Personally, I thought the movie was very eye opening as I did not know or I did not care to know the facts that were given in the viewing. It was a very hard pill to swallow and He was right in saying that it was a very controversial and covered very sensitive topic. After viewing the movie, I am looking at the criminal justice system in a different light. It was difficult for me personally because I have always viewed the criminal justice system, law enforcement, corrections, and all as also heroic. I still do view them as great people in a good system and after watching this video, I did not hate the police, corrections, or the criminal justice system. I was motivated to continue my studies because I thought that maybe I could do something about it, even if it is only me doing something. The movie showed me fact like the ever increasing prison population, about 2,306,000 in the year 2014, and other things like ALEC which I did not even know existed at the time. These facts along with the long history of failed systems and racial / economic disparity really hit hard for me. I just did not know how to feel and thoughts started rolling into my head, Thoughts such as: These numbers can’t be right or really? Big thoughts are still rolling in for me. What can I do to help? Can I help? Will I be able to do anything by myself? What would I do? Perhaps, I thought. Perhaps, I can make a difference locally. Not a big, noticeable difference that will be on national television all over the US but just locally. I plan on being a sheriff and one of the things that I will have to do is man the jail for awhile. Maybe I can help someone if my job permits. Perhaps, when I go onto the streets, i might be able to help someone there. I do not want to be part of this statistic. I do not want to add to the problem stated in the movie. I was to actually help the community. These facts are simply disturbing. A fact stated frequently in the criminal justice field, the US has 5% of the world population but 25% of its prison population. The sentence for one oz of crack is the same as 100 oz of powdered coke. Three strikes laws, truth in sentencing, etc. I want to fix this, I really do. The first thing I think we need to do is inform the public. I did not know these facts until I watched the movie. I can almost guarantee that the public does not know these statistics. The more people know, the more people will act. I do not want unravel the criminal justice system, we need to reform it. Fix the leaks in a pipe so nothing else falls through. I believe we can do it. This movies was incredibly informative and should be shown throughout the US to inform the public so we can do something, as a country, not as one group against another. -TheMarshall789
Prior to this movie I had no idea that some of the things that were being talked about where true and that the things that happened actually happened. Thanks to the movie I have learned that they were true. Within the first few seconds I found it interesting how they said the the United States has five percent of the world population but twenty-five percent of the world's prisoners. I also found the 13th a very informative and quite sickening on some some of the things that have been done. The loophole with the 13th amendment is quite scary. With how most immedility people exploited it, especially after the Civil War. The loophole is the amendment does not apply to criminals. People, mainly African Americans, were getting arrested for minor crimes after the Civil War. People even made it a thing to say the African American males made a “threat” to white American females. After everyone was arrested the prisoners provided labor to rebuild the economy of the south after the Civil War. American people needed African American males to work because many Americans did not know how to do what the others did. Unfortunately every picture you will see by Wilson will portray African Americans as animals. Not all African Americans are animals. Just the same as Americans, some Americans are animals. In my opinion every races is not perfect and they each have people that are animals. From what I got from the movie is that the KKK was killing African Americans in mobs just because they thought that the person they were going to kill did something bad, without any evidence. Giving some right back to African Americans Nixon felt they’re giving “Negroes“ rights getting repaid it back with the increase in crime. With the higher crime rates caused mass incarceration throughout the United States. I found interesting that the movie included the prison population In different years. For example in 1970 the prison population was 357,292 people incarcerated and. Also in 1980 the prison population was 513,900. Then in 1985 the prison population was 759,100. Also in 1990 to prison population was 1,179,l200. Finally in 2016 prison population was 2,306,200. With property increasing in the 1980s drugs became a very big thing and then President Ronald Reagan to clear war on drugs during this time. With the drug crime increasing “super predators” were formed. Super predators were fatherless, jobless, and godless children mainly male children. And those children that were considered super predators were incarcerated and charged for rape and murder. Unfortunately all the children did not commit those crimes and sat in prison for 11 years until DNA Analysis prove that they were innocent. Before the video I never knew about an organization called ALEC. I found it very interesting but also strange that bills and laws were passed that first started off by this organization. In reality I found everything that was said about ALEC was interesting because I never knew something of that sort what is used throughout the government along with people’s everyday lives. In my opinion it is pretty bad still to this day African Americans are still scared of what happened in the past and arrested is still a big fear for them. Especially with how racist some people are. In conclusion found the video very informing and shocking. -jw789
This is inseane to see to that we have valued money over indvidulas in our country this is in turn a chance to say polciy needs to change ideas need to change compassion has to be at the foothole of every erguement as a cluture that works together is the one who stands on top the arguement is not lastling in how effected generations are but what we can do to make a difffenrce from right now moveing foward. eagle789
I found the information given in this video to be very troubling. However, in a weird way, I also have hope for the future because of this documentary. I had previously thought that the disproportionate incarceration by race was a dying problem that was a product of a bygone era, but the information given in the documentary makes it appear otherwise. I was not surprised to learn that prison population has gone up because over time because population has also increased, however I was surprised to learn that the racial disproportionality and incarceration has increased over time. In 1970, the incarceration rate was about .14% of the total population, and today it is around .7% which is five times the initial amount. Statistics like these often cause people to be disheartened because they present problems for which the average citizen cannot provide a solution. The documentary also talked about media portrayal of minorities. I think that it is very important that this is talked about. People do not have complete control over the way their governments arrest and convict people, however, they have complete control over the media that they consume. I think that the media provides a large role in shaping the way that the public views people who usually end up being the victims of problems in the justice system. The way the public views these people tends to have an effect on the problem itself. In the 1980s, these people were called “super-predators”, and were painted as apathetic animalistic criminals. Such a portrayal allows for little to no sympathy when it comes to the incarceration of such people. Now that it is being revealed more and more over time that these people are nowhere near the monsters they are described as being, and in many cases are completely innocent, the general public is much more likely to advocate for these people. I am hopeful because documentaries like these are becoming more and more mainstream. Ava Duvernay, the director of this documentary, has created works like the movie “Selma” that even went as far as to receive an oscar nomination. This documentary also exposes people who share in the responsibility of these problems more so than does the average citizen. ALEC, the one that comes to mind. ALEC has supported programs that have furthered many of the issues brought up by this documentary. One victory over ALEC in recent years was the dissolution of private prisons at the federal level. While most private prisons had not been run at the federal level, I still believe that this is a very big mark of progress moving forward. I believe that lawmakers pay attention to what people are discussing, and as the issues become more important to the common person, more laws are passed to right the wrongs that are currently in place. While I believe many problems do lie in the particular circumstances of scenarios, I think that the most effective way of changing things is through universal incentives. If law enforcement provided incentives for reform and rehabilitation instead of conviction, the system would work out many of the existing problems on its own. While the information in the documentary was very disheartening at times, the fact that the documentary was made and is being paid attention to is very hopeful. -Rudedogg789
