The Lasting Impact of the 13th Amendment: Exposing Racial Injustice in the U.S. Criminal Justice System

Abstract

[Name] The Thirteenth Amendment is an American film by Ava DuVernay whose theme revolves around the concepts of justice, race and mass incarceration throughout the United States dating back before 1865 when slavery ended. One can tell that the film drew its title from the 13th American Amendment adopted back in1865 to enhance freedom to all American in exception of the criminals. It is for such exceptions that DuVernay explores the effects of this amendments loophole having exposed many African Americans and the people of color into black criminalization way back after abolishment of slavery. Basically, the documentary serves as a guide that offers its target clear insights on the modern take on the slavery system experienced by many people of color in the United States of America. The documentary starts with a disturbing quote from former United States president Barack Obama citing that “So let us look at the statistics the united states is home to 5% of the world’s population but 25% of the world’s prisoners ”0:14-0:35. What does such statistics imply? Such statistics are an indication that some Americans are still shielded in slavery shell even after the constitution abolished slavery defining freedom for all Americans regardless of any intersecting identities. Unfortunately, “Rather than race, we use our criminal justice system to label people of color criminals and then engage in all practices we supposedly left behind” this is a clear indication that such slavery remains coined around legal systems defining the legality of holding such persons as slaves while freedom need to be their portion (Alexander and Floyd, 2). Unfortunately, such long perceived stereotype of black criminalization proves influential to-date leading many people of color to take the highest percentages of the American incarcerated population. After the passing of the 13th Amendment, the whites remained reluctant to see and perceive the people of color as their match. The demanding cotton farms in the south demanded labor attention among other industries and satisfying such demands with paid labor proved impractical for the white. The 13th Amendment makes it unconstitutional for someone to be held as a...