Reflection on the Documentary 13th Amendment Essay

List 5 important facts that you learned while watching the documentary 13th Amendment?

1. The 13th Amendment was used to advance social inequality and injustice against the people of color. The 13th amendment was a way through which the high number of free African Americans were to be controlled through mass incarceration because the amendment allowed the law to limit the freedom of the blacks using crime as an excuse. Henry Louis Gates Jr. notes that the 13th Amendment was used to instill fear amongst the African Americans because the majority of the law enforcement officers were white.
2. The 13th amendment was used by the politicians as a tool to convince the Americans to vote for them. Different politicians especially Ronald Reagan and President Nixon used the war against drugs and crime to woe for votes. (20:00-21:00).
3. The 13th amendment created a legal loophole that was exploited by the majority white supremacists government to reduce the population of the African Americans people.
4. Every American president since the legislation of the 13th Amendment used the war against crime and drugs to wage war against African Americans who were treated as second-class Americans. Newt Gingrich who was once the speaker of the house of representative notes that the African American community was denied equality and bore the most of the burden.
5. The law enforcement agencies and the media were used by political organizations to support and wage war against the African Americans who were depicted as beasts. Khalil G. Muhammad a professor of history at the Harvard University argues that the war against drugs was a fabrication by the government to give them legal authority to reduce the power of the growing civil rights movements.

What themes, issues, and conflicts are represented in the documentary?

War Against Drugs

Persecution of the civil rights movements fighting for the rights of African Americans. John Hagan notes that crime increase was used to reduce the activism of the civil rights movements which were accused of increasing crime and the politicians argued that giving the negroes their freedom would increase crime (10:00).

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Racial Persecution of African Americans

The 13th amendment significantly contributed to the persecution of the blacks. Nixon created a public movement and support against the African American communities by arguing that the fight against drugs and crime were a public enemy. Pat Nolan argues that the increased funding for prisons led to the disappearance of many young African Americans who were to spend a lot of time in prison.

If someone asked you whether you would recommend this film, how would you respond?

From a personal opinion, I would recommend people to watch the 13th documentary by Ava DuVernay because of its well-documented truth on American past and injustices towards the African American communities that are yet to be addressed. Many political regimes have criminalized African Americans and led to the decline of the number of able and industrious blacks who are incarcerated in American jails that continue to be funded by the American government.

Reference

The 13th. (2016, December 11). Retrieved March 08, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1yJsaFwqDM