Soc midterm paper - 1 Soc 101.103 Midterm Paper The 13th in...

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Soc. 101.103 Midterm Paper
The 13th in Relation to Introduction to Sociology Chapters 1-7
Kayla Swinson
Morgan State University
The Netflix Documentary The 13th tells the story of how America has transformed it’s

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ways and forms of social injustice towards minority communities. The documentary touches on
many social construct that go hand in hand with the Sociology curriculum that students are
learning. The 13th tells it’s story through a series of interviews from historians, civil rights
activist, ex convicts and large corporation representatives. The producers of the documentary did
their research on the topics shown to insure that the content of the movie was creditable. The
13th tells the stories of the wide variety of cultures throughout American history beginning in the
time of slavery. The documentary shows how culture changed as America advance throughout
time. The 13th also explains the horrors of social interaction between races and how society
negatively impacted minorities. The film discusses to socialization process of blacks and how an
identity can be changed with a small mistake. The audience learns how Presidents throughout
time were authoritarian leaders and influenced social injustice with their power. Presidents such
as Clinton and Reagan used their status to prey on minority communities. And Lastly, one can
learn from the film how the justice system has continuously failed the minorities in America.
While studying the Introduction to Sociology textbook and watching the 13th, students can easily
understand and relate the movie to topics touched on in class as well as everyday life.
In chapter 1, the text gives a rough description of the basic foundation of sociology. It
covers important sociologist such as Karl Marx and Herbert Spencer and important terms such as
culture, theory, society, and sociology. In the book culture is defined as, “a group's shared
practices, values, and beliefs”. In the film The 13th, historians explain the evolution of America’s
culture beginning with slavery through today’s culture. Before the civil war, slavery was an
accepted form of culture, it was the basis of the American economic system. After the war,
slavery was seen as immoral and was stripped away from the American culture. The film

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explains that even though slavery was abolished from American culture, discrimination was not.
The movie tells how discrimination reinvents itself within the American cultural as time passes.
New social facts are invented as time advances and morals and beliefs change. The text describes
social facts as, “the laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and all of
the cultural rules that govern social life”. The movie explains how racism always finds new
forms as people and time change. When slavery ended along with legal lynchings, Jim Crow
Laws began to form across the country. Jim Crow became the laws that governed the lives of
blacks in America.