13th. According to University of Connecticut professor Jelani Cobb, the drafters of the Constitution left a loophole that was immediately exploited in the 13th Amendment. Learn more I understand and wish to proceed. The documentary questions if African Americans were ever truly free in the United States. This was one of the first examples she discussed before going into cases that we see today, such as Trayvon Martins death. [13], Manohla Dargis of The New York Times praised what she called the power of DuVernay's film and its meticulous marshaling of facts. Ava DuVernay's documentary film 13th (2016) explores the history of racial inequality in the United States, focusing on the fact that the nation's prisons are disproportionately filled with African Americans .Keep Reading. Thanks a million. The film explores the demonization of minority poor through these decades to serve political ends, contributing to fears of minorities by whites and to problems of police brutality against minority communities. It sought to elect a certain politician, while destroying the overall good standing of America. Ava DuVernays documentary, 13th, connects this ambiguous clause to mass incarceration in America. DuVernay criticizes both political parties in this documentary. The film was incredibly racist and began to introduce the idea that black men were criminals and that the Ku Klux Klan was reborn after their depiction in this film. Racists will argue that it's because blacks are more violent and therefore more likely to commit crimes. Like all crises, its fuelled by Politicians and businessmen in rural areas encouraged construction of prisons to supply local jobs, and they also have had incentives to keep prisons full. Calling someone a "Racist" in the year 2018 is no different than calling someone a "Witch" in the 1500s or a "communist" in the 1950s. PO Box 309 Anyone who has ever thought about this imbalance, which tends to get trotted out in campaign seasons, will quickly understand the reason why: The US has a lot more crime than other countries. [11], On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 97% based on 102 reviews, with an average rating of 8.77/10. There are exceptions, including criminals. This documentary emphasizes that the current crisis of mass incarceration is directly tied to our country's legacy and history of slavery. : Made in America" wins Best Documentary Feature-Oscars on YouTube, "The 13th: inside Ava DuVernay's Netflix prison documentary on racial inequality", "Ava DuVernay's The 13th Will Be the First Documentary to Ever Open the New York Film Festival", "2016 New York Film Festival to Open With Ava DuVernay Documentary 'The 13th', "13TH: A Conversation with Oprah Winfrey & Ava DuVernay Clip", Mass Incarceration and Its Mystification: A Review of The 13th, "Do Social Justice Documentaries Just Preach to the Choir? Let's look at the numbers. This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator. In this thought-provoking documentary, scholars, activists and politicians analyze the criminalization of African Americans and the U.S. prison boom. It also explains how this all came to be in a riveting, non-scholarly manner. She provides the example of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American boy who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 for allegedly flirting with a white woman. Zimmerman had injuries that backed up his story. Based largely on Doris Kearns Goodwin's monumental volume Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, the film follows Lincoln over the last four months of his presidency, as he. If every single person had a trial, the entire system would shut down. Do you really believe a journalist would sit on a bombshell quote like that for 18 years? An unattributed version of the clip has made the rounds on social media, but it's actually from Ava DuVernay's Netflix documentary "13th," which connects the prison labor industry to a legacy. Not everyone goes to trial. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. 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