I also found the information in the movie to be quite troubling and just like you, I also hope high hopes for the future. As the next generation of criminal justice and law enforcement officers, we can help to undo or at least improve the mistakes of the past. It is also important to write down the mistakes of the past and teach the younger generations to come to help fix and avoid future mistake of the same size and caliber. History can easily repeat itself if we do not remember it. We must learn from the mistake of the past. This is extremely important, we cannot fix it if we take one step forward and two steps back. I believe this documentary was made with the same intention as I and I believe it should be shown to all those who wish to acquire a law enforcement or criminal justice degree. –TheMarshall789
This video was very eye opening and trouble, like you have mentioned. I think it is key that you mentioned the we control the media we consume. I feel as though the media twists thing to make you believe what they want you to believe. This is shown is what you mention as African Americans were called super-predators. They made them out to be terrible people and That is so crazy to me that they would do that to people. Like you mentioned, most of these people were innocent, yet people assumed they were terrible people because the stigma the news gave them. - ST789
13th connected many points in history for what African American have went through in this country in terms of having certain preclinical taken away that most of us feel we should just be basic sources people have access to such as being able to work have education without any stigma barriers existing, Yet as shown by the movie we went from having existing slavery from the baby years of our nation to abolishing this with the 31th amendment after the civil only to bring the ideas of segregation back through, Jim Crow Laws, to establish laws that made it legal to isolate African American from certain privileges that other individuals had access to this then was abolished and so came the process of felony slavery as pointed out by the video. This turned this idea of causing a felony to exist on someone’s background could cause them to be a slave to the state for a lengthy amount of time 20-30 years. If not longer as there was no rehabilitation in place to ensure that these individuals would not commit future crimes. With the Drug War created at damaging individuals from these communities with charges of lengthy sentences. This has effect more African Americans than any other racial groups one tactic develop led by the CIA is stated as being is to use forms such as tv, radios and different news outlets in under to display certain steigimas to groups in order for these groups to belief this is the displayed image of who they are such tactics have been deployed by showing black males as rapist, criminals, gangsters this bys in for them as the acceptable identity for them to buy into so they put all their time energy and effort to build this vicious cycle. eagle789 and Another blog member
With the U.S. having in total 5% of the entire world’s population with having 25% of all the world's prisoners this paints a problem as we are imprisoning more individuals than any other location in the world but why do this. After the Civil War which is the movement said to abolish slavery the former slaves were said to have rebuilt the South after the War had taken place. When the creation of what is known media started to become used in every household such as a radio, television, and the newspaper African Americans became animals in the highlines committing crimes such as rapes,robberies, and murder mostly unforgivable crimes to isolate these individuals. Even Martin Luther King jr during the times he was fighting for equal rights was labeled by the FBI as a leader of a cult and labeled as a terrorist. Courts then after alienating these individuals more began to adopt mantorying sentencing leaving the fake of people up to the prosecutors rather then judges in given court cases. Even political parties had to show that they were the toughest caniciade in fighting crime in order to have favor over their opponents. This shows the deep roots of the nation culture and how much work needs to be done in order to ensure everyone has equal freedom which should be at the forefront of every individual. The 13 portrays a very intriguing in depth look into what is happening with our prisons and the systematic racial discrimination that is going on in this country. The 13th amendment of the constitution makes it unconstitutional for a person to be held as a slave; it grants freedom for all Americans. eagle789 and another blog member
I agree with you when you say that the media was used to display African Americans as horrible people. Like you said, in every newspaper, radio broadcast, and showing on the news, African Americans were talked about and shown committing the worst possible crimes. People were taking advantage of the new technology and things of that nature to try and make people believe that African Americans were horrible people, despite the fact that most African Americans had not committed any of these horrible crimes at all that they were accused of committing. During this time, many new laws were passed that specifically targeted African Americans and made their lives very hard. -Fozz789
I have to agree that african americans were portrayed very poorly due to the fact of media because it just spreads like wildfire when something pops up. Now a days it is getting worse and worse based on the new technology that we are creating. They are betraying their people and creating them to be something they are not. The fact that they are still being targeted is sad and to my thought I believed we were getting better. I was very wrong in my thought and it is sad to see that this is still happening to this day. Some things just may never die. Hollywood789
This applies to everyone except this little loophole that states that criminals do not get this right of freedom. This documentary gets right to the point by saying, quite convincingly, that this is how to keep slaves essentially. Slavery was an economic system that provided lots of money for wealthy land owners. Seeing this in the film brought a lot of what I have learned in this class into perspective. The wealthy are the ones that are making the decisions, the ones writing the laws, and influencing the outcome of societal events to further benefit those in charge, and the ones who now see a problem with Mass Incarceration, that has been created through racial disparities and ignorance. It would make sense that after the Civil War, America would try and repair the economy by any means necessary. Slavery was a major part of that economy and everyday life; it would make sense if they did plant a sort of loophole somewhere in the laws that were written, namely the 13th amendment. It’s even stated in the film that after the war the slaves were free only to be incarcerated in large amounts. This wasn’t without an attempt to portray African Americans as dangerous and animal like. The film Birth of a Nation gave what many white American wanted to see, the very people they were trying to keep down as a lesser, almost sub species of humanity who needed to be locked up. It wasn’t much time later that lynching and deaths of African Americans were starting to happen. Then after that was intolerable and laws were made to stop these deaths, segregation became an aspect of American life. The Civil Rights movement of the 1960s caused enough of a wake-up call, that the desegregation of school and equal rights were needed for this countries growth. The prison system was growing at throughout this time and laws were being put in place to assist in this growth. In the film it stated in 1970 the prison population was 357,292, right now it sits at 2.3 million. This growth had many steps that led to this outcome. The war on drugs in 1980s played one of the biggest. People were incarcerated for drugs like crack, that was commonly used in inner cities where it was sold cheap but you were sentenced longer than if you had the more expensive drug, cocaine. It’s a lot to take in at once or even two viewing, but this film provided an intriguing an thought provoking view into the disparity of the African American community here in the United States. There is statistical fact to back the knowledge here. African American males are incarcerated at much higher rate than white males, this is fact. I cannot confirm some statements made in the film, such as the influence of ALEC, but my mind is open to the notion. eagle789 and another blog member
