« Bill Maher Goes for the Cheap Laugh | Main | Black Man, Whatcha Got to Lose »
November 04, 2007
John Bowe on Modern Slavery in America
John Bowe is the author of "Nobodies", a journalistic endeavor that details the overlooked world of slavery in America. Slavery is not dead, it flourishes and is really what is at stake with illegal immigration. There are thousands of immigrants from around the world: Mexico, Thailand, China, Pakistan, etc. These immigrants are promised a new life and high wages to come to America and toil in farming and agriculture, construction, and housing. They are exploited by a network of slave runners who extort large sums of money from entire families and villages to send one or a few of their own to America to forge a better life. But when they get here they are paid substandard wages because they are pretty much paid whatever the slaveowners want to pay them. And most of the money these people make is taken from them to "pay" for the slaverunners and loan sharks who brought them here. The slaverunners and the slaveowners in America are ensured they will get the money they loaned these people because if a worker escapes from his slaveowner his family back home will pay. They will be evicted, exploited and enslaved themselves.
The idea from some that these immigrants are coming to America to do the jobs Americans do not want to do does not stand up to scrutiny. Drywall jobs in Los Angeles have gone to slave and day labor. Construction jobs across the country have gone to slave labor. Meat packing plants, Florida fruit farms, Texas cattle ranches... And the diabolical outcome of giving illegal immigrants driver's licenses, as in 7 of the states including Michigan, is that they will also take over trucking and distribution jobs. These aren't jobs Americans don't want to do. These are jobs businesses want illegal immigrants to infiltrate to drive down wages.
There are also those that say "so, what. Those people are making more money here than they would back home." Ask your African American friends "what's wrong with slavery if you have a better standard of living on the plantation than you would trying to make it on your own?"
America is about freedom. This is why the language of slavery is so repugnant to African Americans and to civilized people everywhere. The real issue concerning illegal immigration is not about denying freedom to others as the Pope, business leaders and their puppet President and congressional stooges so egregiously and erroneously contend. It is about ENSURING that people retain the dignity and self posession we should all be entitled to.
