The effect of incarceration goes far beyond the individual and familial toll.
Often, the act of sentencing a person to jail or prison touches on deep societal issues and historical injustices, according to the documentary “13th.”
Wartburg College Black Student Union will host a lunch and learn on the film at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday in the Clinton Hall Classrooms. The event is free and open to the community.
The documentary was directed by Ava DuVernay and is distributed by Netflix.
It takes its title from the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The amendment was passed in 1865 and reads, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United
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States.”
Today, African Americans are disproportionately represented in U.S. prison populations. According to the most recent U.S. Census, they comprise roughly 13% of Americans but more than a third of the nation’s inmates.
“In the era of colorblindness, it is no longer socially permissible to use race, explicitly, as a justification for discrimination, exclusion and social contempt. So we don’t,” writes Michelle Alexander in “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.”
“Rather than rely on race, we use our criminal justice system to label people of color ‘criminals’ and then engage in practices we supposedly left behind,” adds Alexander, who was interviewed for “13th.”
DuVernay’s documentary posits that the amendment’s second clause on “punishment for crime” progressed to the present-day “horrors of mass criminalization and the sprawling American prison industry.”
The film begins with the voice of former president Barack Obama: “Let’s look at the statistics: The United States is home to 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s prisoners. Think about that.”
From there, “13th” explores an array of archival footage and statements from activists, politicians, historians and formerly incarcerated men and women. DuVernay and co-writer Spencer Averick contend that the disproportionate representation of black men and women in U.S. jails and prisons is largely by design. Kevin Gannon, a history professor at Grand View University in Des Moines, is among those who were interviewed for “13th.” He says history is not a series of random incidents and accidents.
“We are the products of the history that our ancestors chose, if we’re white. If we are black, we are the products of the history our ancestors most likely did not choose,” he insists. “Yet here we all are together, the products of that set of choices. And we have to understand that in order to escape from it.”
Following the U.S. Civil War, certain behaviors of freedmen were criminalized, leading to their arrest and sentencing to forced labor under state convict leasing arrangements. This system, along with disenfranchisement, lynchings and Jim Crow laws and a variety of other factors, led to the present day “prison industrial complex,” according to “13th.”
The “13th” lunch and learn is part of Wartburg BSU Black History Month programming. The student-led organization is devoted to social, educational and political activism and hosts a variety of events throughout the year. For more information, call (800) 772-2085.
Wartburg BSU was organized in the 1970s to provide a support network for students attending the predominantly white college. Its mission is “to express and support the black perspective throughout campus life. BSU shall create awareness and stimulate an appreciation of black Americans’ contributions to culture and society.”
Karris Golden writes The Courier’s weekly faith and values column. Email her at onfaith@karrisgolden.com.