Urban Freedom Magazine Vol1 | Page 11

So once you are convicted of a crime , you are in essence a slave of the state ”

So once you are convicted of a crime , you are in essence a slave of the state ”

The “ except as a punishment for a crime ” portion of the Amendment , assisted with the mass incarcerations after the Civil War . Blacks were given unreasonable sentences for situations that could barely be considered crimes and used for labor to rebuild the economy . It allowed the government to once again enslave African Americans after it was supposedly abolished . If they weren ’ t in prison , blacks were publically hung , tortured , and their corpses displayed as spectacles . White people celebrated by posing in pictures with dead black fathers , children , and pregnant women . These inhumane actions were accepted and legal . And t oday , we are expected to believe that same government doesn ’ t have an agenda that supports the deterioration of the black community by imprisonment ? “ So once you are convicted of a crime , you are in essence a slave of the state .”
The 13th adds that the U . S . is only 5 % of the world ’ s population of people while holding 25 % of the world ’ s prison population . The statistics of black men that will be incarcerated in their life is 1 in 3 . While the number of white men is 1 in 17 . This statistic does not exist because white people don ’ t commit crimes , but because of the bias amount of people who are actually punished . Media and even Republican presidential candidates have always supported the idea of blacks as only super predators ; criminals and rapists . But historically white people have been the most terroristic and violent of any culture . Even the original film for “ Birth of a nation ,” black men are depicted as criminals and a sexual threat to white women . But the rape ratio of white men on black women was significantly higher at the time of the film .
Candidates like Nixon , Reagan , and even Clinton used the public ’ s fear of black people before and / or after their elections to hold their statuses and popularity . Each candidate put processes in place that destroyed black communities by imprisoning black men for the same crimes being committed in white neighborhoods . Clintons 1994 Crime Bill existed so that he could somehow support the blatant but unspoken agenda of his predecessors . Current President Donald Trump has even spoken of “ the good old days ” when protestors would be knocked out , carried away on stretchers , or arrested .
White people fear our black leaders so much , that the government has gone out of its way to either murder or imprison the people who were simply fighting to be seen as human . Leaders like Malcolm X , Martin Luther King Jr ., Rose Park , and legendary Angela Davis ( who is featured in the
documentary ) were incarcerated and on the FBI ’ s “ Most wanted ” list . The United States has had an open fear of black people and black progression . Fear is the sole reason why the mass imprisonment of blacks continues , and why crimes against blacks go predominantly with impunity . There are even laws and policies initiated by republican owned corporations that have assisted in black incarceration . They profit millions off of the imprisonment that occurs when those laws are actually passed .
Any person black or white could benefit from the information presented in this documentary . It features exclusive interviews with white and black politicians , lawyers , authors , teachers , and activists . It displays the correlation of events leading up to a number of blacks in prison with the corporations and political parties that benefit from black confinement . Ava Duvernay provided a unique platform for people to present not theories or accusations , but truths about how black men , women , and children ended up in the system . The plan is mainly to keep the prison systems packed so that republicans remain popular , prison corporations make money , and so that perspective on the black community continues to be negative . This documentary is the sight to the people who are blind about black issues in America .
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