[rating=10.00]
America has a race problem.
America has always had a race problem.
The denial of racism is a problem that faces many white Americans in this day and age, who like to believe that just because they “don’t see” color, racism is dead. This head in the sand attitude about race and race relations is getting harder to justify in today’s age, an age which is feeling more and more like a fork in the road of American history. Enter filmmaker Ava DuVernay, whose latest film, 13th, is a monumental achievement that fully details the horrifying history of racism in America.
Important. Shocking. Informative. Powerful. All of these adjectives describe 13th, which explores the 13th amendment and the rise of the various systems of oppression that took the place of the slavery it outlawed. And while the film is all of these things, none of them seem to go far enough. None of them provide the proper context for this film. Necessary, maybe? Requisite?
13th is the kind of documentary that doesn’t just beg to be watched, it gets in your face and demands it. While the information presented in the film isn’t anything new for anyone even remotely “woke” it’s presented in a way that’s easy to understand and impossible to ignore. Even your Fox News loving uncle will have a hard time disputing the narrative presented by DuVernay (though he’ll no doubt try), which is contextualized by interviews with intellectuals, politicians, and activists both black and white, on either side of the political aisle.
It’s the American History they don’t teach you in school, providing a narrative through line that leads from the days of slavery all the way to the modern era. While white Americans might shrug off the killings of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Gardner, and a countless list of others whose names are added daily, it’s impossible not to see these tragedies as an extension of the racist history of our country. Even if you doubt that, DuVernay paints the picture as clear as it can be painted.
The picture she paints is as indisputable as it gets; DuVernay, through interviews, historical footage, and photographs, details the history of America and American culture since the abolition of slavery, and the subsequent demonization of black Americans which led to the rise of Jim Crow, in our grandparent’s day, and mass incarceration in our own. The story that unfolds is one of a consistent push towards inequality.
These are things that white Americans aren’t often confronted with or even told. For us, our country is one founded on the precepts of fairness and righteousness. While today you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn’t agree that black people deserve equal rights and protections, for many in the black community this is still a goal to be obtained, a dream to keep working towards, especially since the rise of mass incarceration and the prison industrial complex beginning in the 1980’s.
While the connection between the 13th amendment and the problems of today may seem, at the outset, largely abstract, DuVernay carefully constructs a narrative that puts the pieces together, showing you how the evolution of modern America has been tainted and, in some cases, entirely moved by racist theories. The abstract solidifies beautifully into a concrete reality thanks to DuVernay’s impeccably researched and nuanced perspective of history and its effects on the present.
As difficult as it might be to watch 13th it’s important that you do. Watch it alone; watch it with friends; watch it with family. Gather your loved ones, you parents, your grandparents, and your children and just watch it. And when you’re done watching it, consider it, really think about it, and talk to each other about it. Don’t just dismiss it because it goes against your ideas about what America is or isn’t. The reality is that your America might not be the same America as someone else’s. Racism is not a stain that went away with the Emancipation Proclamation or the signing of the Civil Rights Act. Racism didn’t magically disappear because Dr. Martin Luther King had a dream.
What DuVernay has achieved here is shedding a light upon the racism that exists today. The only question that remains now is what are we going to do about it? We’re at a clear fork in the road, but which direction will we choose to take? With 13th as both our compass and our map, the answer seems pretty clear.
13th is now streaming on Netflix.