I have to agree with you that the information presented in this documentary was very disturbing. It truly makes me wonder when this problem in our country will end. It seems like common people like ourselves can see the issue at hand, and understand that the color of our skin does not define our merit. However our system seems to be broken; with the attitudes of older generations, and old ways of thinking. I hope that one day we can resolve these issues with more progressive ideas. Honestly though with the way things are going I really would be surprised if this was as much of an issue in years to come. -Rudedogg789
Part 1 Prisons are really overpopulated and we kept putting people in there that did not deserve to be there. There was people getting things that were a little crime but they had to do what they had to do because the law was set like that so they had to. The things that they would be charged with were little bags of weed or a little cocaine but nothing serious. The KKK was big back then and th whites did not like the african americans at all but would be able to get away with anything because they were white. The KKK would pick people that were trying to change the culture and they would take them and kill them and then show everybody what they were capable of doing to everybody that tried to mess with them.The KKK was a bad thing that people got in but they were brought in by people so they had no choice. Thousands of african americans were killed by the mod because they hated them and they wanted all the african americans gone and off of the earth so they tried to kill them all. The mod were scary back then because when they wanted to get something done they would do it no matter what the consequence would be. Back then when african americans were getting arrested from a white officer they were scared to death because they thought they were fearing for their life because they didn't know what was going to happen. This is still the problem today because they are still scared that something bad will happen to them if they make a wrong move. In december 1875 slavery stopped. After slavery stopped the crime rate started to go through the roof. The crime rate started to go up because they thought that they should punish everybody that got trouble and that is why today we have mass incarceration problem in the world because people that are in prison right now are in there for drug crime that were dumb. When the war on drug started they thought they would get everybody. When it came down to it they just wanted to throw the African americans in jail for the crime and let the white folks walk.When this happened the the incarceration rate went through the roof and there was no way that there was any catching up.When the crack cocaine started to happen there was mandatory minimum that took place and when somebody got caught they would go straight to prison and there was no way out of it.
Part 2 I really thought the 13th documentary was a great way to show people how the constitution of the 13th amendment relates with criminal justice. During the presidential of Dixon, during the time ‘war on drugs’ was an insane era. Though Dixon established a system where only African Americans were only targeted without any motives to be detained. In the 13th movie, basically Dixon is saying that the population of African Americans is only growing so something has to be done. There was no ‘War on Drugs’ it was ‘War on African Americans’. Now, throughout more presidential elections, a former president Ronald Reagan proposed that the ‘War on Drugs’ was a continuous war that was going to be fought, so the war only became more insidious. Though the only people today to use illegal narcotics is the middle class white folks and the American drug trade makes around $151 millions dollars. Yes, cities and states such as Chicago, Compton, New Jersey are know for the higher places to deal with illegal use of narcotic. States and Federal use this to imprison the African Americans in the end. Throughout the years, there has been race inequality ever since (these is where the 13th amendment becomes violated) and clearly, in the amendment states that slavery is and should be abolished and not used for no reason what so ever. According to the film, those who committed or violated crime meant that the person was re-enslaved and in this essence the African American people. So, in the case that most offenders where African Americans, so these people where violated to the highest of charges there could ever be such as for a petty theft, drugs, and who knows what else, but for silly things. They were getting imprisoned for long periods of times. Also, before the 13th amendment was even created, if a black person could not pay his or hers charges than the person was sold to big companies to make money. This companies who bought the African Americans where working in very harsh conditions. Not to mention, crack coin charges are way heavier than powder cocaine according to the film. Also, I never knew that white people imprisoned black people in zoos in the 1950’s. I believe history has made things worse now in the present, even though we are now doing things a little bit much better not to imprison people in certain aspects of our correctional system. I think our history; our starting point where it all began is so harsh and sad because instead of helping individuals, we only help those who were our own race. The inequality wasn’t there, no connection with Hispanics, whites, and blacks. I think the criminal justice system needs to look at different things to control and make things for the common good because this is about the people who need help and not imprisonment. Gator789, and Cesar789
Part 1 After watching the movie, I couldn’t believe some of the things that were new to me but old in history. It was incredibly unbelievable to me. Just shocking by learning the new facts that I now know. The United States still seeks to amaze me. The United States being five percent of the population of the world, but there is a twist. The United States houses twenty-five percent of the World's incarcerated population. That is nothing to be proud of. You can blame a lot of the laws but that isn’t the only problem here. There is a bias in my opinion with the people that the United States homes. There are more blacks in prisons than there is Hispanics or white people. This movie opens the eyes on how the criminal justice system was always faulty. Till this day, we are still fighting against drugs throughout the United States, which got started when Nixon was in office. I think it is crazy that Nixon’s administration official said what he said. To publicly say that was just disgusting and unbelievable. It upset me because that was basically targeting all blacks and making them look like they are an enemy towards everyone else. When crack cocaine started to get introduced in the 1980’s, it was making the number of inmates in prisons increase dramatically. Blacks and Hispanics got a bigger prison sentence for simple possession of that drug. It should have been an equal sentence for everyone regardless of race. It is still hard for me to believe that this is the way people thought back in that time. Till this day you still have people that will tell their kids that any race other than white is bad. And when those kids grow up and become parents, they will most likely do the same because that’s what they were taught to believe. After all this happened, we learned what happened to sentences depending on the crime. California came up with the “Three strike law.” That basically said that if you are convicted of violent crimes or felonies, you would be put in prison for the rest of your life. There were so many three stick prisoners that Los Angeles sheriff’s department had to release 4,200 misdemeanor inmates each month to make room for the incoming three strike prisoners. Now if you think about that, it is a lot of people that are getting released, just to get replaced by more violent offenders. Mandatory minimums took away discretion away from the judges. The truth in sentencing law kept people in prison for at least 85% of your sentence. While all this is going on, the prison population is at a ridiculous number. In 1990, the U.S. prison population was at 1.179,200. Ten years later in the year 2000, the prison population was at 2,015,300. Those numbers are just ridiculous. Another thing that really got my attention was that the FBI considered MLK on of the most dangerous people in the United States. I thought that was just insane.
