The 19th century abolition of slavery is the reason why Juneteenth is celebrated, but black slavery in the United States still exists. So I have decided not to sprain my arm patting myself on the back. As an ally, I would be remiss if I didn't point this out. This is a review blog, so I am describing this situation and evaluating it.
There are two categories of current black slavery in the United States of America that I know about. There are probably others. Readers, if you are aware of other types of current black slavery, please comment on this post and let me know. We all need to know about all the manifestations of systemic racism before we can remedy them.
The first category is slavery in prisons. Slavery in prisons has become massively profitable for private prisons. Yes, there are other ethnic groups who are enslaved in prisons. Yet it's important to realize that an alarmingly high percentage of prisoners are black. This is due to selective enforcement of laws. See Michelle Alexander's book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Why do I say that prison labor is enslavement? Well, they are paid a pittance, but private prisons charge them for basic services. So prisoners soon find themselves in debt.
What do we do to end prison enslavement? We need to end private prisons. It's abhorrent that there are Americans who are making a business out of profiting from prison labor. Some suggest incremental reforms that make it illegal for prisons to charge for certain things. Others suggest that prisoners be allowed to make minimum wage. Yet the real solution is ending private prisons. If no one profits from prison labor, the motivation for it vanishes.
The second category is domestic enslavement of African immigrants. These may well be legal immigrants with visas. Some Americans are taking advantage of them by offering them jobs as domestic servants. Then they confiscate their passports and visas, neglect to pay them and keep them working under abusive conditions. Illegal African immigrants are even more vulnerable to this trap. They are kept working by the threat of being reported to ICE. I am aware that there are many other ethnic groups that are domestically enslaved or forced to work in other types of situations, but that would be the subject of another essay.
How do we end domestic enslavement of African immigrants? Awareness is the main tool we have. Obviously, this practice is already illegal. So we need to be aware that this situation exists, and report it if we discover it.
I welcome comments on this review.
No comments:
Post a Comment