‘… criminals are elected and make millions of dollars’: Ava DuVernay slams Trump’s re-election amid racial injustice in the U.S. penal system
Ava DuVernay slammed Donald Trump’s re-election to the Presidency, noting the unfairness of a criminal getting elected to office while the U.S. penal system is rife with racial injustice.
DuVernay recently attended the Marrakech Film Festival, where she discussed several of her films. While she is best known as the director behind the critically acclaimed films Origin and Selma, she has also produced several documentaries, including 13th. The documentary explores racial injustice in the penal system and the fact that American prisons are disproportionately filled with African Americans. Its title is a reference to the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery except “as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” 13th argues that this exception, along with tactics like the Jim Crow laws, lynchings, and mass incarcerations of African Americans, were utilized to preserve slavery long after the Civil War ended.
Although 13th was released in 2016, it remains relevant today, especially since Trump’s election win makes it impossible to ignore the double standard in America’s justice system.
Ava DuVernay addresses Donald Trump’s re-election
At the Marrakech Film Festival, DuVernay explained that 13th is also about how people perceive criminality differently, depending on who commits the crime. She explains there are “certain parts of the world” in which “black and brown people … are considered inherently criminal.” The 13th attempts to get to the root of “why do we believe some people have a criminal tendency and others don’t.”
It’s an especially important question in America, where one can clearly see the disparity between how those perceived as “inherently criminal” are treated compared to those who are actual criminals. Trump is a convicted felon, yet he was elected president and had two separate federal criminal cases dropped against him. America has watched a man accused and convicted of serious crimes elected president and enjoying his billionaire lifestyle. However, if a Black person is convicted of a lesser crime, it’s an entirely different story.
DuVernay stated, “My country is run by criminals, but that criminality is seen as completely different than a black kid on the corner who might buy, sell marijuana. The black kid is in prison for years, while criminals are elected and make millions of dollars and sell electric cars.” She continued to explain that 13th was about exploring “The idea of who is criminal and what and who is deciding who is right and who’s wrong.” While she was intrigued by the concept of 13th, she wasn’t expecting others to take note when it was quietly released on Netflix. However, it quickly reached the #1 most-watched movie in multiple countries and was nominated for an Emmy and an Oscar. The positive response to 13th made DuVernay think that “we have much more in common when it comes to prejudice and the hierarchy of people in different societies around the world.”
During her interview, DuVernay didn’t have to mention Trump by name for the audience to know she was speaking about him. Today, Americans live with the knowledge that their “country is run by criminals.” That statement, in itself, is hard to wrap one’s mind around. However, it’s even more difficult to comprehend in the context of America’s justice system as a whole. Fortunately, DuVernay’s documentary continues forcing Americans to confront the hard questions, including why they view their president’s crimes as less significant than the real or even just perceived crimes of people of color or women.
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