13th By Ava Duvernay: Documentary Analysis

Black Lives Matter is a movement that most people have heard of. I’ve heard of it for a while, and it is something I see daily through the news and media. I’ve discovered that as much as I can sympathize with Black Lives Matter and people whose daily lives have been affected by institutionalized racism, I can never fully understand what they go through or how they feel. Growing up in the predominantly caucasian suburb of Deerfield, Illinois, I don’t have any grasp on what it is like to be singled out and XXX daily, even in the smallest ways, by a large percentage of the population. While watching the documentary 13th, directed by Ava DuVernay, I realized how naive I was to all the bigotry and XXX shown towards Blacks (an uppercase “B” refers to people of African descent, author Lori L. Tharps says). 13th even explores how racism against Black people is woven into US history. The documentary 13th significantly changed my whole viewpoint of the Black Lives Matter movement. …show more content…
As more police brutality and prejudice appeared on the news, we have all seen the campaign grew. This has sparked many reactions. Some people have been using the phrase “All Lives Matter” as a counter to the movement. I personally don’t think that is an appropriate response to the situation at hand. There is a very good analogy as to why, as Leonard Pitts Jr. explains. Here’s the gist: Suppose you are going to the doctor with a broken wrist, but he insists on inspecting every single bone because “All Bones Matter”. I don’t think it makes sense that people are saying this, as while all lives do matter, we need to focus on where it is