I don’t know what I can write to get you to feel how passionately I believe what I’m about to tell you. If this is the first time you are reading something I’ve written, you have no real reason to believe me… But if you are reading something of mine for the second, third, tenth, hundredth time, I want to ask you a favor. Here it is: If I have ever written anything in the past that you have ever valued, trust me when I say this… You have GOT to watch the documentary titled “13TH.” It is on Netflix right now (you can stream it), and it is the most valuable, important documentary I have ever encountered with regards to understanding racism in America. Not just an “I hate black people” sort of racism, but the Racism that is at the heart of the SYSTEMS in this country. It deals with slavery, prison, government, and all the important history of how those things have shaped our world and our way of seeing things.
I am not going to put up a bunch of statistics… Everything is in the film. I’m not going to try to retell what the makers of this documentary have said… It is perfect and powerful exactly as it is. I am simply begging you–BEGGING YOU–To watch this documentary. It is so good. So strong. So important to understanding this mess we find ourselves in. Some of you know I’m a Christian (please don’t hold that against me), but even as a Christian, if I had to choose one thing that every person in this country needed to do: Either 1) Read the Bible, or 2) Watch the documentary “13TH,” the choice would be easy. I would have us watch this documentary. I am completely and utterly serious.
And then, if you could, I need you to tell people about it. In some way, let the people in your life know how important you think this movie is. Use your voice to spread the word. The world needs to be educated about this. Every single person–every ethnicity and color–needs to see this film. Share this post, share a review, share how it made you feel… SHARE IT. And then, after you share it, look for a way to help. Show up. Give money to one of the groups that is working to educate people and fight against this cancer on our society. But please, Please, PLEASE!!!! Go to Netflix, search “13TH,” and watch it. If you don’t think it’s 100% WORTH EVERY MINUTE OF YOUR TIME, you can feel free to unfollow me and never pay attention to another word I say. I am staking my entire reputation on the worthwhileness of this film. PLEASE! Alright… You’ve wasted enough time reading this. Go watch it right now…
The Boeskool 
I don’t have Netflix. Is there any other way to watch it?
Get the two month trial for free. 🙂
Must be a spambot…no one doesn’t have Netflix.
I don’t have netflix either – but I felt the exact same way when I read “The New Jim Crow.”
The author Michelle Alexander provides great insight in the documentary. It is indeed a fantastic, eye opening documentary.
I didnt have netflix, but my husband and I watched it last night on our dragon box.
It was pretty powerful. While my experiences are no where near the atrocities that continue to plague the African American population,I can fully understand how real Historical Trauma can be and the lasting effects it can have on a society. I am Hawaiian and our people continue to suffer from historical trauma because of colonization and missionaries/Americans coming in and telling us we were savages and basically forcing us to become more “civilized”. Like the native Americans, our resources were exploited, diseases were introduced the decimated our populations, and our government was illegally overthrown by a group of businessmen who wanted a bigger piece of the pie. Today, in Hawaii, Hawaiians have the highest incarceration rates in the state, highest rates of poverty amongst any other group in Hawaii, and the chronic health problems (hypertension, diabetes, asthma, heart disease, substance abuse) are worse for our population than any other ethnic group within our state. There are numerous scholarly articles and tons of data that support that correlation between historical trauma and bio-psycho-social problems that plague Native Hawaiians.
Anyway, I guess when you can relate (on some level) to the experiences of another, it hits home a little more. So where do we go from here?
This is the first time I’ve read piece from you and I just finished watching 13th, with my daughter. I was so moved I needed to write about it myself. And I feel the same way about what we, America did to the Hawaiians. I saw a documentary a few months ago on the rise and fall of King Kamehameha, and I was left in tears. The way this country has a history of brutality and the way some people today don’t wish to see it, leaves me feeling disgusted. Thank you for writing about it and making your readers aware of its message.
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Oh please, get out of here with this propaganda machine called Netflix. These movies do nothing but cause further infighting between races amongst the lower/middle classes due to cherry picked statistics and narratives about “sYsTeMs oF oPpReSsIoN”. Imagine having nothing better to do with your life than trying to display empathy to those that would just spit in your face.