Analysis Of The Documentary 13th By Ava Duvernay

The documentary 13th by Ava DuVernay has a lot to do with racism and the history behind it. Anyone wanting to learn about racism or interested in history would enjoy this film. In the film, the filmmakers expose racism in the past and present. The makers of this film talk about how the 13th Amendment may have abolished slavery, but it did not come even close to ending racism. This documentary show specific examples from real people on how racism has never really been annihilated, even in current times. However, just talking about racism was not the sole purpose of 13th. I think the main reason behind this film was to raise awareness about racism. 13th shows how many laws and rules were not aimed at African Americans when on the down low they

The film then talks about how the 13th Amendment made it illegal to own a slave, but it had a humungous loophole by stating it did not apply to criminals (DuVernay). This caused African Americans to be arrested for minor crimes and become slaves again, which led to the first “prison boom.” DuVernay’s film then began to talk about stories that led to destroying the image of the African American male. WARNING!! There are some gruesome images of African Americans that are shown in the stories shown within this film. Next, the filmmakers started to talk about the laws regulating African Americans and the war on drugs which was also directed towards putting African Americans in prison. Politicians using the “fear of black people” to get elected was the next subject the film covered (DuVernay). In this film shows the shocking amount of people in prison throughout the years, and how these new bills and laws have effected this. A whole generation of African American leaders has been wiped out because the government was afraid of anyone who could unite people according to the movie (DuVernay). 13th ends with talking about how many African Americans are still facing discrimination today since they have been branded a