Tyler Miechiel Mayer

Dr. Kendra Parker

ENG 282

27 April 2017

Critical Analysis of 13th

The film 13th, is a 2016 documentary created to educate the country on the prison boom

that has developed over the last 40 years. But not only that, but also the mass incarceration of

African American males over that time period and how it has been used as a way around the 13th

amendment which abolished slavery. The statistics of this film are bewildering and almost

unimaginable to comprehend because of the large percentages and the unjust laws that were

passed along the way in the different presidential administrations over the last 40 years.

After watching this documentary I realized that everything that we read this semester

connected to this class in some way. The overall documentary could be used as a larger umbrella

to what we studied and analyzed in class daily. The mass incarceration that occurred after the

Civil War was the governments way around the 13th Amendment. The government had no idea

how to be economic sufficient without slavery. The production because of slavery was the way

the U.S. became the economic superpower that is was and still is today. The prison system was

the only way around slavery and the U.S. government took full advantage of the loop hole.

Malcolm X grew up during this time period where African Americans were being sentenced to

prison for life and were not given the rights that they deserved in this new nation that was being

built without slavery. In his speech, "The Ballot or the Bullet" Malcolm states, No, I'm not an

American. I'm one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of Americanism. One of

the 22 million black people who are the victims of democracy, nothing but disguised hypocrisy.
So, I'm not standing here speaking to you as an American, or a patriot, or a flag-saluter, or a flag-

waver -- no, not I. I'm speaking as a victim of this American system. And I see America through

the eyes of the victim. I don't see any American dream; I see an American nightmare (Malcolm

X). This statement by Malcolm shows what African Americans like Malcolm X felt during this

time of oppression. He is telling us that the U.S. government is flawed and is full of hypocrites

who say that slavery is no more, yet African Americans are still not given the same equal rights

during his time. Malcolm, like many other African Americans, felt as if they were living a

nightmare and in a way that is exactly what I would feel if I was living in a system where I was

target in everything that I said or did. Although Malcolm is not directly speaking about mass

incarceration and the prison system, his statement still applies to the oppression that African

American felt in terms of being thrown into jail, made to work for free (just like slaves), and

remain a slave like African Americans who came before them. Like Malcolm, these documentary

fights against the injustices that are felt by so many people in this country, especially African

American families that have been torn a part because of the mas incarceration that this country

started. The prisoners in this system and the families of those prisoners that should not be there

do not see the American Dream, they see the American Nightmare, just like Malcolm said and

they feel like victims of a flawed American system.

The underlying message that this documentary delivers to the views is not much of a

underlying message at all. It is a blatant shout out to the country and the government, that what

they are going by throwing over 2 million people into prison is just as wrong as the slavery that

this country built on not too long ago. The makers of this documentary want people like me, who

are uneducated in what is actually happening to get fired up and fight against this injustice. And

that is exactly what this documentary did for me, if pissed me off! I had no idea the statistic that
were in this film and I looked them up in order to make sure they were true and sure enough

everything was the truth. It is daunting to imagine that the presidents of our country found a loop

hole around slavery and have imprisoned over 40% of African Americans along the way because

they were suffering economically and needed to resort back to the worst part of our countries

history: slavery in another form, but non the less, SLAVERY!