The 13th

Professor McKinney began the class by asking us to reflect on the question “is the Constitution was a proslavery document?” My answer to that question changed after having viewed the 13th, and it was then that I realized that the Constitution is not a proslavery document. In this documentary, the audience was shown how the government abolished slavery while simultaneously allowing the institution to stay hidden within the law. The 13th Amendment to the Constitution, states that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." As a result of this, racism and injustice shifted into a more hidden fight. My argument at the beginning of class was in alignment with what the writers of the 13th amendment wanted to achieve. This want included the desire for blacks to be enslaved, without the title of slavery by creating the illusion that systematic oppressive obstacles placed against blacks were a byproduct of their over imagination. 

Immediately after slavery was abolished, there was a movement where whites started to enslave blacks by convincing other whites that blacks are animals and criminals. So, the whites would try to make blacks appear more dangerous than whites, something this still occurs today. When a group of black kids are seen hanging around, it is automatically assumed they are a gang, while a group of whites is a fraternity. This is how the whites with power who benefit from the systems of slavery like Alex benefit from perpetuating this reality. 

When politicians would say “we need to crack down on crime” or “the war on crime” these phrases represent the strategic plans to imprison more blacks than whites; once they became prisoners they were forced to complete labor without pay while their slave owners or companies collected the profit. In addition, when a person is deemed a criminal, in the eyes of society they are viewed as dangerous which makes them unable to find jobs and in most cases results in stealing or selling drugs to make ends meet. American prisons are sold to the populous as a place where we punish our criminals and rehabilitate them. If this is the case, then why is it that after going to jail once, the system is built to force you to return? Why is it that when you are found with crack you are placed in jail for years, but when one are found with cocaine you get a slap on your wrist? So what I truly now believe is that the Constitution is a pro-slavery document aimed to try and preserve slavery under the radar. With all that being said I will leave you with one of the most troubling parts of the 13th, you get to hear Lee Atwater talk about the Southern strategy in an interview in 1981. "You start out in 1954 by saying, 'Nigger, nigger, nigger.' By 1968 you can't say 'nigger' -- that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights, and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites."