Dylan Nadler — 13th

This documentary was very poignant and informative. I thought that the people that spoke all had very detailed and knowledgeable messages and I learned a lot from them. Some of the footage shown was hard to watch, but it is important because it must be remembered and talked about to teach lessons to others. Without this footage, the message the documentary was trying to delineate would not have hit as hard. All of these things really happened, and for history to not continuously repeat itself, conversations on the subject matter must be had. The criminalization of African Americans, the 13th amendment-to-prison pipeline, and much more, shows but a sliver of the uphill and unjust battle African Americans have faced in America for 400+ years. Some of the statistics shown, such as 245,200 more people in prison in the short span of five years from 1980 to 1985 was super eye-opening and sad. Ronald Reagan was seriously the devil incarnate. And Nixon’s advisor, John Erlichman, stating that they knew they were lying about the drugs and war on drugs is purely evil. It is said that America is the “land of the free”. I would have to wholeheartedly disagree with that statement. I would definitely recommend this documentary to anyone, especially those who need to be radicalized.