Race Reflection

Mass incarceration is an issue that defines us as a society. Today, the United States of America makes up about five percent of the world’s population and has twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners. Also, one of every one hundred adults are locked up, and one in every thirty-seven adults in the United States is under some form of correctional supervision: in addition, African Americans are incarcerated at more than five times the rate of whites. Young black people went through many difficulties; however, they are still called super predators by Hillary Clinton. One of many difficulties is the African slavery, although it was over a century ago, it left a scar and a horrible memory in everyone's mind. All the phenomenons that occurred in our country during the last century gathered thoughts and escalated the problem of mass incarceration which made the people including the police look differently at African American people. I am against the mass incarceration issue. Opposing Donald Trump, I think we should reduce the number of people behind bars with cautions, because It is a complex subject that has many causes and effects in the long term to the people inside and outside the prison.

This targeting led to the incarceration, imprisonment, chain gangs, prison farms and other correctional facilities for tens of thousands of African American men, women, and children.” The idea of mass incarceration being used to systematically oppress black people has traveled to the surface with Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow, and Taylor talks about the effect of mass incarceration. In the book, Alexander highlights that the majority of the African American men are either in prison or have some type of criminal record making it unable for them to vote and get jobs. Alexander describes the criminal justice systems as the “New Jim Crow,” a modern type of oppression for African Americans. Mass incarceration rate skyrocketed during the Drug War and many African American were jailed for several years for petty crimes, shown in the documentary 13th by Ava DuVernay. Alexander book shows the oppression of African American and is a statement to change our criminal justice system that is targeted to victimize African Americans. Ultimately, Taylor points out that not only do the police have the power to destroy your body, but by using their power to charge African American men for petty crimes they able to effectively keep African Americans in a lower-class status, supporting the white suprematist view manifested in our police force.

Primarily highlighted in the documentary is the idea of mass incarceration as “The New Jim Crow”, a phrase popularly used by author and civil rights advocate, Michelle Alexander in her book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. As many already know with it being a significant part of American history, the Jim Crow era was a time of intense racial segregation of African Americans from whites with the former having drastically inferior positions in society. Many of the discriminatory practices that were upheld in the Jim Crow era, including discrimination in housing, jobs, and voting are illegal now if applied to blacks, but are perfectly legal when applied to prisoners, many of whom are

The documentary “13th” is very telling about the problems with the prison system and society's view of African-Americans. After the end of slavery, the economy too a hit because of the lack of labor needed for the industries. To solve this problem, people turned to prison workers, because it was cheap labor that weren’t protected under the 13th Amendment. This amendment abolished slavery and indentured servitude, but left the clause of criminal punishment. Because of this loophole, and because whites were very much still in control of society soon after the 13th Amendment was passed, police forces began going after African-Americans in order to fill prisons and satisfy work forces.

13th is a 2016 American documentary by director Ava DuVernay. The movie was captured and presented in the form of interviews with various people from the diverse background; from educator to politicians, from black to white, they all generally agree with the fact that mass incarceration has done nothing but damage the society and the people of color. As the movie tried to gather all the opinions and information from people with various socio-economic status, I think it is safe to assume that the primary purpose of this film is to serve the information without being polarized to one party. This movie has disenchanted people to realize that mass incarceration of people of color is a big problem. The reason why this topic has been overlooked for

After closely analyzing Ava DuVernay’s documentary 13th, my eyes were opened as to how black people feel vs. the way white people may feel about the criminal justice system and the unfair treatment of African Americans. I was honestly disappointed with both sides because of the way the race card is used to justify our actions towards one another.

Through the use of literature to inspire social change, Michelle Alexander is able to bring attention to an extremely important social issue that is very prevalent throughout our country. The issue that Alexander is writing about is the mass incarceration of black males in the United States. She describes this increase of mass incarceration in depth, and relates this modern form of social control back to an old practice of the Jim Crow laws and separate but equal segregation.