Part 2 This movie was very shocking to me in the many facts that is spurted out. As my fellow peer stated in his response five percent of the population is in prisons. Which is very unbelievable and kind of scary to think about. Is our country that bad? Or our we just putting people in prisons that do not belong there? We see a higher incarceration rate of blacks than whites and hispanics. This is concerning because it is showing us that we are putting a lot of blame on the african american race when in reality a lot of those other races are getting off on crimes that blacks would not. I think we still base everything on race since Reagan's term. Blacks have been portrayed in multiple ways that are disgusting and unbelievable. Blacks were portrayed as evil and the cause of all the problems in american. Which in reality is not true because we were just putting blame on one race instead of looking at what problems we were causing. In the 1980s it caused blacks to be the target for drug offenses which caused a huge rise in prison population. The reason this happened was based on mandatory minimums that created our prisons the basically self destruct because of the overcrowding, we also see this in today's prisons. When the crack epidemic hit we as americans were hit with fear which is just ridiculous to me because they never educated people about the drug. This crack epidemic ended up being seen as worse than terrorist attacks. Which is unbelievable to me. Why did americans fear so much? This whole War on Drugs created only problems for the black and latino families which is very upsetting because again we are only blaming one type of people instead of looking at our own faults. Many people during this time just wanted to throw everyone with drug problems in jail. Which is not the way to go about things. One of those people at the time who wanted to throw them in jail was our now President Donald Trump. Which concerns me now about what he is going to do about drug sentencing. As I stated previously mandatory minimums were beginning to be very destructive. Judges were forced to give them and couldn't say or do anything about it. This caused a rise of almost one million people to be put in jail. Which is very disappointing and questionable to what we were thinking. When we hit clinton's term it started to get worse. He used political force which was not a very good idea. It only caused more angry from everyone in our country. Many people tried to to take a stand and lead the nation and change but were ultimately were killed because people were scared of what they would do. These included MLK and Black Panther. The prison population is only rising each year if we do not find a way to fix our problems. We are only creating more problems for ourselves. Which is sad to think that we as the people of the United States see the problem but we are not solving it. Chewbacca789 and Hollywood789
This movie was shocking and tough to take in. I agree that it is unbelievable that people who involved with drug use, namely crack, were seen worse than terrorist and not given the proper tools to help them with this addiction. The 1980s war on drugs was a unnecessary act that put far to many people behind bars. I wasnt aware that Clinton was involved in any drug related retaliation until this movie, but as you pointed out, it was once again unnecessary to use political force to further this movement.-pj789
Part 1 This movie told shared with me some very interesting facts that I did not know about before watching it. For example, one fact that I learned was that our country, the United States, contains five percent of the world's population in its prisons and is home to twenty five percent of the world's prisons. This shows how much the United States cracks down on crime and puts more people into jail due to things like changing drug laws. Another fact I learned that goes along with the changing drug laws is that in the 1970's, our nation's prison population increased dramatically. This was due to President Nixon really emphasizing the importance of the War on Drugs. By focusing more on drugs, many more people were thrown into prison due to either possessing or using drugs. Also, during this time, the main focus was to capture and imprison anyone who was associated with drugs, not to send them to rehab for help. Because of this, people kept returning to prison due to the fact that they were not receiving any help for their problems, so the War on Drugs kept sending them back to prison, the last place they really needed to be. Later on, in the documentary, I also learned that the War on Drugs was basically a war on colored communities and it seemed nearly like a genocide to those in extreme poverty. I agree with statement completely. I say this because during this time, crack cocaine was introduced and became the new drug to use. Crack cocaine was viewed as a worse drug to have than regular cocaine. So, new laws were created that extended sentence time for anyone who had received offenses related to crack cocaine. Also, during this time, drugs were finding their way into every part of the nation. However, drugs were found the most in poverty-stricken areas especially. This caused there to be multiple cases of people being arrested and thrown in jail for very long times from areas of poverty. It seemed as if the law was aiming only to target and arrest people in areas of poverty. This is due to the fact that these areas were where the majority of crack cocaine was found. Additionally, the War on Drugs was a war on colored communities. I guarantee that nearly all if not every arrest associated with the War on Drugs had to do with people of color. During this time, racism was still very much alive. The War on Drugs was somewhat of an excuse for the law to arrest people of color and target areas where they lived, and a majority of the time, it tended to be in areas of poverty. Also, if a colored person was caught with crack cocaine, they would have been in a very high amount of trouble. I am positive that during this time, if a white man and a black man were both arrested for the possession of crack cocaine, the white man would have received a long sentence, let's say 20 years in prison. However, the black man would have received something outrageous like 40 plus years in prison, for committing the exact same crime as a white man. This is due to the War on Drugs being fueled by racism. -Fozz789
Part 2 Furthermore, this video started out by saying that we have 5% of the world's population, yet we have 25% of the worlds prisons. Too me this is so insane to think. No wonder we are called the incarceration nation. We have the highest rate of incarceration in the world. This video was titled about the 13th amendment. The 13th amendment makes it, so slaves are illegal to have in the United States. This is a great thing to have honestly. It is just wrong to be putting people in situations where their life is no longer dictated by what they want to do and controlled by someone else. You would not think this kind of stuff is going on in today's society, but by the way the video depicted it, it seems as though it is. After the 13th amendment came into play, the video said it was almost as though there was a nonverbal cue to arrest blacks in the mass after the Civil War. It was almost like a retaliation. Since they were not allowed to have blacks as slaves, they almost found a different way to do it. Another thing that prompted this and made a stigma about African Americans was the movie called "Birth of A Nation". This movie depicted blacks as threats to any women and children. They made them look crazy and look as though they would do nothing but bad to people. This so terrible to think this happened in our nation at one point in history. To think that They were locking up blacks for unjust reasons is just wrong. This only escalated in the 70's when the war on drugs started. This is when the term mass incarceration came about as a result. In the beginning of 1970 there were 350,000 people in prisons. By the beginning of 1980 this number had jumped to 518,000 people in prisons. This was due to people being incarcerated for petty crimes. This started because of crack cocaine coming into communities. Cocaine was found mostly in rich white neighborhoods and crack was found in poorer black neighborhoods. The weird thing was that crack somehow got label as worse and you would get locked up almost 10 times the amount of time for having the same equivalent of cocaine. This sounds like just another way to still have a way to have "slaves" in prisons. By the beginning of 1990 the prison population had now increased to 1,179,000. By this time the media had a huge part in making people believe things. They started to coin the term super predators toward African Americans and made them sound horrible. Because of this people started to speak out about this blatant racism. The Black Panthers came about around this time. Now they were causing problems to some people so eventually people that lead this movement started to get killed. That is so messed up to think that we lived in such a bad time that they would kill people off to fit their own agenda. -ST789
