The 13th is a documentary on Netflix that focuses around the interpretation of the 13th amendment to the constitution,which grants all men and women of any color freedom, and states that the only way that a man or woman can be denied this right is by being incarcerated. Early in the documentary, it discusses how ever since slavery was abolished, americans have found new, more discrete ways to paint  african americans as “criminals” or “monsters”. It takes the viewer on a journey that spans over 100 years, centered around not only mass incarceration, but about the history of the suppression of african americans, and how the ideals of the Jim Crow era, are still more present today than ever.

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     In the early age of film, the movie Birth of a Nation was made, sparking the rebirth of the KKK and portraying black males as animalistic and a danger to the “civilized” people, especially white women. This was one of the first methods that was used to create the association in  the minds of americans between african americans and criminals. Once the lynchings and torturing of blacks became shamed and considered inhumane and illegal, Segregation, a more legal form of terror, was implemented. From the remains of segregation and Jim Crow laws sprung a central piece of the history of the criminalization of african americans, and perhaps the most impactful, was the “Southern Strategy”.

          From here the documentary goes on to timeline the eras of contemporary american history and the ways segregation changed and still found new ways to thrive. These eras started with the civil rights era and gave a detailed account of the years following, ending with the presidential election of 2016. As well as highlighting deep rooted, badly hidden racial problems in our society, details how blacks have for decades, been but pawns in the American political system, often degraded to a mere campaign promise or slogan, such as "law and order candidate".

         The film goes on to discuss a concept called the southern strategy that was used first by Richard Nixon in his campaign for president Nixon(who coined the “law and order candidate” term) Nixon was able to use this strategy to gain supporters of southern, low-income white families by speaking about “chaos of our urban cities as a result of the civil rights movement” and indirectly associating blacks with the drug epidemic in america. Both problems he pledged to solve through law and order.

The presidents to come followed in his footsteps. For example, Ronald Reagan’s war on drugs resulted in a monumental spike in the number of blacks incarcerated for drug possession. Whites in america used this as an excuse to criminalize blacks in america, reflecting the before said deep rooted racial divisions in america. Mass incarceration became “The New Jim Crow”, a loophole for blatant racism. Graphics allow the viewer to see prison rates start to spike in millions, First a substantial spike appears every ten years or so, but as the film goes on, spikes in the millions are seen every five years, 2 years, etc. It is quite an alarming sight to see, to say the very least.

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​          This documentary was unlike any I have ever seen, and frankly opened my eyes to a more “modern” documentary. I have always loved documentaries but  I had grown up watching the ken burns documentaries(my mom is a history buff and refused to teach us about the civil war without watching the entire Ken Burns documentary series by the same name) and my idea of what a documentary was, was still somewhat limited to those types of films . I was surprised when i watched this documentary. It had a pacing in which i had never seen before and it brought an important issue to my attention that connected to an intricate history and context which I, a budding history buff myself, found all the more interesting. I marveled at the use of graphics, music and editing to make this piece all the more effective and appealing, especially to a younger audience. This documentary was impactful, educational, exciting, interesting, heartbreaking, and eye-opening in my opinion. I would recommend this documentary to anyone of any age because I truly believe it has something for everyone. It completely redefined what a documentary could be to me, and it’s inspired me to explore even more documentaries of this kind.