13TH
When I first finished the documentary I was quite stunned. I thought about how they said that in order to get people’s attention they have to use shock and realized that this was so depressingly true. I thought about how the political candidates use fear to manipulate citizens to vote for them, and to counter this extreme emotion of fear, one has to use another extreme emotion like horror. While I’d like to think that racism in America has improved drastically over the decades, this documentary really opened my eyes upon my ignorance. While in my past courses I have learned about slavery, racial segregation, and even mass incarceration, it wasn’t as effective as watching this documentary and seeing how the effects of this racism has harmed millions of Americans. At the same time I think it really relates to the current events that are going on in the country. I feel that despite our best efforts at eliminating racism in the world, there always seems to be someone who is ignorant or maybe just misinformed about racism that contributes to the problem. We live in an era where there’s so much information that’s accessible to everyone, no matter good or bad, and I often find it frustrating when others are misinformed. Therefore I think I will keep this documentary in mind and perhaps recommend it to those who are not very informed about the issues that are happening around them.