***** Ava DuVernay
This posting will be for the "Incarcerated American" series of this journal, to highlight a new documentary by award winning director/ screenwriter Ava DuVernay (wikipedia) ... and an interview below with Ava concerning the film ... but first I wanted to say a few things related. Ava was asked by Netflix to make a documentary ... anything she wanted, it's all on them ... Ava jumped all over the opportunity like a cheap suit on sunday! This is an excellent piece of work (I seen it on first day of release) ... her choice to do this kind of documentary was a good needed choice, although she is most well known for flix like "Selma" and "Middle of Nowhere", this should really be an eye- opener to American's, and get much mainstream coverage, which is really importante ... I mean, it's harder to ignore this and sweep it under the rug as usual, major news networx are already covering it. What is so importante about this film is to enlighten more American's on this issue on a larger scale ... this film explains how we went from old school slavery to todayz sugar- coated slavery, where it stands today ... and how simple it was to do so, simply using what the 13th Amendment allows ... of course our pop- culture institutionalized political correctness makes us say and think that slavery dont exist in America ... while we hold hands and sing that we are in the "land of the free" ... "home of the brave", heh, heh, heh, heh, heh {:-) Many American's dont have any idea what really goes on in our corrections institutions, how the courts and laws work, etc ... not unless you been there yourself or know others there, which is understandable ... so this film hits the nail on the head. Over the last month or so for example ... there was almost an entire media blackout over the largest prison strike in U.S. history (The Intercept) ... how much mainstream news coverage did you see of it? ... I seen none ... the strike is in order and past due in my view. Todayz slavery is mostly like past, on those of colour ... but the slave industry is not choosy either, as long as you are poor to working class, you are part of it, including white, so they have broadened their horizons you can say. They even have a milking system for the middle classes, just not the prison time ... they'll rob you of something some other way ... so dont feel you are exempt to this, this is why as many as possible should stand against this (other wayz to get cheap wages and free labour in America and elsewhere HERE, HERE and HERE).
Ever since slavery was abolished, a few words in the 13th Amendment allowed to make it still exist, instead of being labeled "slaves" going into the 20th century ... African Americans were the prime target of criminalization, and transformed through debt/ financial pressure, propaganda, politics and legislation, and even film entertainment such as the 1915 film, "The Birth of a Nation" ... to create a new portrait and pool of villains and scapegoats to blame everything on, and to make it acceptable to do. Slavery has alwayz been a "business", so today it is just the latest wave of this business, but business as usual ... with ALEC and political lobbying, and spoon fed fear through mainstream media, it has changed its image over and over the last century. Today it's a multi billion dollar industry ... and not just for the privatized prison industry, but for many big name corporations, when politicians talk about "job outsourcing" to foreign countries for cheap labour, bringing jobs back to America or related nonsense ... they need to be discussing "job insourcing" in our own country to prison labour (Huffington Post) that they loosely allow, eh?, labour so cheap right here, that it runs a close first place with developing third world countries. This needs legislative action from public pressure, you cant just boycott products, many of our biggest names here at home have had a history of using this prison labour, whether you're a customer of AT&T, McDonald's, Macy's, WalMart, Victoria's Secret, Mary Kay cosmetics, etc, etc. I myself feel that prison labour should have a federally mandated minimum wage ... yes, a living wage, considering the expense these dayz of over- priced commissary and hygienic essentials, medical out of prison inmate pocket, phone bills and the rest of the inflated cost of living of being in prison these dayz, and much else I address throughout this series. We are told to have fear, because of how dependent we have become to this slave labour, that it would have hard economic repercussions to oppose or abolish it (similar arguments were such in the early to mid 19th century as well) ... we are alwayz being told to "be afraid" ... try to set that aside for a moment, and think with a straight head, and spread this retaliation against what is really our enemies.
What Ava and others want to do, is enlighten folks to make a movement to create change ... some say, that "it cant be done, it's alwayz been this way and alwayz will be" ... when people talk like that, that should put up a red flag for you, these kind of people have no vision, no ideas for any kind of change or much else related, and will only bring you to their level of thought and weaken you. Releasing this film now is great, because with enough atencion and public pressure, it will force politicians to address it, even if they do lie ... the next President and Congress will have to address this ... the same way the President L.B Johnson had to address the civil rights issue. We are constantly told that we are safer with all these people in prison ... sure, violent offenders are one thing, but we have a majority of people that are in prison on small petty offenses such a drug possession, to many plea deals being dished out to the point that it is in clear violation of the judicial process and ethics. Understand, when you hear these people, whether its ALEC, the corporate lobbyists, or local to federal law enforcement, etc ... say that they want to rehabilitate our prison population ... right there should put up another red flag, showing you they are full of shit. The prison industry certainly dont want people to get out and be productive members of society, because it cuts into their profits. In fact, they are behind much of the petty reasons and legislation for people to be violated on their parole/ probation ... just like back in the early 1900's ... when black people were charged with a crime, because of vagrancy/ not having a home or employment ... to loitering ... and having to pay a fee for those crimes, since they didnt have the money ... had to pay it off with free labour ... today you have more complex wayz to charge people, with a wider variety of legislated/ manufactured so called "crimes", and even if they're not in prison ... have them still work for profiteers through programmes cloaked in the title "community service". Enough from me ... on to Ava below.
From Slavery to Mass Incarceration, Ava DuVernay's Film "13th" Examines Racist U.S. Justice System ... Thanx to DEMOCRACY NOW!
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***** PD/ RCJ: "INCARCERATED AMERICAN" PART'S 28 THRU 1
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***** RANCH CHIMP JOURNAL "WELCOME" POST
***** RCJ MUSIC/ ART'S HONOUR ROLL SOCIETY (my hand- selected music/ arts picks)
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