Personally, I thought the movie was very eye opening as I did not know or I did not care to know the facts that were given in the viewing. It was a very hard pill to swallow and He was right in saying that it was a very controversial and covered very sensitive topic. After viewing the movie, I am looking at the criminal justice system in a different light. It was difficult for me personally because I have always viewed the criminal justice system, law enforcement, corrections, and all as also heroic. I still do view them as great people in a good system and after watching this video, I did not hate the police, corrections, or the criminal justice system. I was motivated to continue my studies because I thought that maybe I could do something about it, even if it is only me doing something. The movie showed me fact like the ever increasing prison population, about 2,306,000 in the year 2014, and other things like ALEC which I did not even know existed at the time. These facts along with the long history of failed systems and racial / economic disparity really hit hard for me. I just did not know how to feel and thoughts started rolling into my head, Thoughts such as: These numbers can’t be right or really? Big thoughts are still rolling in for me. What can I do to help? Can I help? Will I be able to do anything by myself? What would I do? Perhaps, I thought. Perhaps, I can make a difference locally. Not a big, noticeable difference that will be on national television all over the US but just locally. I plan on being a sheriff and one of the things that I will have to do is man the jail for awhile. Maybe I can help someone if my job permits. Perhaps, when I go onto the streets, i might be able to help someone there. I do not want to be part of this statistic. I do not want to add to the problem stated in the movie. I was to actually help the community. These facts are simply disturbing. A fact stated frequently in the criminal justice field, the US has 5% of the world population but 25% of its prison population. The sentence for one oz of crack is the same as 100 oz of powdered coke. Three strikes laws, truth in sentencing, etc. I want to fix this, I really do. The first thing I think we need to do is inform the public. I did not know these facts until I watched the movie. I can almost guarantee that the public does not know these statistics. The more people know, the more people will act. I do not want unravel the criminal justice system, we need to reform it. Fix the leaks in a pipe so nothing else falls through. I believe we can do it. This movies was incredibly informative and should be shown throughout the US to inform the public so we can do something, as a country, not as one group against another. -TheMarshall789
ReplyDeletePrior to this movie I had no idea that some of the things that were being talked about where true and that the things that happened actually happened. Thanks to the movie I have learned that they were true. Within the first few seconds I found it interesting how they said the the United States has five percent of the world population but twenty-five percent of the world's prisoners. I also found the 13th a very informative and quite sickening on some some of the things that have been done. The loophole with the 13th amendment is quite scary. With how most immedility people exploited it, especially after the Civil War. The loophole is the amendment does not apply to criminals. People, mainly African Americans, were getting arrested for minor crimes after the Civil War. People even made it a thing to say the African American males made a “threat” to white American females. After everyone was arrested the prisoners provided labor to rebuild the economy of the south after the Civil War. American people needed African American males to work because many Americans did not know how to do what the others did. Unfortunately every picture you will see by Wilson will portray African Americans as animals. Not all African Americans are animals. Just the same as Americans, some Americans are animals. In my opinion every races is not perfect and they each have people that are animals. From what I got from the movie is that the KKK was killing African Americans in mobs just because they thought that the person they were going to kill did something bad, without any evidence. Giving some right back to African Americans Nixon felt they’re giving “Negroes“ rights getting repaid it back with the increase in crime. With the higher crime rates caused mass incarceration throughout the United States. I found interesting that the movie included the prison population In different years. For example in 1970 the prison population was 357,292 people incarcerated and. Also in 1980 the prison population was 513,900. Then in 1985 the prison population was 759,100. Also in 1990 to prison population was 1,179,l200. Finally in 2016 prison population was 2,306,200. With property increasing in the 1980s drugs became a very big thing and then President Ronald Reagan to clear war on drugs during this time. With the drug crime increasing “super predators” were formed. Super predators were fatherless, jobless, and godless children mainly male children. And those children that were considered super predators were incarcerated and charged for rape and murder. Unfortunately all the children did not commit those crimes and sat in prison for 11 years until DNA Analysis prove that they were innocent. Before the video I never knew about an organization called ALEC. I found it very interesting but also strange that bills and laws were passed that first started off by this organization. In reality I found everything that was said about ALEC was interesting because I never knew something of that sort what is used throughout the government along with people’s everyday lives. In my opinion it is pretty bad still to this day African Americans are still scared of what happened in the past and arrested is still a big fear for them. Especially with how racist some people are. In conclusion found the video very informing and shocking. -jw789
ReplyDeleteThis is inseane to see to that we have valued money over indvidulas in our country this is in turn a chance to say polciy needs to change ideas need to change compassion has to be at the foothole of every erguement as a cluture that works together is the one who stands on top the arguement is not lastling in how effected generations are but what we can do to make a difffenrce from right now moveing foward. eagle789
DeleteI found the information given in this video to be very troubling. However, in a weird way, I also have hope for the future because of this documentary. I had previously thought that the disproportionate incarceration by race was a dying problem that was a product of a bygone era, but the information given in the documentary makes it appear otherwise. I was not surprised to learn that prison population has gone up because over time because population has also increased, however I was surprised to learn that the racial disproportionality and incarceration has increased over time. In 1970, the incarceration rate was about .14% of the total population, and today it is around .7% which is five times the initial amount. Statistics like these often cause people to be disheartened because they present problems for which the average citizen cannot provide a solution. The documentary also talked about media portrayal of minorities. I think that it is very important that this is talked about. People do not have complete control over the way their governments arrest and convict people, however, they have complete control over the media that they consume. I think that the media provides a large role in shaping the way that the public views people who usually end up being the victims of problems in the justice system. The way the public views these people tends to have an effect on the problem itself. In the 1980s, these people were called “super-predators”, and were painted as apathetic animalistic criminals. Such a portrayal allows for little to no sympathy when it comes to the incarceration of such people. Now that it is being revealed more and more over time that these people are nowhere near the monsters they are described as being, and in many cases are completely innocent, the general public is much more likely to advocate for these people. I am hopeful because documentaries like these are becoming more and more mainstream. Ava Duvernay, the director of this documentary, has created works like the movie “Selma” that even went as far as to receive an oscar nomination. This documentary also exposes people who share in the responsibility of these problems more so than does the average citizen. ALEC, the one that comes to mind. ALEC has supported programs that have furthered many of the issues brought up by this documentary. One victory over ALEC in recent years was the dissolution of private prisons at the federal level. While most private prisons had not been run at the federal level, I still believe that this is a very big mark of progress moving forward. I believe that lawmakers pay attention to what people are discussing, and as the issues become more important to the common person, more laws are passed to right the wrongs that are currently in place. While I believe many problems do lie in the particular circumstances of scenarios, I think that the most effective way of changing things is through universal incentives. If law enforcement provided incentives for reform and rehabilitation instead of conviction, the system would work out many of the existing problems on its own. While the information in the documentary was very disheartening at times, the fact that the documentary was made and is being paid attention to is very hopeful. -Rudedogg789
ReplyDeleteI also found the information in the movie to be quite troubling and just like you, I also hope high hopes for the future. As the next generation of criminal justice and law enforcement officers, we can help to undo or at least improve the mistakes of the past. It is also important to write down the mistakes of the past and teach the younger generations to come to help fix and avoid future mistake of the same size and caliber. History can easily repeat itself if we do not remember it. We must learn from the mistake of the past. This is extremely important, we cannot fix it if we take one step forward and two steps back. I believe this documentary was made with the same intention as I and I believe it should be shown to all those who wish to acquire a law enforcement or criminal justice degree. –TheMarshall789
DeleteThis video was very eye opening and trouble, like you have mentioned. I think it is key that you mentioned the we control the media we consume. I feel as though the media twists thing to make you believe what they want you to believe. This is shown is what you mention as African Americans were called super-predators. They made them out to be terrible people and That is so crazy to me that they would do that to people. Like you mentioned, most of these people were innocent, yet people assumed they were terrible people because the stigma the news gave them.
