Redesigning Slavery in America?

This was written by Myla, one of our student interns. The opinions expressed herein do not reflect those of Civitas other than respect for the value of open dialogue.

The Netflix documentary, 13^th addresses the institutional racism in America. The film takes viewers on a journey of American history from the demise of slavery to the era of law and order to the war on drugs and finally, the Black Lives Matter Movement. It gives viewers an insight of the deeply rooted bigotry in our country. The film begins with the voice of former President Barack Obama. He emphasizes the statistics concerning imprisonment in America. “The United States is home to 5% of the world’s population but has 25% of the world’s prisoners. Think about that,” Obama stated. CNN’s political commentator, Van Jones gave a thought-provoking statement. “One out of four human beings with their hands on bars, shackled, in the world are locked up here, in the land of the free?”  

But is America really the land of the free? Is America really a country of equality? Have we really moved on from slavery or have we redesigned slavery? In 1972, the country had a prison population of 300,000. Today, the United States has a prison population of 2.3 million detainees. According to the film, we have the highest rate of incarceration in the world.

The 13^th Amendment of the Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude. This sounds like a great law; however, there is a loophole. The 13^th Amendment can be utilized except in the cases of criminals. Slavery and involuntary servitude is legal when used as punishment for a crime. After the demise of slavery, the Southern economy was fragmented. Slavery was an economic system utilized for many years. To fix the issue of economic turmoil in the South, the loophole in the 13^th Amendment was immediately exploited. As a result, African Americans were arrested for minor crimes such as loitering or vagrancy. This led to the US’s first prison boom which helped rebuild the economy of the South. This originated the stereotype of Black men being criminals. Furthermore, laws were created that caused African Americans to be moved to second-class citizens. Throughout United States history, the prison population had remained largely flat. This all changed in the 1970s. This was the beginning of one of the most destructive events to the Black community: Mass Incarceration.

During the Nixon administration, law and order was a priority. The word crime was a substitute for race. The War on Crime was really referring to large political movements of the time: Black Power, Black Panthers, the antiwar movement, women’s rights, and gay liberation. As federal spending for local law enforcement increased, drugs were considered the public’s number one enemy. Unfortunately, drug addiction and drug dependency were treated as crimes instead of mental health and socioeconomic issues. As a result, thousands of minorities were sent to prisons across the country for low-level offenses or simple possession of drugs. The War on Crime was never about saving our urban cities from illegal substances, it was about saving our cities from becoming more inclusive, equal, and free. Surprisingly, John Ehrlichman, an advisor to Nixon brought light to the truth. “The Nixon White House…had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black but getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities…Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course, we did,” he declared.

While Nixon coined the term “War on Drugs,” Reagan turned the rhetorical war into a literal one. Crack cocaine became an inner-city issue. Which led to Congress establishing mandatory sentencing penalties for illegal substances. Mandatory minimums are sentences that can range from imprisonment for a year to imprisonment for life. Additionally, a judge’s discretion is revoked. Black and Latino men were receiving longer sentences for possession of drugs than white men. Federal spending for law enforcement tripled resulting in racial disparities in America’s prison system and the explosion of mass incarceration. Instead of addressing the issues crippling urban areas, Reagan “takes the problem of economic inequality, hyper segregation in America’s cities, and the problem of drug abuse, and criminalizes all of that in the form of the war on drugs,” (13^th). 

The overrepresentation of Black men as criminals provoked Black communities to support policies that criminalize their own community. When Bill Clinton took office as a Democratic president, he proposed the 1994 federal crime bill to Congress. The bill expanded the prison system, increased funding to state prisons, and increased police presence on the street. The bill had introduced new policies to the criminal justice system. California’s 3 Strikes and Out Policy was implemented in the bill. When an individual is convicted of a third felony, they will be incarcerated for the rest of their life. Truth in Sentencing became another method to keep people imprisoned for 85% of their sentence. As a result, parole is more unlikely. About 60 new capital punishment offenses were created. What former President Bill Clinton did not realize is that his policies were worse than his Republican predecessors. His federal crime bill led to the modern design of America’s prison system. A system that is overwhelmingly biased towards people of color.

Towards the end of the film, the wrongful conviction of Kalief Browder is highlighted. Browder refused to plead guilty to a crime that he did not commit. Typically, 97% of prisoners decide to plea bargain and do not go to trial.  He had to choose between being in prison for 15 years or pleading guilty to a crime that he did not commit. Sadly, the courts punished him for exercising his constitutional right to trial. He spent three years in prison awaiting his trial until all of his charges were dropped resulting in his exoneration. Two years after his release, he committed suicide. Incarceration deeply affects people for the rest of their lives. Not only can prison affect a person’s mental health, but it can also affect their life insurance, housing, food stamps, and access to student loans.

At the end of the film, Donald Trump’s rhetoric and the Black Lives Matter Movement is highlighted. This is an example of how racism will always be a problem in America. During his administration, he made divisive language normal. While serving as president, he refused to denounce white supremacy. As a result, America is more deeply divided. People are more comfortable with being publicly racist. The country is still living with the effects of his term.

The Black Lives Matter movement addresses the issue of race head on. It became nationally recognized following the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. Since their deaths, police brutality has continued to be an ongoing topic in the United States. With the death of George Floyd, the movement has gained popularity on a national and international level. Ultimately, the documentary showcases the videos and names of unarmed Black victims killed by law enforcement. As a country, we need to address systemic racism in America. Government officials should not ban speaking about race in schools. We should educate our youth and not hide them from the truth.