3 chapters across the catalog
Neely Fuller Jr. introduces the concept of "codification," advising individuals not to flinch or react when targeted by racial slurs. The hosts discuss how a violent reaction to the word can lead to criminal charges, effectively making the individual a "slave" under the 13th Amendment. An anecdote about a woman on a subway ignoring a verbal assault illustrates how the word loses power when the intended "spell" fails to trigger a response.
The 13th Amendment's loophole allowing slavery as punishment for a crime led to the evolution of the institution through convict leasing and mass incarceration. A Vice documentary clip features Arthur Miller, whose family was held in de facto slavery on a Mississippi plantation until 1961. The segment details the extreme violence used to maintain this system, including accounts of Black men being forced to dig their own graves and being castrated for attempting to leave plantations well into the mid-20th century.
Kanye West met with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office to discuss prison reform and the 13th Amendment. Accompanied by Jim Brown, West delivered a freewheeling monologue while wearing a Make America Great Again hat. The media reaction was polarized, with figures like Michael Eric Dyson criticizing West as a "ventriloquist" for white supremacy.
