The current system of mass incarceration is a combination of two of the biggest and racialized era America has experiences, slavery and Jim Crow. In the novel Kindred by Octavia Butler, there were various examples of white superiority and the large impact slavery had because “I [she] never realized how easily people could be trained to accept slavery”(Butler, pg.77). Slavery is a complex institution implemented by society to benefit and advantage the white race over colored people, the institution was so powerful that the victims of slavery accepted it as part of their being and nature. As demonstrated in the novel the role of whites during slavery, which was to “[make] sure the slaves were where they were supposed to be at night, and they…show more content… Similarly to the institution of slavery, the Jim Crow laws initiated with the label of colored as the stereotypical damaging people in the…show more content… According to NPR “[Griffith] portrayed the emancipated slaves as heathens, as unworthy of being free, as uncivilized, as primarily concerned with passing laws so they could marry white women and prey on them...People were on their feet cheering at the climax of the film, when the Klan is seen as a healing force — restoring order to the chaos of the South during Reconstruction"(NPR). The “Birth Of A Nation” was a platform for discrimination and segregation laws against people of color, just as the whites did during slavery labeling colored people as animals and criminals in order to easily arrest them and benefit from the control they were gaining back since the end of slavery. Although slavery ended before this time period, the remnants of slavery still remained; such as restricting and controlling colored people of their education and voting rights. These restrictions are still present in the current system of mass incarceration; a large percentage of prisoners are people of color and while they are locked up they miss many opportunities on
