Ava DuVernay’s ’13th’ Inspires Critical Thinking on the American Prison Syst

Prison – a system created by individuals to house convicts guilty for crimes committed in the past.

But for some, it is a version of modern-day slavery devoid of human rights. President Barack Obama said that the United States is home to 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s prisoners.

“One out of four human beings with their hands on bars, shackled, in the world locked up here, in the land of the free.” This is said in Ava DuVernay’s latest documentary ’13th’ which highlights the root of the prison system leading to mass incarceration which was brought about thanks to the 13th Amendment.

Now according the 13th Amendment in the Constitution, “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction”. More or less, it’s like saying that everyone is free, except prisoners. And this loophole has been taken advantage of in American prisons.

Have you noticed the link to black people? Blaming the system on a construction of higher powers and uncovering how the loophole in the constitution has been exploited, racism seems to be the underlying factor to the vast number of black men and women in prisons compared to their counterparts. And what other ‘effective’ tool to control the black population for the sake of hidden agendas than to change the system that controls us all – the law?

However, what is the link to slavery? Various opinions state that African Americans were arrested en masse after the Civil War for no or minor reasons – for the sake of restricting or containing the black population – and in order to do that, it involves accusing them of crimes they have not committed, or throwing them in jail and criminalising them – just as it was done in the past.

Hence, turning them into slaves once again.

Simply put, ’13th’ discovers that prison is not just prison any more. The dynamics have changed. The system has been corrupted. This is why many protest songs have come about, especially in hip-hop. A song that comes to mind is Lupe Fiasco’s ‘Words I Never Said’ which stirred controversy back in 2011.

“Keep you at the bottom but tease you with the upper crust, you get it then they move it so you never keeping up enough. If you turn on TV all you see’s a bunch of ‘what the f*cks’. Dude is dating so-and-so blabbering ’bout such and such, and that ain’t ‘Jersey Shore’, homie that’s the news, and these the same people that supposed to be telling us the truth.”

And just recently in 2016, rapper TI released his own protest song ‘War Zone’ stating: “This modern day slavery, the prison publicly traded, and the jig’s up, the Constitution and Emancipation Proclamation’s just a f*ckin’ piece of paper.” Interestingly summarised, ’13th’ underlies the constitution and how it has become unreliable as black people are thrown in jail and labelled as murderers and convicts, cases that plague the media every day – just as in the past.

As said in the documentary, “if we are white, we are products of the history that our ancestors chose. If we are black, we are products of the history that our ancestors most likely did not choose.” Do you agree?

If you’re keeping up with social politics and feel like deconstructing the justice system, ’13th’ is a refreshing watch that opens your eyes and critically analyses the plight of prisoners.

’13th’ is now available for your viewing pleasure on Netflix.

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