By Joshua Medero | Observer Contributor
Image from flickr
13th is a documentary based on the 13th Amendment. The 13th Amendment states, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” All in all, it is the abolishment of slavery.
The documentary begins with a statistic by Barack Obama saying, “The United States is home to 5% of the world’s population but 25% of the world’s prisoners. Think about that.” This opening statement is something many people may not know about.
It goes on to discuss extremely controversial topics such as mass incarceration, racism, slavery, lynching, Ku Klux Klan and drug epidemics. The fact the documentary even digs into these topics is great for challenging thoughts and minds.
Having these statistics and facts laid out flat for Americans to watch will hopefully help shift the thoughts Americans may have on African Americans and their history. It ties in with power and privilege because a white woman could easily say she was raped by an African American male and he would be beat, tortured and maybe even lynched without question.
The documentary also explains how our presidents at the time reacted to these events. President Woodrow Wilson premiered the movie “The Birth of a Nation” at the White House, which shows much about his character if he is showing a movie glorifying the KKK and deeming African Americans as uncontrollable animals. President Richard Nixon began a war on drugs which became an actual war, yet was reduced to a rhetorical statement when President Ronald Reagan used it in speeches.
The topics talked about are powerful and touchy subjects. Not only do they explain different situations like the Emmett Till case, they also show the actual lynchings. It is sad to think people could do this to each other simply based on the assumption that they “might have” committed a crime.
All of these different events in this one documentary reflect the history in our country and it is extremely sad. I do not think this movie got as much credit as it deserved and I think it should be praised for the topics it covers. “13th” was a phenomenal film and I can not think of one negative thing to say about it. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in America’s history or to anyone in general.
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