For one of my events this month, I chose to watch the documentary 13th which is about America’s criminal justice system, and the leeway that is given that allows for mistreatment of blacks. I chose to watch this because as someone who is interested in political science and history in general, I figured I would find this very interesting. I was right. I came out of high school with the belief that my teachers covered a lot about the history of racism in the country and its lasting effects today, but I found out there is so much more that goes into, and they could not have possibly gone in depth in everything. Just the various ways that politicians have been able to maintain control over the black community and even profit on their incarceration is mind-blowing to me. Additionally, I was completely unaware of the reach that ALEC had and still has to some extent. Prior to the Trayvon Martin shooting, there were numerous everyday companies such as Google, Coke, and FedEx that were members of a group that promoted bills to profit off of prisoners. Many of these big-name commercial companies have left, but that still amazes me. There were two parts in particular that stuck out to me when it comes to relating this film to international affairs. The first of which is the explanation for there being large black populations in Oakland, Cleveland, Chicago, etc. is that they fled there as refugees from racial violence in the south. Obviously, this relates to refugee situations in many countries throughout the world, but what it really made me realize was the long-lasting effects in the future that this type of dispersion can have. The other main connection was when someone said that we are so worried about sweat shops in other countries, but we do not realize that that type of labor is happening here because of that one clause in the 13th Amendment. We see all of these issues happening throughout the world, but in some cases those very same issues are present here without us knowing about it.