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13th, directed by Ava DuVernay and with Angela Davis, Corey Booker, and Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Video: Documentary'13th' explores the impact of mass incarceration
The film explores the impact of decades of 'law and order' politics and a prison industry that director Ava Duvernay says profits off punishment.
2017-05-18 / Local
Documentary shown and discussion follows at Springfield Town Library
SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — On Wednesday, May 31, at 6 p.m., VINE Sanctuary and the Springfield Town Library will show the documentary "13th," followed by a moderated discussion. This event at the library is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be provided by the sanctuary.
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States, except as punishment for a crime. After emancipation and through the Jim Crow era, that loophole was used throughout the South to force former slaves and their descendants back into bondage. Today, the United States incarcerates a larger proportion of its population than any other country, and corporations profit from the labor of prisoners, who are disproportionately African American. Altogether, there are more than two million people in the United States imprisoned today, as compared to only 200,000 in 1970. This new acceleration of a very old national problem is known as “mass incarceration."
Every citizen of the United States ought to understand the outlines of this problem, including its history and the extent of the current crisis, in order to be able to participate in democratic decision-making. The documentary "13th" offers an easy way to catch up on the relevant facts and ideas. Award-winning director Ava DuVernay, who also directed "Selma," has used her considerable skills to create an engaging movie on a challenging topic. In the words of New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis, this engrossing and powerful film "will get your blood boiling and tear ducts leaking."
Following the showing, VINE Sanctuary’s cofounder pattrice jones, who formerly coordinated the Ella Baker-Nelson Mandela Center for Anti-Racist Education in Michigan, will facilitate a discussion to give the audience an opportunity to express reactions to the film and think together about the questions it raises. VINE is an LGBTQ-led farmed animal sanctuary that works for social and environmental justice as well as for animal liberation. Another VINE cofounder, Miriam Jones, has contributed a chapter to "The Ethics of Captivity," edited by philosopher Lori Gruen, who advises the sanctuary while also working for the abolition of prisons.
Springfield Town Library is participating in the statewide Vermont Reads, sharing copies of the book "Brown Girl Dreaming" by Jacqueline Woodson. In this book, the African American protagonist spends time in Jim Crow south and grapples with the imprisonment of a family member. Readers will find that the documentary enriches their understanding of the novel. The library is located at 43 Main St., in Springfield, Vermont. Call the library at (802) 885-3108 for more information or visit www.springfieldtownlibrary.org.
Sad. Rewriting history with a bent intent. Funny how everything gets twisted when there is an agenda. Anything promoted by VINE needs to be scrutinized carefully.
ReplyDelete9:54, could you offer a different explanation for the 800% increase in incarceration in America during a period when the population only doubled? And if you could also explain why the for-profit prison industry does not engage in lobbying for tougher laws (that call for prison time), that would be appreciated, too.
ReplyDeleteChuck - those individuals that broke the law are the same individuals that are incarcerated. I really hope this helps your quest for understanding, I am really glad that you are finally asking for help. It's never too late!
ReplyDelete9:06, How would you feel if Donald Trump declared a War on Alcohol in and Tobacco order to neutralize opposition to his policies? This war would spend billions to hire and equip SWAT teams to invade homes, arrest, sentence and imprison people who wanted political change-- and that means YOU, because you are one of them.
ReplyDeleteYou could protest that your activity is harmless, but millions who didn't know better would say you are incarcerated because you broke the law-- and you couldn't argue against that logic.
That is what Nixon did to counter the anti-war and civil rights movements. He nailed college students with the marijuana provision and black with the crack cocaine provision (by the way, whites who could afford powdered cocaine face a sentence only one-quarter as severe as blacks who could only afford crack.
You'd argue that the law was unjust, and people would mock you.
It's what we are facing today with the "War on Drugs."
Oh, and you failed to address the for-profit motive that impels the for-profit prison system to push for tougher sentencing laws....
Obviously if you are born into a fatherless home, you join a gang, you sell drugs, you commit violent crimes including murder and if the rate of participating in all of the above is much higher than the average American it is highly likely that you are black. If you commit crimes at a much higher rate than the average American it is highly likely that you are black and that you will end up going to prison at a much higher rate than the general population. When the police are called to a crime in progress and the odds are high that the perps are black there is also a higher chance that a black perp will get shot. Not because he is black but because of the higher percentage of crimes being committed is by blacks. Stop committing crimes and the problem of incarcerations and deaths by police goes to zero. See how easy it is? Stop blaming the system for being a criminal. Blacks have enjoyed a much higher advantage of benefits versus whites for many, many decades. They have been given a advantage in schools, loans, welfare, scholarships, jobs, free phones and internet, housing, military, promotions,etc. Many blacks have squandered their black privileges and now they want more at the expense of other Americans.
