Slavery Is Slavery

Somehow when we say modern slavery rather than slavery, it takes the sting away from the horror and the condition.

The same is so when we refer to slavery-like practices instead of calling it what it is – slavery.

I’m wondering why we do this? Some slavery is worse than other slavery? Or some people would be offended? Some Asians, for instance, think blacks in America had it easy compared to them. Blacks probably think nobody had it has difficult as they did.

But why compete with something so bad? I had it worse off than you, or my people had it worse off than your people?

Slavery today is nothing like slavery long ago? Maybe yes maybe no. Long ago everybody had it hard. Life was hard. Nobody had electricity or health care or modern conveniences. Being sold, or stolen from your family, to work as a subservient person to people you’ve never met is a condition that most people can’t begin to imagine – what it’s like or how one feels when they wake to their reality.

So maybe we shouldn’t compare if it means diminishing the conditions under which so many continue to live in this modern world. Let’s call slavery what it is – slavery. And then let’s work to end it by raising everybody up as worthy of making their own choices regarding their own lives.