WTF SLaves in America?!!

[StageLeft]

This isn't good

 

[Locutus of Board]

Nothing like blowing a story out of proportion.

It's the persons own fault for being used that way.

 

[BDawg]

"was sentenced to 6i years for trapping a Brazilian maid in his home, with no pay and insufficient food, for 20 years. Hilda Rosa Dos Santos testified that Bonetti?s wife,"

They're sentencing in imaginary years now?

 

[Yo Ma Ma]

Sad, isn't it? That part about "PB" from Farmington Hills MI is accurate. My daughter went to the same preschool as one of the Djoumessi children, I couldn't believe it when I first heard the story.

In this case it was not the person's own fault at all. Her own parents sent her with the family back to the US, perhaps for cash but also because they were promised she would be given more opportunity and good education here. They didn't let her attend HS.

 

[ArkAoss]

uhh nope nope nope nope, not good, people never learn, the "l" key shouldn't be so close to the ";" key either.

 

[Wangel]

Slavery? Great! I need my pool cleaned, my gutters cleaned, and my car washed and waxed. Can someone bring me my slippers? Slaves are great! I'll take 5.

 

[ChrichtonsGirl]

Ah, it's nice to see that breathless, semi-hysterical reporters still have a place to find work. You know, I was married for 11 years - seems to me if I tried hard enough, I could find some bonehead lawyer who would agree with me that I was "imprisoned".

This woman probably was uneducated and scared enough that she didn't know how to leave her employer. But to call her a "slave" is inaccurate. She wasn't someone's legal property, and it seems like as soon as she was able to tell someone what was happening, she was taken out of there, not sent back to serve the master some more. Maybe her culture and lack of education contributed to her situation.

 

[pamchenko]

lot of conservative unsympathetic ears here

 

[ChrichtonsGirl]

I'm not unsympathetic - but to call her a "slave" in the strictest sense of the word is inaccurate. It's not right that her lack of education contributed to the problem, but it's apparent that it did. She could have escaped from this psycho family years ago if she had just opened her mouth - something I'll concede she didn't know how to do.

Everyone's a slave in some sense (don't we all do stuff we don't want to, we live somewhere we don't particularly want to be, we feel restricted by others telling us how to behave and what we can do?), but the fault for the way that story came across is completely the author's. He/she could have handled it better with less hyperbole and had a better, more effective story for it.

 

[Yo Ma Ma]

No one is legally a slave in the US, because slavery is illegal. But these people are as close as you are going to find without delving into child abuse and mistreatment of the handicapped.

They are not in the country legally, they have no idea of what network of help would be available to them. The person that might be able to help them doesn't seem any different to them than the person keeping them in captivity. It seeemed the majority were minor females (at least to begin with). Also I doubt many could speak much if any english when they first came over, so that would be a huge obstacle in trying to get some help.

 

[DABANSHEE]

This happens in all Western countries (including Canada Skoob) - Some person in the 3rd world will pay someone a lot of money they dont have to be smuggled into a western country, where they can be payed good wages to pay off the smuggling debt. But when they get there, their passport is taken from them & they are told if they ever leave the workplace where they also eat & sleep (farm, brothel, domestic, restaurant), they'l be arrested & deported back home (in disgrace). They are also charged such high interest rates that of course the smuggling debt is never paid off (well that's the official excuse that's used, because some people do pay their own way across & they still end up in the same situation).

 

[BoberFett]

What a fscking lame story.

<< ...estimate that 1 million undocumented immigrants are currently trapped here in slavelike conditions. >>

1 million? So chances are pretty good that someone in your neighborhood has a slave? Bullsh!t. I guess it's easy to make up totally phony numbers that sound incredible when you can say things like

<< She was kept so tightly under wraps, few of her neighbors knew she existed. >>

Fscking sensationalist reporters. :|

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

WTF IS THE MATTER WITH YOU PEOPLE?! America refers to almost the entire Western Hemisphere. The United States refers to the United States. Mexicans are Americans. Canadians are Americans. Brazillians are Americans --GET IT RIGHT, DAMN IT!