Delete- ST789
13th connected many points in history for what African American have went through in this country in terms of having certain preclinical taken away that most of us feel we should just be basic sources people have access to such as being able to work have education without any stigma barriers existing, Yet as shown by the movie we went from having existing slavery from the baby years of our nation to abolishing this with the 31th amendment after the civil only to bring the ideas of segregation back through, Jim Crow Laws, to establish laws that made it legal to isolate African American from certain privileges that other individuals had access to this then was abolished and so came the process of felony slavery as pointed out by the video. This turned this idea of causing a felony to exist on someone’s background could cause them to be a slave to the state for a lengthy amount of time 20-30 years. If not longer as there was no rehabilitation in place to ensure that these individuals would not commit future crimes. With the Drug War created at damaging individuals from these communities with charges of lengthy sentences. This has effect more African Americans than any other racial groups one tactic develop led by the CIA is stated as being is to use forms such as tv, radios and different news outlets in under to display certain steigimas to groups in order for these groups to belief this is the displayed image of who they are such tactics have been deployed by showing black males as rapist, criminals, gangsters this bys in for them as the acceptable identity for them to buy into so they put all their time energy and effort to build this vicious cycle. eagle789 and Another blog member
ReplyDeleteWith the U.S. having in total 5% of the entire world’s population with having 25% of all the world's prisoners this paints a problem as we are imprisoning more individuals than any other location in the world but why do this. After the Civil War which is the movement said to abolish slavery the former slaves were said to have rebuilt the South after the War had taken place. When the creation of what is known media started to become used in every household such as a radio, television, and the newspaper African Americans became animals in the highlines committing crimes such as rapes,robberies, and murder mostly unforgivable crimes to isolate these individuals. Even Martin Luther King jr during the times he was fighting for equal rights was labeled by the FBI as a leader of a cult and labeled as a terrorist. Courts then after alienating these individuals more began to adopt mantorying sentencing leaving the fake of people up to the prosecutors rather then judges in given court cases. Even political parties had to show that they were the toughest caniciade in fighting crime in order to have favor over their opponents. This shows the deep roots of the nation culture and how much work needs to be done in order to ensure everyone has equal freedom which should be at the forefront of every individual. The 13 portrays a very intriguing in depth look into what is happening with our prisons and the systematic racial discrimination that is going on in this country. The 13th amendment of the constitution makes it unconstitutional for a person to be held as a slave; it grants freedom for all Americans. eagle789 and another blog member
ReplyDeleteI agree with you when you say that the media was used to display African Americans as horrible people. Like you said, in every newspaper, radio broadcast, and showing on the news, African Americans were talked about and shown committing the worst possible crimes. People were taking advantage of the new technology and things of that nature to try and make people believe that African Americans were horrible people, despite the fact that most African Americans had not committed any of these horrible crimes at all that they were accused of committing. During this time, many new laws were passed that specifically targeted African Americans and made their lives very hard.
Delete-Fozz789
I have to agree that african americans were portrayed very poorly due to the fact of media because it just spreads like wildfire when something pops up. Now a days it is getting worse and worse based on the new technology that we are creating. They are betraying their people and creating them to be something they are not. The fact that they are still being targeted is sad and to my thought I believed we were getting better. I was very wrong in my thought and it is sad to see that this is still happening to this day. Some things just may never die.
DeleteHollywood789
This applies to everyone except this little loophole that states that criminals do not get this right of freedom. This documentary gets right to the point by saying, quite convincingly, that this is how to keep slaves essentially. Slavery was an economic system that provided lots of money for wealthy land owners. Seeing this in the film brought a lot of what I have learned in this class into perspective. The wealthy are the ones that are making the decisions, the ones writing the laws, and influencing the outcome of societal events to further benefit those in charge, and the ones who now see a problem with Mass Incarceration, that has been created through racial disparities and ignorance. It would make sense that after the Civil War, America would try and repair the economy by any means necessary. Slavery was a major part of that economy and everyday life; it would make sense if they did plant a sort of loophole somewhere in the laws that were written, namely the 13th amendment. It’s even stated in the film that after the war the slaves were free only to be incarcerated in large amounts. This wasn’t without an attempt to portray African Americans as dangerous and animal like. The film Birth of a Nation gave what many white American wanted to see, the very people they were trying to keep down as a lesser, almost sub species of humanity who needed to be locked up. It wasn’t much time later that lynching and deaths of African Americans were starting to happen. Then after that was intolerable and laws were made to stop these deaths, segregation became an aspect of American life. The Civil Rights movement of the 1960s caused enough of a wake-up call, that the desegregation of school and equal rights were needed for this countries growth. The prison system was growing at throughout this time and laws were being put in place to assist in this growth. In the film it stated in 1970 the prison population was 357,292, right now it sits at 2.3 million. This growth had many steps that led to this outcome. The war on drugs in 1980s played one of the biggest. People were incarcerated for drugs like crack, that was commonly used in inner cities where it was sold cheap but you were sentenced longer than if you had the more expensive drug, cocaine. It’s a lot to take in at once or even two viewing, but this film provided an intriguing an thought provoking view into the disparity of the African American community here in the United States. There is statistical fact to back the knowledge here. African American males are incarcerated at much higher rate than white males, this is fact. I cannot confirm some statements made in the film, such as the influence of ALEC, but my mind is open to the notion. eagle789 and another blog member
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you that the information presented in this documentary was very disturbing. It truly makes me wonder when this problem in our country will end. It seems like common people like ourselves can see the issue at hand, and understand that the color of our skin does not define our merit. However our system seems to be broken; with the attitudes of older generations, and old ways of thinking. I hope that one day we can resolve these issues with more progressive ideas. Honestly though with the way things are going I really would be surprised if this was as much of an issue in years to come. -Rudedogg789
