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Documentary: 13th

Documentary: 13th

Posted on May 30, 2022January 24, 2023

I have always been fascinated by incarceration. Locking people up in small areas, sometimes for their entire life. Why? How? This fascination even led me to do my internship in a Dutch prison back in 2017. I then saw everything from up front. I don’t know if I still would choose the same internship now in 2022, because my views have changed. But the fascination about incarceration has stayed. This led me to watch a documentary which shines light on mass incarceration in relation to racism in the United States. Today I am sharing this documentary with you: 13th.

Know Your History

Today I am writing about the United States and what I’ve learned from the documentary 13th. But in no way can I, as a Dutch person, judge the Americans for the things they’ve done or are doing, without knowing my own history. The Dutch history. I thank my wealth to ancestors who traveled the world, stole from nations around the world, showed extreme violence to different people around the world, enslaved entire nations and the list goes on. When I say anything about racism, it must be here in Netherlands. Because racism is here too, even though Dutch people think it’s not or not so much. This is simple not true.

And so, I try to combat racism here in the Netherlands. And I am not the person who says how things should be done in the United States. But! I do want to inform you about different issues around the globe. And the documentary I am sharing today is extremely important. Whatever you do after watching the documentary, know your own history if you’re white. Because we cannot judge other nations without looking at our own.

13th

Onto the documentary. 13th is a documentary which sheds a light on mass incarceration in the United States. The United States houses 5% of the world population, but 25% of all prisoners worldwide. And so we speak of mass incarceration, because these statistics are out of balance. How come? The documentary tells you why. The documentary is called 13th is because it resolved around the 13th amendment of the constitution in the United States. This 13th amendment makes it illegal to enslave anyone since 1865. It must assure freedom to all American people. But there is one exception to freedom: criminals.

Criminals are allowed to work for close to nothing in prison and sometimes locked up their entire life. Therefore the subtitle of the documentary is: from slave to criminal in one amendment. Right now, the chance for white men to go to prison in the United States is 1 in 17, for black men it’s 1 in 3. 13th shows us, in my opinion, how mass incarceration is just a symptom of a bigger issue: racism.

The documentary shows how complicated racism in the United Stated is and how many factors play a role. Mass-incarceration is just one example to portrait the entire system of racism. So many factors play a role. The so-called ‘war on drugs’, politics, mass-incarceration, socio-economic factors, demographics, private prisons, lobbying, plead deals, the violence inside prisons, police violence, etc. It also shows the absurd system around crime that the government has built. The three strike law for example or mandatory minimum sentences. The problem of racism is massive.

Change

Racism keeps getting a new form. It went from slavery to convict leasing, then the Jim-crow system, after that the mass incarceration and so much more. It shows that the core problem is of this injustice is racism and that’s what we need to combat. I am not here to tell you how to do that. The resources are there. We just need to listen to people of color and make room for them. A good Dutch website is Wit Huiswerk, where you can learn all about what you should do to combat racism.

Have you seen the documentary 13th? It can be seen on Netflix.

Another must watch is the series: When They See Us.

Yours sincerely,
Romee

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ABOUT ME

 

when a teen goes green

Hi! My name is Romee Hoeksma and I am on a journey to an eco-positive life. An eco-positive lifestyle is a lifestyle in which I have a more positive than negative impact on the beautiful planet earth. On this blog you can follow my journey to a life with only positive impact. At this blog you can find all sorts of things, from tips to recipes to personal experiences, but most of all fun (I hope!). I write about how I want to change the world, but don’t look at it as if I’m judging you. If anything, I like responses from my dear readers the most, so don’t hesitate to contact me or respond to any of my posts!

Yours sincerely,
Romee

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Hoi! Op dit account deel ik tips om duurzaam/eco-positief te leven. Maar! Het is ook gewoon mijn persoonlijke account waar ik dingen deel over mezelf. En dus leek het me tof om een kleine introductie te schrijven over mij ๐Ÿ™‹๐Ÿผโ€โ™€๏ธ. So, here it goes; Okรฉ, ik weet niet waarom ik dacht dat deze overgangen mooi zouden worden ๐Ÿ˜‚. Ik post het toch maar, want ik vond het te grappig en tja, alle outfits zijn wel echt 100% tweedehands.. De afgelopen jaren heb ik geleerd hoe ik met weinig tot geen olie lekkere gerechten op tafel kan zetten (helemaal plantaardig uiteraard) ๐ŸŒฏ. Weten hoe en waarom ik dat doe? Ik schreef er een artikel over die je nu kan vinden via de link in mijn bio. Dit is al het vegan eten wat ik at in Bratislava, Slowakije ๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฐ. De stad heeft me verbaasd, want er zijn echt veel vegan restaurants. Moet je er 1 kiezen? Ga dan voor Balans Bistro, die is echt het beste. Vandaag maakte in voor het eerst sinds in veganistisch leef (6 jaar) weer eens quiche! Want ik kon nooit echt een simpel receptje vinden voor vegan quiche en dat schrok me af. Tot vandaag, want ik vond een recept van de Albert Heijn, met vegan kookroom en vegan ei van Plant B die ze sinds dit jaar verkopen. Op deze manier is het echt een makkie en quiche is dan ook zeker toegevoegd aan mijn kookportfolio! Ik ga dit vaker maken, en ook verschillende varianten. Het is zรณ makkelijk, maar wel heel lekker. Vandaag zat er eigenlijk alleen broccoli in, maar ik ben benieuwd naar wat nog meer mogelijk is. Vegan spekjes lijken me er bijvoorbeeld heerlijk in! ๐Ÿฅ“ Als je gaat wandelen/hiken, kan je heel makkelijk positieve impact maken! Neem een klein zakje of tasje mee en raap al het afval wat je tegen komt op: easy peasy ๐Ÿšฎ. Vandaag verscheen het laatste artikel op mijn blog over onze interrail avonturen. Je leest over hoe we met de trein van Kopenhagen terug naar Amsterdam reisden met de trein ๐Ÿšƒ. De foto past er niet echt bij haha, hier ben ik namelijk aan het genieten van een vegan milkshake (met herbruikbaar rietje!) in Warschau, maar ach. Ik ben van mening dat je niet ver hoeft te reizen om mooie dingen te zien. Europa is prachtig! Dit is Boheems Zwitserland in Tsjechiรซ ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฟ. Ik schrijf nog altijd over mijn interrail in september. Vandaag staat een verslag op mijn blog over reisdag 5 van de interrail: de treinreis van Warschau naar Kopenhagen. En als ik zo door de fotoโ€™s heen scrol mis ik de interrail toch wel een beetje! ๐Ÿšƒ

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  • Cooking without oil
  • A list of all animal sanctuaries around the world
  • Copenhagen to Amsterdam by train
  • Warsaw to Copenhagen by train

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