13th Documentary

13^th

What is the likelihood of a black male being incarcerated in America?  1 in 3

 

History is not just stuff that happens by accident. We are the products of history that our ancestors choose, if we’re white. If we are black, we are the products of the history that our ancestors most likely did not choose. Yet here we are all together, the products of that set of choices. And we have to understand that in order to escape from it. — Kevin Gannon, 13th 

What are your thoughts on this quote? Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not? 

I agree that we need to move away from stereo-types for example moving away from the life of our ancestors  .

President Lyndon B. Johnson ushered in the War on Crime, Nixon began a figurative War on Drugs that became a literal War on Drugs in the Reagan era. 

Were you surprised to learn about the racial underpinnings of these legislative policies, and the active role of the state in criminalizing and targeting communities of color? Discuss using the quotation below.

 ‘The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did. – John Ehrlichman, Nixon Administration Advisor.’ 

I am surprised as it was at the time not an obvious correlation as it appears that the war on drugs was happening for the good of others. Although the fact that it was under mining a racial group and connecting them to the drugs problem was shocking. This is because it was a world wide problem. 

Super predator. Criminal.

Think about the power of media and the power of words.

 Discuss media and how words impact the perception and criminalization of people of color, both in the past and the present (animalistic, violent, to be feared, threat to white people, criminals, etc.). 

Give 2x modern-day examples.

Lavinia Woodward: Oxford student 'too bright' for prison is spared jail for stabbing boyfriend

PRISONERS FOR PROFIT. 

Were you aware of the Prison Industrial Complex and how corporations are profiting from incarceration?

no i wasn't aware that big companies are profiting from prisoners producing these products. 

 What are the dangers surrounding ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council—a committee of politicians and corporations influencing laws that benefit its corporate founders and pushing forth policies to increase the number of people in prison and increase sentences)?

The American Legislative Exchange Council. This is a secretive group of about 2,000 state legislators, major corporations and far-right think tanks. The goal of ALEC is privatization and advancing the interests of corporations.

What is the impact of  CCA? (Corrections Corporations of America, leader in private prisons that is required to keep prison beds filled—the leading corporation responsible for the rapid increase in criminalization) and how that impacts our communities. The film argues that there is a direct link between American slavery and the modern American prison system. What is your take on this argument?

They enforce harsher laws to keep prisons filled swell as house grant families in prison like halls. 

People say all the time, ‘Well, I don’t understand how people could have tolerated slavery. How could they have made peace with that? How could people have gone to a lynching and participated in that? That’s so crazy. If I was living at that time I would never have tolerated anything like that.’ And the truth is we are living in this time, and we are tolerating it.” -Bryan Stevenson

What is the power of media representations and how does this relate to cultivation theory? If you consistently hear for example that black people in America are the problem behind crime you will start to have a negative view to a group of people. 

N.S.

Find some examples of music, musicians and music videos serving successfully to raise awareness to political issues. Post them to your blog.