Mecca Gladney

Craig Wynne
English 102
Genre Analysis
2/17/17

As many may know, slavery in the United States was a horrific time for African

Americans. Two hundred and forty-five years of being oppressed by white people and the

government. Luckily, in 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment was put in place to abolish slavery.

Can you image how African Americans adjusted to being free slaves after living so long under

such harsh conditions? Truth is, African Americans have never had the chance to fully adjust as

free people in the United States, instead they are adjusting to slavery that is legal under the

Thirteenth Amendment. Save to say, bandages have just been put over the issue of slavery,

leaving the issue of slavery to be known as a modified issue in the United States. Once people

become aware of this issue, many questions start to arise.

Questions lead to a hunt for answers. Many turn to articles, speeches, movies, books, etc

to find the answers to their questions. Those are all forms of genres that play a crucial role in

how one may communicate about a topic. Structure, language, delivery, credibility and purpose

of a genre is critical as to how the message is conveyed to the audience, leaving some opinions

different than others. Two genres, 13th by Ava DuVernay and How the 13th Amendment didnt

really abolish slavery, but let it live on in the U.S prisons by Shaun King, both focus on a form of

modern-day slavery known as mass incarceration. DuVernay communicates about this topic

through a documentary,which is a visual, and King communicates through a article. The

documentary and the article shines light on how the Thirteenth Amendment contributes to

modern-day slavery and how it highly affects African Americans lives today. King focuses on

how people have been misled about slavery being abolished, while Duvernay focuses on the
genetic link between slavery and the modern-day prison-industrial. Although both genres focus

on the same topic, their differences and similarities in language, structure, credibility and

delivery will be analyzed to prove which genre communicated most effectively.

The audience and purpose of the documentary and the article is very similar when trying

to convey the message that mass incarceration is an issue. Both genres assume that one already

knows mass incarceration is an issue in the United States. This is evident because the

documentary starts by giving the statistic that United States is home of 5% of the worlds

population, but 25% of the worlds prisoners (DuVernay) and the article states the largest

prison strike in American history is about to enter its third week (King). This is important to

realize, because the connection between mass incarceration and modern-day slavery though the

Thirteenth Amendment cant be made if the issue of mass incarceration isnt made clear from the

beginning. Now that the concern is out on the table, both authors present their information to

inform about how the amendment is just another bandage placed over the wound of slavery.

Although both authors are being informative, DuVernay also uses her information to be

persuasive on the issue of mass incarceration. DuVernay not only informs that mass incarceration

is a concern, just as King does, but she also includes a segment about how the government

system is ran by a group called ALEC (which led to this modern-day slavery) to shine light on

the fact that bandages will keep being placed on the wound unless the government makes a

change within itself first. Through language, such as slavery, oppressive, years of free

labor, Civil war and Thirteenth Amendment, it is very evident that both authors are

referring to African Americans. The use of those words will take anyone back to those horrifying

two-hundred and forty-five years. DuVernay not only uses the same language as King does, but

she also shows mainly African Americans on the film speaking, to put an even bigger emphasis
on which community this is effecting the most. Having that the audience is African Americans

and in DuVernays case, the government too, the language is appropriate for both authors to tie

the audience in with the purpose to inform that African Americans are still living in those

horrifying years, just through a mass incarceration, because the amendment made that form of

slavery legal.

The rhetorical issues in DuVernays 13th documentary differs slightly from Kings article.

In the 13th DuVernay mainly uses African Americans, which proves that she is trying to make

that strong connection to other African Americans. Some of the African American speakers, such

as Michelle Alexander, Bryan Stevenson, and Henry Louis Gates Jr. are people who have studied

this issue for years, which gives the audience reason to believe that the speaker is providing valid

information from experience over the years. The documentary also includes people, like Angela

Davis and Cory Greene who have been criminalized and forced to be part of this modern-day

slavery. Including African Americans who have also been criminalized is crucial when trying to

effectively achieve the purpose of this genre, because the audience has reason to believe that

almost everything is credible since these people were a part of the issue. As opposed to the

documentary, Kings article does not use African Americans to help convey the message. Instead

King uses quotes from Senate Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, The dismal words slave and

slavery do not appear in the constitution,, which helps the audience understand how the

Thirteenth Amendment came about and supports the information present, but it does not give the

in-depth information about the concern like DuVernay does. Kings article differs from

DuVernays documentary, because he is not only a writer, but also a Civil Rights activist and

apart of the Black Lives Matter movement, which is something that DuVernay did research on,

but isnt a part of. Although both of their ways of establishing credibility is different, both ways
help achieves the purpose of being informative, because both authors have had a great amount of

experience with the concern. Both authors are aiming to evoke the same emotion from the

audience, which is surprised and concerned. It goes against everything we were taught about the

history of this country. We have been duped. The history books were wrong and right under our

noses one of the greatest conspiracies in American history has taken place over the past 150

years (King). King sums up, in words, everything DuVernay was displaying through a visual.

He emphasizes how people have been misled on this topic that slavery was abolished, but this

connects to African Americans very well, causing them to be concerned and surprised. African

Americans were the ones that slavery affected and the fact that they have been misled and lied

too about the abolishment of slavery, only makes room for more questions to arise. King and

DuVernay does a great job at providing answers for questions for African Americans who can

relate to this concerning matter and have the same emotions as others towards the situation.

Structure and delivery really drives the message in these two genres, but in this case the

documentary does a better job at conveying the message through its delivery. Both genres

organize their information in a timeline, because it helps explain how the issue of mass

incarceration started and expanded into a bigger issue. The documentary has less limitations than

the article though. There are limitations to the article because it is written, and the audience does

not get an exact picture of what is happening. They can only assume from the written text to gain

information, but they do not get any visuals or anything of that sort from the article. That differs

from the documentary. The documentary is a visual so the audience can see and hear, then

interpret the information. The visual gives more freedom to express the message, because the

audience can use more than one of their five senses to understand. DuVernay also includes

scenes from other movies like Selma and 12 Years a Slave, which also helps make the point that
this modern-day slavery is in close connection with the kind of slavery that was abolished back

in 1865. Although King uses, a timeline just as DuVernay does, the structure in the documentary

supports the purpose better. The timeline in the documentary not only explains the start of the

issue, but it supports the purpose of trying to inform and persuade that the amendment needs to

be revised, because slavery is now legally affecting a large number of African Americans. To

prove that this documentary was meant to be informative, it is ended by reminding the audience

that they should become more education on the concern that mass incarceration is a legal form of

slavery through the Thirteenth Amendment.

To conclude, the documentary, 13th, is the more effective genre. Although the article and

the documentary provide the same information, the documentary is more appealing to the

audience. Showing the faces and sharing the stories of criminalized victims is very powerful. It

makes the information more relatable, by bringing out an emotional factor from the audience.

The audience can imagine how they would feel if they were also criminalized and forced to be a

part of this modern-day slavery. Genres have a huge impact on how an idea is perceived and later

communicated to the next person. The appropriate genre must have the right elements in order to

attract the targeted discourse community and keep them focus throughout the entire time the

message is being conveyed.