 

[RipRidah]

LOL nobody refers to Mexicans as Americans, so why should we?

 

[EmperorNero]

<< WTF IS THE MATTER WITH YOU PEOPLE?! America refers to almost the entire Western Hemisphere. The United States refers to the United States. Mexicans are Americans. Canadians are Americans. Brazillians are Americans --GET IT RIGHT, DAMN IT! >>



and thus the flawless history scholar speaketh. I'm guessing the idiotic ffmcobalt was trying implying that the u.s. isn't guilty of &quot;slavery&quot; but america as in every other countries except the u.s. is guilty of this. wake up you fool, when the article said &quot;america&quot;, it meant the u.s. too. for example:

Texas prosecutors got guilty pleas last August in a case where 100 Chinese and Thai women were agreeing to pay $40,000 a piece to sneak into America every month, only to find themselves pressed into the flesh trade in Houston.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

they still are.

 

[classy]

&quot;It's the persons own fault for being used that way.&quot; Yea, its all their fault! That's great blame the victim.

&quot;Slavery? Great! I need my pool cleaned, my gutters cleaned, and my car washed and waxed. Can someone bring me my slippers? Slaves are great! I'll take 5.&quot; Nice to see you care.

&quot;She wasn't someone's legal property, and it seems like as soon as she was able to tell someone what was happening, she was taken out of there, not sent back to serve the master some more. Maybe her culture and lack of education contributed to her situation&quot;. Slavery never should be legal. Even after it was outlawed, people still had slaves. So being legal is not an issue. How is she not a slave, but as you said had a master?

&quot;Everyone's a slave in some sense&quot; Yea? Oh really? Thanks. I guess you doing house work allows you to identified with how &quot;real slaves&quot; felt. I don't think so.

Bober Fett you live in lilly white world. For you racism is not real and should not be talked about. For you a person is racist if they are black and point out prejudice.
&quot;What a fscking lame story.&quot; I think you can add yourself to that lame list you have started.

I been apart of this board for awhile. But just recently I started posting in the off topics forum. Never even read the threads actually till here recently. I am not surprised that there are some really prejudice people here, but that its so many.

 

[StageLeft]

I suppose it does ocurr everywhere...I don't think its really fair to call it their fault. In some cases you could &quot;argue&quot; that, but coming from a sh*ty country many people don't know any better so they do what they are told. Definitely in some cases - like the chick stuck in a basement - that was slavery as far as I'm concerned. Its rather foul that otherwise decent people in our society would engage in it.

ffmcobalt

Sure we Candians are &quot;Americans&quot; in the technical sense of the word but semantically people use American to refer to residents of the US.

 

[BoberFett]

I'm only prejudiced against stupidity. If you're stupid I don't care what color you are, I'll hate you anyway.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

True, true. Have you ever been to Brazil or Chile and had someone get pissed as hell at you for saying &quot;I'm from America&quot; when they asked?

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

(possible double post)

True, true. Have you ever been to Brazil or Chile and had someone get pissed as hell at you for saying &quot;I'm from America&quot; when they asked? I have some good friends that live in Chile and two good friends up here who are from Brazil.

 

[StageLeft]

I haven't but could understand how they would take offense. I do believe that in Europe, for instance, an &quot;American&quot; would always be considered a resident of the states.

 

[XL]

The whole story sounds like BS. Sounds like someone wants a free ticket to stay in america without applying through the proper channels.

 

[SuperGroove]

I agree with Classy. He holds the same opinions I hold for this matter.

Paul

 

[Eug]

Heheh. Well, I agree that the numbers are probably a poor estimate, but there's no denying the problem exists. However, the term slave is not quite correct in many instances, like in the case of the woman in the story.