Child Slavery Comes to the US

[Alyeska]

What blows me is that the parents were able to stop the kids from letting on about it at school, particularly the younger ones. I say this because I assume that the parents would have told them 'we don't talk about the slave', but often a young child will have a hard time not sharing their secret, unless they fear some consequences... Hmm.

It depends entirely on how the family interacts with the slave and has their child interact. I seriously doubt they call the slave child a slave. What exactly is there for the child to reveal at school? When I went to school, I didn't tell classmates how my mom cleaned the house.

[tim31]

What about the 'stupid girl' that lived with them? She was obviously the odd one out of the household situation and would have been treated as such. Yes, it does mildly surprise me that they never had a phone call from a teacher asking for an explanation regarding a statement made by one of the children, although I'm willing to concede how even such things could be overlooked as fantasy.

[Alyeska]

What about the 'stupid girl' that lived with them? She was obviously the odd one out of the household situation and would have been treated as such. Yes, it does mildly surprise me that they never had a phone call from a teacher asking for an explanation regarding a statement made by one of the children, although I'm willing to concede how even such things could be overlooked as fantasy.

Thing is, why would the kid necessarily say anything in the first place? The child could be taught to treat the slave as nothing but a piece of furniture. You are assuming the kid has the mental capacity and reasoning to fully comprehend the situation. To the child, the slave is a normal part of life.

[Stark]

I had the mental capacity to kill religion when I was six; you can bet your ass I'd be talking about the obvious slave living in my house. It's not Tim's fault most people are dumb as shit.

The best part, of course, is that this builds a culture of acceptance for the practice, which expands the market. The US must already have such a culture towards illegal workers, so it's not even much of a stretch. I don't think AU has any such culture of accepting un-people as cheap labour.

[JointStrikeFighter]

I had the mental capacity to kill religion when I was six; you can bet your ass I'd be talking about the obvious slave living in my house. It's not Tim's fault most people are dumb as shit.

The best part, of course, is that this builds a culture of acceptance for the practice, which expands the market. The US must already have such a culture towards illegal workers, so it's not even much of a stretch. I don't think AU has any such culture of accepting un-people as cheap labour.

Even today-tonight [australian bogan psuedo current affairs show] is vehemently against using DAMN DARKY INDOS illegal immigrants as cheap labour.

[PeZook]

Slavery is one of the few things I believe should be an automatic mandatory death sentence crime, both for the actual slavers and for their customers.

Yeah, because this would not greatly encourage the slavers and slave-holders to murder their victims and/or police officers, witnesses that happen upon the scene and other people when it looks like word may get out! No sir, not at all!

[Questor]

What infuriates me is that this happened less than a mile from where I live.

It makes you wonder about how isolated we have become from our neighbors that this was not detected sooner.

Thing is, why would the kid necessarily say anything in the first place? The child could be taught to treat the slave as nothing but a piece of furniture. You are assuming the kid has the mental capacity and reasoning to fully comprehend the situation. To the child, the slave is a normal part of life.

I wouldn't expect the child to say something, but I would think that being taught to treat another human as furniture would have an impact on the way the child interacts with the other children in the classroom. Then again, I have no idea what that would be, or if it would even be enough to rise above the general variations in child development.

On the other hand, I would be vary curious about the habits of any of the children's friends' parents, as I doubt this would be something that you could easily hide in a social setting, and I can almost guarantee awkward questions would come up. The people in that area are well off, but not, generally, at the "live-in household staff" level of income. Kids are remarkably good at noticing differences in environments, and they don't generally have a filter on what questions they ask.

[Broomstick]

I suspect it's like a lot of cases of child abuse/neglect where the neighbors are in denial and will explain it away because, of course, such things do not happen in such a nice neighborhood! Between that and "oh, she's niece staying with us, she has behavioral problems" and the like a family can go quite awhile before being called on the carpet for such things.

[Tinkerbell]

You can apply any label you like, put it in whatever circumstances or context makes you feel better, but at the end of the day, there is no way to make this an acceptable means of doing things. Would they have ever treated their own children like that? No, of course not. I have a huge issue with any practice that makes a human out to be anything different, let alone a child. I probably would have written the article the same way, it sounds like the goal was to pull at our heartstrings so that we wouldn't be able to dismiss it or write it off.

[Sarevok]

Is everyone outraged because it happened in USA or because in some places huge numbers of children are employed like serfs in households of the middle and upper class?

[Broomstick]

For me, the latter. Still not happy about it occuring in the US, but I have no illusion we are somehow immune from the sort of greed that leads to slavery.

[Rochey]

Personaly, I'm disgusted by the fact that it happens at all, but particularly surprised that they were able to get away with doing it in the US for so long.

[Stargate Nerd]

Personaly, I think it's a disgrace that the worst penalty leveled against them was just three years in prison. You can get more time than that for stuff that's relatively trivial.
These people got off far too lightly in my opinion.

Well I wouldn't dismiss 3 years in prison so lightly. Even those measly 3 years I'm sure are enough to mess you up inside, not that Hajj Nasser isn't already messed up inside as it is.

[Rochey]

Oh, I don't mean to suggest that 3 years in prison is nothing. I merely think it little justice for keeping a child enslaved.

[Sarevok]

I should not have clicked on the OP article link. The picture of the girl looks like someone who once worked at our home few years back. It was nowhere as bad but still the fact it seemed perfectly normal then to witness such events occurring within your own home now seems evil, disgusting and creepy. But then again I look outside the street and see some kid watering the plants on the balcony of some apartment building. Every house in this forsaken city has probably at least one servant like the girl in OP. They are not considered slaves so it's ok to beat them. In bizzaro logic (TM) slavery is evil but it's ok to treat minimum wage poor village people like slaves since they are getting paid a salary.

Humanity sucks.

[Ryan Thunder]

Humanity sucks.

Just out of curiosity, where are you?

[Broomstick]

They are not considered slaves so it's ok to beat them. In bizzaro logic (TM) slavery is evil but it's ok to treat minimum wage poor village people like slaves since they are getting paid a salary.

I in no way agree with the following as I do not think either slavery or exploitation are OK, but....

One of the pro-slavery arguments that used to be used in the US was that slaves, being property and an investment, would be cared for by their masters whereas the poor wage earners could be exploited and disposed of with impunity as the employers could simply hire someone else when the first employee "broke" or whatever. In other words, the argument was that being poor and a "wage slave" was worse than being an actual slave.

Of course, if you look at the shit way some people take care of their stuff you can see that argument unravel pretty fast, even aside from the moral issues involved.

[Knife]

Hence, Broomstick, the problem with slavery. Everyone is capable of understanding the underlying principles here.

[Broomstick]

Unfortunately, some people in this world look at the "underlying principles" and think "Hey, I can make a shitload of money from someone else's work" or something along those lines and it pops up again in the same or another form because some greedy people don't give a damn about their fellow human beings.

[Steve]

Of course, slaveowners said that while their own peers brutalized their "property" with whippings, burnings, outright acts of torture, destroying families....

Then some of them in Georgia and the Carolinas had a little visit from Uncle Billy and his bummers. And there was much burning.

[Gandalf]

Humanity sucks.

Just out of curiosity, where are you?

As I recall, he lives in Bangladesh.

[Korto]

One thing that can be concluded from this is just how great an effect a decent social welfare system can have. Why did her parents sign her up to be a maid? Her father fell ill and presumably couldn't work. Why did they allow her to be taken to the US? They owed money for medical expenses.
Not that I'm claiming the country could (or couldn't) afford some kind of social net, but it would help so many problems.