Our Society and Slavery

In the First World, we think of slavery as dead. Over. Gone. We think of it as an historic aberration, a blemish on the past, but certainly not something that still exists in modern times. Yet over 27 million people are still enslaved today, and that number isn’t decreasing. Slavery is not dead at all, we just don’t notice it, and our failure to acknowledge its existence,it allows it to continue unchecked. To truly abolish slavery we must take down a system that is already in place, and has been in existence for thousands of years. Slavery is deeply ingrained into many sections of society, and to eradicate it we must change society.

The most challenging part of stopping slavery is giving up our reliance on it. Unseen slavery powers many parts of the world economy, and so we all rely upon it, knowingly or unknowingly. The list of major companies that use slave labor is long, and shockingly includes many iconic brands such as Nike, Apple and Disney. The fact that we in the First World allow anyone, especially such high profile, successful companies, to get away with exploiting people is truly atrocious and shameful, and most of us are shocked to learn about it. So how does it come about? What is modern slavery?

Slavery relies on systems of bondage, discrimination and exploitation that have been in place for thousands of years and have continued to grow and evolve throughout history. Modern slavery is also fueled by globalisation. The movement of people, money, and information throughout the world, and the spread of production, supply, and distribution chains has allowed modern slavery to grow, and enabled it to stay out of the grasp of authorities. Of course Nike, Apple and Disney don’t directly enslave people, but their suppliers do, which makes them, the companies and us, their customers, ultimately responsible for the exploitation of slave labor.

Modern slavery exists in many forms, the most common of which is debt bondage. Debt bondage occurs when people are encouraged to borrow money, often on the promise of a better job, or a better life elsewhere. The debt they are subsequently forced to pay back is massively inflated by interest and other charges, so these people end up working for years with no reward, in short as slaves. Sexual slavery, where people, usually women and children, are forced to work in the sex industry is also flourishing in modern times. As is domestic servitude, where the normal and legal practice of live in help is used to cover the exploitation and control of another person, and contract slavery, where people are deceived into slavery by a false employment contract. So you can see that while the traditional chattel slavery, where a person is legally owned by another, may be virtually extinct, slavery itself is alive and well.

How is it that this abhorrent and illegal practice is so widespread today? Put simply, it is because we aren’t doing enough to stop it. Kevin Bales, president of Free The Slaves, says that the fact slavery is still thriving comes down principally to ignorance about the institution and lack of resources directed at eradicating it. This is particularly true in first world countries where we are often not aware that slavery is not exclusively a thirld world problem. Many people in first world countries believe that slavery is nothing to do with them and that they are powerless to prevent it. Nothing could be further from the truth. We all benefit from the slave trade, only the slaves themselves do not.

Slavery may be illegal in every country in the world, but that does not mean it doesn’t exist. Between 14,000 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States each year. Most are forced into the sex trade, domestic servitude, or agricultural labor. At any one time, between 52,000 and 87,000 are in bondage. We don’t notice these people because we don’t realise what they are, we simply don’t perceive them as slaves. David Batstone, the author of ‘Not For Sale’ describes how he had, unknowingly, been dining at a restaurant staffed by slaves. “That’s the paradox: slavery is in reality not invisible, Except in rare circumstances, slaves toil in the public eye. The truth is that we do not expect to find it in “respectable” settings.” he writes.

We may prefer to think of slavery as a thing of the past, but in doing so we turn a blind eye to the crime of slave trading and we fail to acknowledge the suffering of the slave. David Batstone also writes that

“Many people bristle to hear the word slavery used to describe the modern practice of exploitation. Deeply ingrained in the collective psyche of Western culture is the notion that slavery ended in the nineteenth century. It is not unusual to read a newspaper account of “slavelike conditions” in a copper mine in, say, Bolivia. The laborers were kidnapped, coerced to work without pay and prohibited from leaving the mine. So why would the writer ferfer to the laborer’s conditions as “slavelike”? Because the writer buys into the cultural myth that “real slavery” was vanquished long ago.”
If we continue to deny the suffering of these millions of people, nothing will change.

Slavery will only be eradicated if we all take responsibility for its existence. All sections of society must acknowledge their reliance on slavery and take active steps to cease this unhealthy dependency. It is no good pleading ignorance and shifting the blame onto others. We must all stand up to be counted and reject slavery in its entirety. We must boycott products and services produced by slave labour, even if this means paying higher prices. We must lobby our governments to enforce anti slavery legislation, to end human trafficking and to help other nations tackle the endemic poverty, corruption and violence which allows slavery to flourish. We must provide better opportunities for those at risk of exploitation and we must work to overturn cultural norms which encourage and condone the exploitation of others. Slavery is a scourge on humanity and it is the responsibility of all humankind to work towards its abolition.