Delete^ pj789 is the other blog member
DeletePart 1
ReplyDeletePrisons are really overpopulated and we kept putting people in there that did not deserve to be
there. There was people getting things that were a little crime but they had to do what they had
to do because the law was set like that so they had to. The things that they would be charged
with were little bags of weed or a little cocaine but nothing serious. The KKK was big back then
and th whites did not like the african americans at all but would be able to get away with
anything because they were white. The KKK would pick people that were trying to change the
culture and they would take them and kill them and then show everybody what they were
capable of doing to everybody that tried to mess with them.The KKK was a bad thing that
people got in but they were brought in by people so they had no choice. Thousands of african
americans were killed by the mod because they hated them and they wanted all the african
americans gone and off of the earth so they tried to kill them all. The mod were scary back then
because when they wanted to get something done they would do it no matter what the
consequence would be. Back then when african americans were getting arrested from a white
officer they were scared to death because they thought they were fearing for their life because
they didn't know what was going to happen. This is still the problem today because they are still
scared that something bad will happen to them if they make a wrong move. In december 1875
slavery stopped. After slavery stopped the crime rate started to go through the roof. The crime
rate started to go up because they thought that they should punish everybody that got trouble
and that is why today we have mass incarceration problem in the world because people that are
in prison right now are in there for drug crime that were dumb. When the war on drug started
they thought they would get everybody. When it came down to it they just wanted to throw the
African americans in jail for the crime and let the white folks walk.When this happened the the
incarceration rate went through the roof and there was no way that there was any catching
up.When the crack cocaine started to happen there was mandatory minimum that took place
and when somebody got caught they would go straight to prison and there was no way out of it.
Part 2
DeleteI really thought the 13th documentary was a great way to show people how the constitution of the 13th amendment relates with criminal justice. During the presidential of Dixon, during the time ‘war on drugs’ was an insane era. Though Dixon established a system where only African Americans were only targeted without any motives to be detained. In the 13th movie, basically Dixon is saying that the population of African Americans is only growing so something has to be done. There was no ‘War on Drugs’ it was ‘War on African Americans’. Now, throughout more presidential elections, a former president Ronald Reagan proposed that the ‘War on Drugs’ was a continuous war that was going to be fought, so the war only became more insidious. Though the only people today to use illegal narcotics is the middle class white folks and the American drug trade makes around $151 millions dollars. Yes, cities and states such as Chicago, Compton, New Jersey are know for the higher places to deal with illegal use of narcotic. States and Federal use this to imprison the African Americans in the end. Throughout the years, there has been race inequality ever since (these is where the 13th amendment becomes violated) and clearly, in the amendment states that slavery is and should be abolished and not used for no reason what so ever. According to the film, those who committed or violated crime meant that the person was re-enslaved and in this essence the African American people. So, in the case that most offenders where African Americans, so these people where violated to the highest of charges there could ever be such as for a petty theft, drugs, and who knows what else, but for silly things. They were getting imprisoned for long periods of times. Also, before the 13th amendment was even created, if a black person could not pay his or hers charges than the person was sold to big companies to make money. This companies who bought the African Americans where working in very harsh conditions. Not to mention, crack coin charges are way heavier than powder cocaine according to the film. Also, I never knew that white people imprisoned black people in zoos in the 1950’s. I believe history has made things worse now in the present, even though we are now doing things a little bit much better not to imprison people in certain aspects of our correctional system. I think our history; our starting point where it all began is so harsh and sad because instead of helping individuals, we only help those who were our own race. The inequality wasn’t there, no connection with Hispanics, whites, and blacks. I think the criminal justice system needs to look at different things to control and make things for the common good because this is about the people who need help and not imprisonment. Gator789, and Cesar789
Part 1
ReplyDeleteAfter watching the movie, I couldn’t believe some of the things that were new to me but old in history. It was incredibly unbelievable to me. Just shocking by learning the new facts that I now know. The United States still seeks to amaze me. The United States being five percent of the population of the world, but there is a twist. The United States houses twenty-five percent of the World's incarcerated population. That is nothing to be proud of. You can blame a lot of the laws but that isn’t the only problem here. There is a bias in my opinion with the people that the United States homes. There are more blacks in prisons than there is Hispanics or white people. This movie opens the eyes on how the criminal justice system was always faulty. Till this day, we are still fighting against drugs throughout the United States, which got started when Nixon was in office. I think it is crazy that Nixon’s administration official said what he said. To publicly say that was just disgusting and unbelievable. It upset me because that was basically targeting all blacks and making them look like they are an enemy towards everyone else. When crack cocaine started to get introduced in the 1980’s, it was making the number of inmates in prisons increase dramatically. Blacks and Hispanics got a bigger prison sentence for simple possession of that drug. It should have been an equal sentence for everyone regardless of race. It is still hard for me to believe that this is the way people thought back in that time. Till this day you still have people that will tell their kids that any race other than white is bad. And when those kids grow up and become parents, they will most likely do the same because that’s what they were taught to believe. After all this happened, we learned what happened to sentences depending on the crime. California came up with the “Three strike law.” That basically said that if you are convicted of violent crimes or felonies, you would be put in prison for the rest of your life. There were so many three stick prisoners that Los Angeles sheriff’s department had to release 4,200 misdemeanor inmates each month to make room for the incoming three strike prisoners. Now if you think about that, it is a lot of people that are getting released, just to get replaced by more violent offenders. Mandatory minimums took away discretion away from the judges. The truth in sentencing law kept people in prison for at least 85% of your sentence. While all this is going on, the prison population is at a ridiculous number. In 1990, the U.S. prison population was at 1.179,200. Ten years later in the year 2000, the prison population was at 2,015,300. Those numbers are just ridiculous. Another thing that really got my attention was that the FBI considered MLK on of the most dangerous people in the United States. I thought that was just insane.
