4 chapters across the catalog
The discussion explores the concept of "codification" as a defense mechanism against racial slurs and verbal provocation. Neely Fuller Jr. advises that reacting violently to a slur plays into a trap that can lead to incarceration and legal "slavery" under the 13th Amendment. By maintaining a code of non-reaction, an individual strips the word of its power and refuses to be a prisoner of their own emotions.
Noam Chomsky explains how slavery was reinstituted after the Civil War through the criminalization of black life and the lease of convict labor to industries like U.S. Steel. The discussion connects this history to modern Alabama, where incarcerated people work for private companies like McDonald's and Wendy's. The state takes a 40% cut of their wages, which the hosts characterize as a continuation of the master-slave economic system.
The 13th Amendment's exception for "punishment for a crime" allowed slavery to evolve into convict leasing and mass incarceration. A Vice report features a genealogist who found cases of families held in de facto slavery in Mississippi as late as 1961. The segment highlights the brutal enforcement of these systems through violence, including accounts of individuals forced to dig their own graves.
Kanye West visited the Oval Office in 2018 to discuss prison reform and manufacturing with President Donald Trump. Accompanied by Jim Brown, West delivered a freewheeling monologue while wearing a Make America Great Again hat, which he claimed made him feel like Superman. Despite media criticism labeling the event as a spectacle, West addressed substantive issues regarding the 13th Amendment and the Democratic party's relationship with black voters.
