Racial Equality in the Social Justice System       Student’s Name Institutional Affiliations Instructor Course Dater                             Racial Equality in the Social Justice System Director Ava DuVernay released the documentary 13th to explore some of how slavery has failed to fade away from the United States of America

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Racial Equality in the Social Justice System

 

 

 

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Racial Equality in the Social Justice System

Director Ava DuVernay released the documentary 13th to explore some of how slavery has failed to fade away from the United States of America. It is available on Netflix. In the contemporary era, where the Black Lives Matter initiative continues to unfold, it is evident that any of the political policies in the country are now focusing on the criminal justice system, which heavily depends on mass incarceration. The documentary is important in the contemporary era because it offers insights into the criminal justice system and race, neither involuntary nor slavery. In the documentary, DuVernay commences with a narrative about D. W Griffith, which focuses on The Birth of the Nation. The author concentrates on the revisionist history in its own right, which plays a crucial role in reinforcing a myth about black pathological criminality. In the documentary, DuVernay commences by explaining how black men were treated during the reconstruction period. The documentary explodes into a prison industrial complex focusing on the production of net revenues. For this reason, the documentary 13th plays a crucial role in unearthing racial equality in the social justice system since it explores the myths focusing on pathological criminality.

DuVernay's documentary postulates that most conversations that concentrate on race lag behind because individuals adopt the same terms in different manners. One of the major problems of communicating effectively about race issues is to move individuals from the individualized and narrow definition of racism to a more systematic and comprehensive awareness. DuVernay through the exploration of the Birth of the Nation believes that it is important to define it, name, and explain racism to illuminate it in society. Creating a shared language plays a crucial role in presenting data, describing outcomes, conditions and identifies root causes of inequalities, and this may also be crucial in the long run. Using a dared language establishes a narrative that makes it easier to showcase an individual’s commitment and purpose to solve race issues externally and internally. In essence, it establishes a platform for coordinated work as individuals move toward equitable outcomes.

The implications of the war on drugs among individuals of color have been devastating. Selective enforcement and sentencing disparities imply more individuals of color under the prison control and corrections department in the contemporary era relative to the slavery periods. Although statistics indicate that many whites engage in drug-related offenses at an alarming rate relative to the people of color, blacks and other minority groups are incarcerated ten times greater than whites. However, there is some form of progress, for instance, in 2010; the Fair Sentencing Act played a crucial role in showing the bipartisan effort in combating racial disparities.

DuVernay documentary indicates that racial profiling has been one of the most devastating and deeply troubling national challenges despite claims that America has ended the post-racial era. It happens every day in towns, cities, and many municipal centers around the country when the private security agents and law enforcement officers target individuals of color for frightening and often humiliating interrogations, detentions, and searches without reasonable cause or evidence based on the color of their skin, ethnicity, national origin, race or religion (Ava DuVernay, 2016). The events in recent years, such as the protests against George Floyd and other black Americans, have only provided supported to the assertions by DuVernay’s 13th documentary since it shows how systematic racism is prevalent in the United States in the contemporary era. In the United States, the marking of Black History Month and other special Spanish or minority group months or holidays are a true testament of how racial ethnicity is the United States has received a lot of attention (Melissa De Witte, 2021). For instance, Black History month offers black Americans a chance to reassess the nation’s deeply embedded racial challenge and possible solutions to establish a more equitable society. Some scholars such as Melissa De Witte (2021) reevaluate this matter from a historical perspective, law, education, and other disciplines. For instance, there have been beliefs that Clayborn Clair, who is a renowned historian, is working to propel Martin Luther King’s assertion to new heights. Others are also attempting to see how the social justice system may end the racial disparity in the criminal department. Others are also focusing on analyzing ways to make education equitable for students who have been marginalized historically.

DuVernay 13th documentary shows that incarceration is one of the social and criminal justice systems that have deepened the limitations and shortcomings caused by racial disparities in educational attainment and poverty rates. The implications and social experience of incarceration and reentry are also major racialized experiences in real life. For instance, research indicates that black men are far less likely relative to white despite sharing low schooling levels and criminal history to get employment after serving a prison sentence (Melissa De Witte, 2021). Furthermore, Ava DuVernay (2016) assertion in the documentary is evidence that for the black individuals employed during the same period, they received little or no salary relative to their white counterparts. Due to an extensive level of incarceration that is most focused on minority groups, the disparities may be invisible to many United States citizens. 13th is instrumental in showing that the extensively adopted national survey institutionally compounds the invisibility to assess unemployment rates that omit incarcerated individuals from population estimates. The incarnation rates also cause an increase in the number of children with imprisoned parents.

Racial disparities are evident at both the juvenile justice system and the criminal justice system act each contact point. By watching the DuVernay documentary “13th”, it is evident that the prevalence of racial disparities is caused by several factors such as policy decision-making which possess foreseeable racial implications acknowledged by or not understood by political leaders. For instance, The Annie E. Casey Foundation (2020) mentions that the crack cocaine federal penalties stipulated in the 1980s are major instances where the political leaders lack information and knowledge. Other disparities are caused by racially biased decision-making by practitioners, such as law enforcement officer’s racial profiling instances (Melissa De Witte, 2021). For instance, Based on the D.W Griffiths analyzed at the beginning of the documentary, it is evident that decision-making may be a product of implicit bias, which may disfavor or favor one racial group over others, revealing the implication of unintentional, unconscious stereotypes.

In many kinds of literature, an extensive level of racial disparity concentrates on the dramatic differences in imprisonment. The Annie E. Casey Foundation (2020) argues that historically, black Americans have been incarcerated at an alarming rate relative to their white counterparts, and Latinos are also approximately 2.5 times the rate of non-Hispanic whites. As such, the prevalence of this disparity should raise reasonable alarms but may not necessarily indicate the main challenge or source of the problem. At extensive levels, the disparities may act as a function of two factors. They include policy and practice decision-making ranking within the social and criminal justice department. Second, it includes the greater incorporation of criminal activities in certain ethnic or racial groups' daily living.

By referencing J. Edgar Hoover’s assessment of the Black Panther party, institutional racism is a form of inequality in systems of power and institutions such as government agencies, places of employment, and social services. 13th documentary shows that institutional racism can occur in laws, rules, practices, policies, inequitable opportunities, discriminatory treatment, and outcomes. It is also important to argue that structural racism may also involve biasness across various learning institutions, the community, and the society. It explains the compounding and cumulative effects of an array of systematically privileged individuals and the less disadvantaged people of color. In most criminal justice system literature, the word racism is explained as a conscious belief or value.

In conclusion, the documentary 13th has also shown that there has been a substantial decrease in racial disparities in recent years, especially for women imprisonment. However, the rates have been modest for men. The changes are a result of the declining black incarceration and an increasing number of white incarcerations. The shifts showcase the significance of reforming tactics of curbing the overall incarceration level and the racial disparity ratio. Just as there is a chance to curb the absolute imprisonment level while not having any implication on racial disparity, there is a chance to curb racial disparities without affecting the rates and levels of incarceration. For instance, if there is an increase in white incarceration surpasses a reduction in black incarceration.