What Does 13th Characterize Criminal Justice

Extra Credit
1. The documentary, 13th, characterizes our criminal justice system and political institutions as corrupt institutions focused on exploiting the human rights of, primarily African Americans but also other minority groups. The documentary showed that the 13th amendment gave freedom to all citizens except criminals and allowed the criminal system to exploit incarcerated African Americans’ rights and still allowed slavery to take place. After the civil war, slavery continued by arresting African Americans for minor offences such as littering. Starting in 1970’s up until today, the war on drugs directly increased the mass incarceration that occurred throughout that time. In class, we learned that there was a huge increase in the incarceration

rates in the U.S, and the film showed what factors contributed to this increase. This film really changed my view of the prison system to a negative view and has showed me the mass incarceration in the U.S and the exploitation within the criminal system. When I learned that 25% of the world’s prison population is in the U.S it shocked me since the U.S only accounts for 5% of the world’s total population. Another fact that changed my views was that ALEC, a political lobbying group, writes laws and propose laws which gives them a huge say in law making. I wa shocked to learn that a group of politicians and corporations had the ability to make our laws.
2. The media and popular culture representations of black men contributed to a dangerous climate of white fear and anxiety by over-depicting black men as criminals and generally showing them in a negative light. The media constantly showed black men as criminals for years on end and associated crime with African Americans. The term Super Predators was a strong idea that reinforced the association of primitive fear of African Americans that developed shortly after the civil war. A way we can challenge these instances of racisms and dehumanization by making more documentaries like “13th” and shedding more light on the fact that the media is overtly dehumanizing black men.