Why you need to watch 13th

In light of both recent events of police brutality, and the light being brought to death long ago, it’s important to keep one's self educated on race, systems of racial oppression, and the ways of how it works throughout the world. One of these ways that’s crucial to understand is racism and the prison system.
The 2016 documentary 13th by Ava Duvernay unpacks systemic racism through the prison and justice systems, starting with the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment states that “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” (law.cornell.edu).

13th explains how this loophole of ‘except as a punishment for crime’ has allowed for the mass development of oppression since the introduction of this amendment. It shows how slavery, which was supposed to end with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, has been rebranded and excused through the prison system. This documentary is a vital tool to educate one’s self on just how inequitable the effects of the prison system are on black people versus white people.

It’s an incredibly eye opening, informative, moving, film that’s crucial to watch and understand amongst the current protests and deaths at the hands of police brutality happening every day.