ReplyDeleteBlack perpetrators are shot at a higher rate than are white perpetrators. Innocent blacks are shot at a higher rate than innocent whites.
ReplyDeleteBlack culture in the US was shaped by the sale of the black role models in black families as the slaveowners saw fit. Slave women learned to discount the stability of a man in the family, since he might disappear at any time. Slave boys learned that how they behaved in society didn't matter since their future was in the hands of whites. (I recommend you watch the Sunday plantation religious service scene in "Twelve Years a Slave" to understand this.)
It was the same after Emancipation, when southern law enforcement was rigged to provide free (i.e., slave) black labor for the least misbehavior of black men, but not for white men.
Furthermore, when an African-American male today attempts to be the role model we want to see in his family, there are still cultural stereotypes that will impede him, such as being arrested for breaking into his own home (he had locked himself out) even when he shows the cops his proof of residence.
As a result, it is a common in many African-American families to not expect there will be a stable adult male role model, since to expect one would be to risk the destruction of the family unit. This is why African-American women take a lot less sh*t from their men than white women do.
We whites in America are on our way to becoming a minority. Maybe we should start thinking about how we would like minorities in America to be treated.
Chuck, thanks for all of the excuses as to why black people have to be bad dads and criminals. Some of us white people, that are not stupid, recognize that blacks have enjoyed many advantages over whites for several generations which in most cases the whites funded at our expense. We whites are becoming a minority because our nation has favored killing unborn children, unrestrained illegal immigration and sponsoring risky refugees at the expense of our own legal citizens. Its the global way to destroy America as we know it. Now our colleges are attempting to destroy everything that made America great while educating very few and some parts of our minority populations are trying to destroy American history much like the Taliban and Isis do. Tearing down everything that made America great does not make a better world.
DeleteOh and your concern about for-profit prisons lobbying is ridiculous. All for-profit industries lobby. Even non-profits lobby. Take many of the unions in this country who spend more on lobbying than they do taking care of the people they supposedly represent. Trump is in favor of restricting this rampant lobbying. Unfortunately the beneficiaries of all of that lobbying money in Congress are not.
Please don't feed the troll.
ReplyDeleteSlavery? Emancipation? Perpetrators being shot? Chuck, what is it you're misinng? It's 2017 in Springfield Vt. What year is it in your chester yurt?
ReplyDeleteThey are not excuses; they are causes. Deal with the cause, and you can deal with the problem.
ReplyDeleteFor example, if we want to give African-American families a reason to get beyond the unstable adult male household effect, we do what one New York millionaire did for one class in his childhood public school (when he returned to visit it fifty years later, the student body was almost 100% African-American): He told every one of them that if they wanted to go to college, it would be there for them.
The parents snapped up his offer, and every one of those kids who wanted to got into college because not only did he pay for it, but their grades in all their classes from then through high school skyrocketed! He produced African-American males whose familial values underwent a fundamental change.
He dealt with a cause-- families who accepted that for lack of a healthier life their children would repeat the same cycles of misery in a white-dominated society. Those families still operated in a white-dominated society, but were helped by that society.
We can do the same.
How many college educations have you funded for blacks, Chuck? Its fun to spend other people's money on failing give away policies isn't it? I wish Daddy Warbucks had funded my education, my sibling's, my children's and my grandchildren's but he didn't. Boo hoo. I should have just given up, abandoned my family and led a life of crime because the system was stacked against me. There are not any special scholarships for whites but there are plenty for blacks and other minorities. Some of them are funded with tax payer dollars. Slavery ended a 150 years ago. About five generations later of special treatment, wasteful programs and eight years of a black president the blacks have no reason for special handouts and special treatment in comparison to the rest of us any longer. Treat everyone as equals and cut the dole payments and they will flourish.
DeleteWell, if you are an average Springfielder, 1:32, you are on your way to getting the same treatment they've been getting. Your wages have been flat for 45 years, and in the economic rebound since 2009, Vermont's top 6% got 80% of the income, while you got zip. Like almost all of those slaves and a lot of America's poor, we whites for the most part feel that our economic stagnation and slow impoverishment are due to forces beyond our control.
DeleteIf you're an average Springfielder, you do not have enough cash on hand to meet an unexpected $400 expense.
If you're an average Springfield, you've raised your kids on the financial edge, one your Springfield parents never faced.
If you're an average Springfield, you think they're going to do just as well as you, but already they aren't. They did not have a childhood which led them to believe that there would be a good job for them after graduating.
And, steeped in bigotry, you lessen your own chances of seeing that your children get the life you had, that you get the life satisfaction your parents had, by refusing to join with people who came from a slave mentality culture.
We are being trained to live by a slave mentality. But if you like it that way, I'm fine with that.