Prejudice and Inequality Prevalent in Society

To Kill A Mockingbird meets The Help

Harper Lee’s award-winning classic “To Kill A Mockingbird” and Kathryn Stockett’s “The Help” are both timeless stories about perspective and loss of innocence set in an era of deep-seated racial and social prejudices. These themes are woven into the two novels and help us to understand the life people led in the past. These two books are both stories of racial inequality, a struggle for social dominance, loss of innocence and viewing the world as a good and untouched place and then having that idea ruined by someone. Both novels also highlight the dangers for people in the more privileged classes in challenging the status quo, and the prejudice surrounding African-Americans.

To Kill A Mockingbird is a novel that follows the adventures of a five-year-old girl named Scout, her brother, Jem, and her neighbor’s nephew in Maycomb County, in the American Deep South. It is set in the 1930s, a time when blacks and whites lived segregated lives and prejudice against colored people was widespread and tolerated by authorities. This novel tells us about Tom Robinson, a kind-hearted, African-American man falsely accused but ultimately convicted of raping a white girl and Atticus, Scout’s father, who represents him in court, to the dismay of many members of white society in the county. Throughout To Kill A Mockingbird, the use of symbolism, imagery and metaphors help us to understand the importance of innocence and how it plays a role in the society in which Lee was living when she wrote the book.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett is a novel also set in the Deep South but in the 1960s. To Kill A Mockingbird has a strong influence on this book and some of the issues raised by Harper Lee have been translated into this novel. This story follows Skeeter Phelan, a young, aspiring, caucasian journalist who was deeply inspired by her black maid Constantine while growing up. Skeeter enjoyed a privileged upbringing in the high society of Jackson, Mississippi, with a lot of friends and a position in the very sought after Jackson Junior League Club, run by her best friend and antagonist of the story, Hilly Holbrook. After watching her friends and mother treat their black maids poorly and learning that her old maid Constantine dies, she feels that it is time to make a change and progress towards racial equality. She gains the friendship and trust of a black maid named Aibileen Clark and Aibileen’s best friend Minny Jackson. Her dream is to write a collection of stories from a dozen maids and their experiences working with white women. Through much persuasion and time spent building the trust of maids and other domestic workers, she gathers two dozen women willing to share their stories.

We can connect these ideologies to real life issues. Today we still face the complex issues of racism, sexism and blatant inequality of gender, race, and religion. As the two books are set in different time periods than they are today, the lasting effect that this era had on our society is still very visible. The divide between black and white people, specifically in the Deep South of United States of America, is what is stopping our world from progressing. African American children and adults are still getting gunned down by police, Muslim children of color are still receiving hate and being blamed for ISIS and women are still earning less money than men for the same job.

In To Kill A Mockingbird, the title gives us a hint of the most significant symbol in the story, mockingbirds. Mockingbirds are the symbol of innocence and childhood. It helps us to remember the feeling of seeing the world through the eyes of a child. As Atticus explains to Jem in chapter ten why it is a sin to kill a mockingbird whilst giving him his first rifle, he says. “I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you’ll go after birds. “Shoot all the bluejays you want if you can hit’s, but remember, it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird. […] They don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy.” Characters like Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, and Jem Finch can be compared to mockingbirds and are walking metaphors throughout the story. The reason for this is because they are all innocent people who only had intentions to help people throughout the story. Tom Robinson tried to help a woman in need, Boo just wanted to be an accepted member of society and Jem became aware of the amount of evil in the world instead of seeing it as a good place for the first time.

On the night Tom is convicted, Jem becomes finally aware of the evil that has taken place. Even after every single person in the courtroom knows Tom is innocent, yet they sentence him guilty anyways. He says to Atticus. “I don’t know, but they did it. They’ve done it before and they did it tonight and they’ll do it again and when they do it-seems that only children weep. Good night.” This helps us to understand that even though Atticus believes that what the jury has done is wrong, there is not much that he can do to reverse it and change people’s minds.

