While slavery was abolished in America in the 1860's, it still to this day exists in various types or forms. Perhaps, in the greatest sense, slavery can be pegged as any evil which swamps a human into an everyday lifestyle of torture.
For example, take standardized tests. Now this may seem like a very trivial and naive way to interpret slavery, but for a while I've felt like I wasn't really living life, I was just functioning. In the regular cycle of going to school, coming back home, and studying for large state based tests like the SAT, it was almost as if the education system had had me under a torturous spell of life's disillusionment.
Of course, slavery in the U.S reaches far beyond the life of a normal schoolgirl. To up the scale to another level, let's consider prejudice. Since 1860's, America has been able to claim that all men have equal rights. Its claims, however, are mostly false. Prejudice in America has been long standing, even existing today. Take Brent Staples for example. His literary piece called Black Men and Public Space details how prejudice can be a type of slavery. The never ending cycle of feeling inferior can be analogous to the life of an African American slave in the 1800's.
The highest level of slavery in Modern America is actually slavery. Better known as Human Trafficking, this kind of slavery is almost unimaginable to the normal viewer, but is actually more common than expected.
Human Trafficking is the illegal selling of adolescents and young adults, especially girls, into sexual servitude and prostitution. All girls are kidnapped from their homes or taken off the street and are beaten violently.
Clemmie Greenlee, a young woman who escaped from such terrible clutches exclaimed that “If you’re putting a whip on my back because I’m not picking enough cotton, or if you’re beating me because I’m not earning my quota, it’s the same thing. It’s slavery.”
To read more, check out this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/07/opinion/slavery-isnt-a-thing-of-the-past.html?_r=0
For example, take standardized tests. Now this may seem like a very trivial and naive way to interpret slavery, but for a while I've felt like I wasn't really living life, I was just functioning. In the regular cycle of going to school, coming back home, and studying for large state based tests like the SAT, it was almost as if the education system had had me under a torturous spell of life's disillusionment.
Of course, slavery in the U.S reaches far beyond the life of a normal schoolgirl. To up the scale to another level, let's consider prejudice. Since 1860's, America has been able to claim that all men have equal rights. Its claims, however, are mostly false. Prejudice in America has been long standing, even existing today. Take Brent Staples for example. His literary piece called Black Men and Public Space details how prejudice can be a type of slavery. The never ending cycle of feeling inferior can be analogous to the life of an African American slave in the 1800's.
The highest level of slavery in Modern America is actually slavery. Better known as Human Trafficking, this kind of slavery is almost unimaginable to the normal viewer, but is actually more common than expected.
Human Trafficking is the illegal selling of adolescents and young adults, especially girls, into sexual servitude and prostitution. All girls are kidnapped from their homes or taken off the street and are beaten violently.
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| This girl has been labelled into 1 of millions of modern day slaves |
Clemmie Greenlee, a young woman who escaped from such terrible clutches exclaimed that “If you’re putting a whip on my back because I’m not picking enough cotton, or if you’re beating me because I’m not earning my quota, it’s the same thing. It’s slavery.”
To read more, check out this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/07/opinion/slavery-isnt-a-thing-of-the-past.html?_r=0
Human trafficking is so unimaginable that I think people forget it happens, but it does. I love the way that you covered many different aspects of "slavery". This is a wonderful post Ananya! Oh! and I totally agree with the thoughts on tests.
ReplyDeleteOh, the example of taking standardized tests....that I believe everyone can relate to. Really great job on this Ananya!!
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