One of the ways in which DuVernay’s documentary continues to illustrate the horrors of oppression against the black community is the way in which both authors describe how slavery and the mass incarceration system lead to unjust treatment of African Americans that sometimes ends with murder. This occurs in Douglass’s narrative when Douglass talks about the murder of Demby by Mr. Gore and how “the killing of a slave… is not treated as a crime either by the courts or the …show more content…
In the documentary, they talk about how “the police could not arrest Zimmerman because of a Florida law called Stand Your Ground that says that you can kill someone if you feel threatened, even though it was Zimmerman who had pursued Martin throughout the neighborhood with a gun.” Zimmerman was found not guilty mainly due to this law influenced by ALEC which is a private club conformed by politicians and corporations that encourage mass incarceration. “The 13th” continues to talk about oppression against black people by giving us an example of how similar slavery and mass incarceration serve as a justification for the murders of African Americans. These two scenes manifest the injustice caused by slavery and mass incarceration. On one hand, Demby was killed by Mr. Gore without a justifiable reason and “his horrid crime was not even submitted to judicial investigation.” On the other hand, Zimmerman shot Martin just because he felt threatened, even though he was the one