Part 2
DeleteThis movie was very shocking to me in the many facts that is spurted out. As my fellow peer stated in his response five percent of the population is in prisons. Which is very unbelievable and kind of scary to think about. Is our country that bad? Or our we just putting people in prisons that do not belong there? We see a higher incarceration rate of blacks than whites and hispanics. This is concerning because it is showing us that we are putting a lot of blame on the african american race when in reality a lot of those other races are getting off on crimes that blacks would not. I think we still base everything on race since Reagan's term. Blacks have been portrayed in multiple ways that are disgusting and unbelievable. Blacks were portrayed as evil and the cause of all the problems in american. Which in reality is not true because we were just putting blame on one race instead of looking at what problems we were causing. In the 1980s it caused blacks to be the target for drug offenses which caused a huge rise in prison population. The reason this happened was based on mandatory minimums that created our prisons the basically self destruct because of the overcrowding, we also see this in today's prisons. When the crack epidemic hit we as americans were hit with fear which is just ridiculous to me because they never educated people about the drug. This crack epidemic ended up being seen as worse than terrorist attacks. Which is unbelievable to me. Why did americans fear so much? This whole War on Drugs created only problems for the black and latino families which is very upsetting because again we are only blaming one type of people instead of looking at our own faults. Many people during this time just wanted to throw everyone with drug problems in jail. Which is not the way to go about things. One of those people at the time who wanted to throw them in jail was our now President Donald Trump. Which concerns me now about what he is going to do about drug sentencing. As I stated previously mandatory minimums were beginning to be very destructive. Judges were forced to give them and couldn't say or do anything about it. This caused a rise of almost one million people to be put in jail. Which is very disappointing and questionable to what we were thinking. When we hit clinton's term it started to get worse. He used political force which was not a very good idea. It only caused more angry from everyone in our country. Many people tried to to take a stand and lead the nation and change but were ultimately were killed because people were scared of what they would do. These included MLK and Black Panther. The prison population is only rising each year if we do not find a way to fix our problems. We are only creating more problems for ourselves. Which is sad to think that we as the people of the United States see the problem but we are not solving it.
Chewbacca789 and Hollywood789
This movie was shocking and tough to take in. I agree that it is unbelievable that people who involved with drug use, namely crack, were seen worse than terrorist and not given the proper tools to help them with this addiction. The 1980s war on drugs was a unnecessary act that put far to many people behind bars. I wasnt aware that Clinton was involved in any drug related retaliation until this movie, but as you pointed out, it was once again unnecessary to use political force to further this movement.-pj789
DeletePart 1
ReplyDeleteThis movie told shared with me some very interesting facts that I did not know about before watching it. For example, one fact that I learned was that our country, the United States, contains five percent of the world's population in its prisons and is home to twenty five percent of the world's prisons. This shows how much the United States cracks down on crime and puts more people into jail due to things like changing drug laws. Another fact I learned that goes along with the changing drug laws is that in the 1970's, our nation's prison population increased dramatically. This was due to President Nixon really emphasizing the importance of the War on Drugs. By focusing more on drugs, many more people were thrown into prison due to either possessing or using drugs. Also, during this time, the main focus was to capture and imprison anyone who was associated with drugs, not to send them to rehab for help. Because of this, people kept returning to prison due to the fact that they were not receiving any help for their problems, so the War on Drugs kept sending them back to prison, the last place they really needed to be. Later on, in the documentary, I also learned that the War on Drugs was basically a war on colored communities and it seemed nearly like a genocide to those in extreme poverty. I agree with statement completely. I say this because during this time, crack cocaine was introduced and became the new drug to use. Crack cocaine was viewed as a worse drug to have than regular cocaine. So, new laws were created that extended sentence time for anyone who had received offenses related to crack cocaine. Also, during this time, drugs were finding their way into every part of the nation. However, drugs were found the most in poverty-stricken areas especially. This caused there to be multiple cases of people being arrested and thrown in jail for very long times from areas of poverty. It seemed as if the law was aiming only to target and arrest people in areas of poverty. This is due to the fact that these areas were where the majority of crack cocaine was found. Additionally, the War on Drugs was a war on colored communities. I guarantee that nearly all if not every arrest associated with the War on Drugs had to do with people of color. During this time, racism was still very much alive. The War on Drugs was somewhat of an excuse for the law to arrest people of color and target areas where they lived, and a majority of the time, it tended to be in areas of poverty. Also, if a colored person was caught with crack cocaine, they would have been in a very high amount of trouble. I am positive that during this time, if a white man and a black man were both arrested for the possession of crack cocaine, the white man would have received a long sentence, let's say 20 years in prison. However, the black man would have received something outrageous like 40 plus years in prison, for committing the exact same crime as a white man. This is due to the War on Drugs being fueled by racism.
-Fozz789
Part 2
DeleteFurthermore, this video started out by saying that we have 5% of the world's population, yet we have 25% of the worlds prisons. Too me this is so insane to think. No wonder we are called the incarceration nation. We have the highest rate of incarceration in the world. This video was titled about the 13th amendment. The 13th amendment makes it, so slaves are illegal to have in the United States. This is a great thing to have honestly. It is just wrong to be putting people in situations where their life is no longer dictated by what they want to do and controlled by someone else. You would not think this kind of stuff is going on in today's society, but by the way the video depicted it, it seems as though it is. After the 13th amendment came into play, the video said it was almost as though there was a nonverbal cue to arrest blacks in the mass after the Civil War. It was almost like a retaliation. Since they were not allowed to have blacks as slaves, they almost found a different way to do it. Another thing that prompted this and made a stigma about African Americans was the movie called "Birth of A Nation". This movie depicted blacks as threats to any women and children. They made them look crazy and look as though they would do nothing but bad to people. This so terrible to think this happened in our nation at one point in history. To think that They were locking up blacks for unjust reasons is just wrong. This only escalated in the 70's when the war on drugs started. This is when the term mass incarceration came about as a result. In the beginning of 1970 there were 350,000 people in prisons. By the beginning of 1980 this number had jumped to 518,000 people in prisons. This was due to people being incarcerated for petty crimes. This started because of crack cocaine coming into communities. Cocaine was found mostly in rich white neighborhoods and crack was found in poorer black neighborhoods. The weird thing was that crack somehow got label as worse and you would get locked up almost 10 times the amount of time for having the same equivalent of cocaine. This sounds like just another way to still have a way to have "slaves" in prisons. By the beginning of 1990 the prison population had now increased to 1,179,000. By this time the media had a huge part in making people believe things. They started to coin the term super predators toward African Americans and made them sound horrible. Because of this people started to speak out about this blatant racism. The Black Panthers came about around this time. Now they were causing problems to some people so eventually people that lead this movement started to get killed. That is so messed up to think that we lived in such a bad time that they would kill people off to fit their own agenda. -ST789