This can be compared to the characters in The Help. Although it is set in a different time period, the characters in The Help still face the same struggles that ostracized members of Maycomb faced back in the 1930s. For example, Treelore Clark died an avoidable death while trying to earn a living. “One night he working late at the Scanlon-Taylor Mill, lugging two-by-fours, splinters slicing all the way through the glove. He too small for that kind of work, too skinny, but he needed that job.” Because of his color when he was injured he was not treated with the same urgency that a white person would have been shown. Aibileen, Treelore’s mother, explains her son as a quiet, thoughtful twenty-four-year-old man. A person who was about to start his life with his fiance. Aibileen recounts what he was doing and how it happened. “He was tired. It was raining. He slip off the loading dock, fell down on the drive. Tractor trailer didn't see him and crushed his lungs fore he could move. By the time I found out, he was dead.” This shows the working conditions that African Americans had no choice but to work in.

A similarity between To Kill A Mockingbird is how alike the contrasted characters from both books are. For example, in The Help, Skeeter often compares herself to Boo Radley. On page 101 she says. "I've become one of those people who prowl around at night in their cars. God, I am the town's Boo Radley, just like in To Kill a Mockingbird." Common traits that they share are that they are both seen as outcasts, people who do not fit in with the social norm.

Skeeter is an independent, awkward young woman who does not believe in relying on a man and living your life quietly as a housewife. She has aspirations and wants to reach them and feels that people are equal, and for this reason, she is seen as a stain in her bloodline and not a proper lady. For example, when Skeeter is born her older brother Carlton explains. "It's not a baby it's a skeeter!" Thus showing that she is not your average, pretty young woman. Skeeter is almost 6 feet tall and has incurable “kinky” hair and was teased by boys for her looks during middle school. She turned to her maid, Constantine, who told her a life lesson she never forgot. “[You] gotta ask yourself this question. Am I really gonna believe all them bad things them fools say about me today?” This helps Skeeter to remember that she is not what other people say she is. Boo Radley is seen as a murderous and dangerous person by many citizens of Maycomb, adults included while in reality he is actually an awkward but kind-hearted man who wants nothing more than to fit into society. This lesson applies to Boo as well. He is not the rumors about him, but his own person.

The treatment meted out to Boo Radley, Scout’s tormented next door neighbor is another metaphor for the racial prejudice prevalent in society. He is a person who only ever wanted to contribute to society but was ridiculed by his neighbors, ostracized by his community and demonized by children. Everything that was not right in Maycomb was traced back to Boo. For example, when azaleas freeze in a cold snap, it was Boo who did it. “The Maycomb school grounds adjoined the back of the Radley lot; from the Radley chickenyard tall pecan trees shook their fruit into the schoolyard, but the nuts lay untouched by the children: Radley pecans would kill you. A baseball hit into the Radley yard was a lost ball and no questions asked.” Even adults would partake in the rumors, egging on the children and feeding them with lies about how Boo Radley was a bad person who went to prison.

This is very comparable to the treatment that Skeeter is given. As The Help carries on, Hilly Holbrook decides that Skeeter is no longer welcome in the Jackson Junior League and tries her hardest to turn everyone against her. Given that Hilly has a powerful command over one of the major social events and network in Jackson, her influence is enormous. Facing the prospect of losing their social status by upsetting Hilly, even Skeeter’s closest friends turn away from her. Much like Boo Radley, Skeeter quickly becomes ostracized by the other ladies. This goes to show that even though Boo and Skeeter are both white, they are still treated as divergents thus showing that you are still not safe even if you look the same as your enemy.

The vibe that Skeeter and Boo receive for being different really makes us question how our society functions. Just because we are different means that we are not allowed to be accepted? This lesson that was taught years ago has translated into our society today, and people are paying the price for it. Skeeter’s actions highlight the poor treatment given to African American domestic workers and because of the discomfort that causes, Skeeter is ostracized by her friends. It is easier to ignore the inequalities and bad behavior of a certain race when it is your own than to go against society’s prevailing norms. 

Inferring from the text, it is explicit that some of the citizens of Jackson, Mississippi know that the way they treat others is wrong, that it is unfair to put yourself as a race above another and that to act like you are better is completely unjust. However, they do it anyways, and why? Because people feel it is easier to root for the “winning” side, it’s easier to go with the flow and not cause a ripple in the water. Skeeter and Scout prove otherwise, that even though things will be harder than just sticking to the norm, the results are more awarding. 

The Help and To Kill A Mockingbird are stories that make you think about the impact that our behavior has on society. Lee and Stockett have both written stories that put racism into words. These books help us to understand why people feel the need to show dominance and the way that they assert their power, through fear, judgment and strong yet misplaced beliefs. This helps us understand why in today’s society we still have to deal with racist and sexists beliefs, and the reason is because of our past. These two novels show that in a world of hate and prejudice it only takes one person to start a movement, but that the challenges facing anyone who does so remain enormous.