Institutional Racism in “13th.”
Institutional racism (alternatively known as systematic racism) describes societal structures and patterns that foist harmful or otherwise oppressive conditions on certain groups based on ethnicity or race. 13th is a one-hundred-minute documentary directed by director Ava DuVernay. The documentary highlights the numerous ways that one troubling loophole in the 13th amendment has been used to control, subdue, and annihilate communities of color through mass imprisonments and mass arrests after the civil war.
The title of the documentary is derived from the 13th amendment, which many citizens in the U.S. celebrate for eradicating slavery despite one disturbing loophole that paved the way for persecution. As highlighted in the documentary, by permitting forced labor for convicted offenders, the 13th amendment enabled a piqued, resentful, and angry white society to incarcerate newly freed slaves on petty offences. And, with the progression of time, the amendment enhanced the perception of black criminality, which reverberates to date. DuVernay provides onscreen statistics that track the substantial increase of incarceration numbers in the U.S. from about 513,000 individuals in 1970 to some 2.3 million individuals in 2016. DuVernay further asserts that one in three black men will be incarcerated in their lifetime.
13th outlines the minutiae of laws that perpetuate racism, discrimination, and facilitate the oppression of black lives. As seen in the documentary, many of the subjects state that the pre-written bills of the American Legislative Exchange Council are often used to advance racist agendas, such as Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law that made it possible for George Zimmerman to walk away without punishment after murdering Trayvon Martin. To further show the prevalence of institutional racism, DuVernay enlists various activists and professors who assert that the collusion between CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) and ALEC bills benefit from mass incarcerations and harsh sentencing laws, for example, mandatory minimums, that buttress business between companies and prisons.