The documentary 13th by Ava DuVernay was a visual masterpiece. The documentary provided its viewers with an array of information that spanned throughout centuries and was eloquently executed in less than 2 hours. The central focus of the film was about how the 13th amendment shaped this country and its prison system. The 13th amendment was the building block for mass incarceration and as time has gone on, new laws and amendments strengthened the process for more people to get incarcerated. Slavery benefited the country as a whole and as the Civil War was winding down, slavery was coming to an end. As the documentary states, the South especially relied heavily on slavery for their economy to sustain. After the passing of the 13th amendment, slaves were freed and it left the South’s economy in shambles. A stipulation within the 13th amendment, that states “Neither slavery not involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been dully convicted, shall exist within the United States.” In turn, mass amounts of newly freed slaves were arrested and deemed criminals. Being criminalized reduced them back to a lower status in the United States, and unfortunately reignited slavery in a new kind of form. The film was not only educational, it also provided its viewers with knowledge about why there is such a disparity in mass incarnations amongst people of color compared to their white counterparts.

Many don’t realize this, but our life is forever indebted in danger. Our life, as in, minorities. This isn’t a dream nor is it long overdue. It has been time and time again when African Americans are placed on the backburner as we watch the members of our communities and societies whom have less melanin than us take what they want believe is rightfully theirs. No one has ever took the time to seek what we deserve for all the horrible endangerment we’ve been put through for years and years to come. I believe that African Americans whom stand together in regards to the Black Lives Matter protest are fighting because we know of the injustice we have had to endure that dates back to so long ago that we just can’t stand on the sidelines

Many people assume that racist legislation put into place in the 1960’s and 70’s led to the mass incarceration of the minority groups. Since these acts have been put into place, the United States has been named the country with the highest incarceration rate in the world, by an astounding amount. Former president Barack Obama states, “The United States is home to 5 percent of the world population, but 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. Think about that.” Barack Obama is insisting that citizens of the United states need to

Washington, D.C. is the nation’s only majority-black jurisdiction, 66% of the police department made up African Americans, and the D.C. Council is primarily African American (Forman, 2012). The incarceration rates for African Americans in Washington, D.C. mirror those of other cities where African Americans have less control over sentencing policy (Forman, 2012). Forman (2012) pointed out if black citizens supported policies that supported mass incarceration how could it be regarded as the New Jim Crow. “The Old Jim Crow, after all, was a series of legal restrictions, backed by state and private violence, imposed on black people by the white majority” (Forman, 2012, pg. 115).

Many Americans, White and Black alike, think of prison as being one of the worst places on Earth. 13th further consolidates this viewpoint, but highlights the inequality within the justice system, as well as outside of it. The documentary covers the controversial topic of discrimination in the criminal justice system while emphasizing the government’s involvement in enforcing this discrimination through policies. 13th by Ava DuVernay has a strong use of the rhetoric pathos to portray the negative treatment of African-Americans in the criminal justice system; however, bias resides in the documentary, thus weakening the argument. DuVernay's use of pathos in 13th helps persuade the audience in her favor.

In 2011, I spent time serving in prisons with a church organization who’s goal was to change the systemic problems within the prison system. This caused me to examine all aspects of inequality and oppression that disproportionately affects people of color.

I agree with Michelle Alexander on her view of mass incarceration, as well as the new racial caste system that has evolved in the United States. She states that, “we have not ended racial caste in America, we have merely redesigned it”. After reading her book The New Jim Crow, her point of view on the age of colorblindness is extremely bold. Over time, it has developed into many forms. The racial systems have evolved from exploitation, to subordination, to marginalization. As a nation, we have remained in deep denial about the racial systems. Even though it may look like America is an egalitarian society, there is too much occurring “behind closed doors”, that is often overlooked.

The documentary we viewed in class is called Thirteenth and is a harrowing deconstruction of the United States current criminal justice system. This one hour and forty minute documentary directed by Ava Duvernay digs deep into the corruption, stagnation, and mismanagement of our countries prison and justice system. Showing how racial prejudice is still alive and well today by examining how we treat criminals in the U.S. This documentary was released in 2016 as a Netflix original and caused quite the uproar. As an indie documentary many people expected very little from Thirteenth, however they were unpleasantly shocked by this scathing dissection of criminality in America. It makes use of the voice of many experts to make a clear point, the