As some of you may know, I am a big Kanye West fan. When we started the discussion of the 13th amendment and the prison system, it reminded me of one of his songs. The fourth song on his sixth album, titled Yeezus, is called "New Slaves". He begins the song saying, "My mama was raised in the era when clean water was only served to the fairer skin." This is referring to the Jim Crow era which eventually ended in 1965. Kanye actually samples "Strange Fruit" by Billie Holiday in the same album, a song based around the tragic lynchings of this era. As the documentary we watched said, once the lynchings and Jim Crow laws became unacceptable, the oppression was switched to the prison system. Kanye then repeatedly refers to imprisoned African Americans as the "new slaves". He then talks about the war on drugs, started by Richard Nixon in 1971. Kanye says, "Meanwhile the DEA Teamed up with the CCA They tryna lock n***** up They tryna make new slaves." The CCA is a company that owns and manages private prisons and detention centers and operates others on a concession basis. The CCA makes billions of dollars every year off of the increasing size of the US prison population. The DEA has been accused of racist and unconstitutional acts in the past. Other companies besides the CCA continue to profit off of the prisoners. So, in this song, Kanye is accusing the Federal Government of using the prison system to create "new slaves" to further make more and more money and improve the economy, just as slavery did back in its time. This brings us to the 13th amendment. In 2018, Kanye had an outburst saying that the 13th amendment should be abolished. But, what he really was trying to say is that it needs to be amended, referring to its "exception clause". Kanye said, "In 1865, the 13th Amendment stated that no man is destined to slavery or involuntary servitude unless convicted of a crime," West read from his phone. "This translates to in order to make a freed man a slave all you have to do is convict them of a crime." This topic continues to be an argument across the nation, but I thought it was interesting to look at my favorite artist's viewpoint.
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What’s also interesting to look into is Kim Kardashians role in the freeing of Alice Marie Johnson from a life sentence. Johnson was given a life sentence after being charged with the possession of cocaine; it was a non violent, first time offense. 1,907 inmates are currently in prison serving life sentences for drug charges. The cost to keep to these prisoners behind bars is extreme, and their sentences are mainly serving the purpose of retribution, not rehabilitation. Kardashian saw this case as a catalyst for her to begin a career in law (she’s planning on taking the bar exam in 2022). She hired a hard working team of lawyers to stand behind her in her fight to have Johnson granted clemency. After Johnson was set free, it was highly publicized, and news got out that Kim had been quietly funding 17 other campaigns fighting to free prisoners with life sentences for drug crimes.
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