Originally posted by just-want-peace:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Slavery was a monster that even now affects the United States.
Absolutely not!!! What affects us now are those who want to blame today's "SOUTHERNERS" for their ancestors deeds; IE liberals, JJ, Al S., et al!
Slavery is roughly 150 years in the past, but some %^&#%@@)(*& have figured out how to make a good living off of the blame game, and unfortunately there are also many who have no better sense than to buy into the blame game.
Also, there was not universal opposition from the NORTH against, slavery, but to read most of the thread posts, one would think that the Yankees were lily white re: slavery.
Which leads to the next point: The biggest reason for the "JIm Crow " laws of the South, and the resultant racist problems, were the results of the carpet-baggers that descended to Dixie to reap the easy pickins of a defeated nation.
But even now these same #$^%$#(&@&^ keep playing the racist card at any and all opportunities so the "sheep" will continue to fill their coffers.
Get these people out of the picture, and racism will be nought but a shadow of it's former self in a very short time. </font>[/QUOTE]
Sorry, but you are wrong - slavery still affects the United States now and always has, but not in the stereotypical ways you are used to thinking about! It is called "human trafficking" now and as late as 2000, the US Congress passed an act about the problem.
Is there slavery in the United States?
There is slavery in the United States, mostly due to human trafficking for domestic work, migrant farm labor, or work in the sex industry. Migrant workers are tricked into working for little or no pay as means of repayment for debts from their transport into the US, similar to debt bondage in South Asia. Domestic workers and women in the sex industry are trafficked into the US with promises of jobs and education and then held as slaves. The US government estimates that 50,000 people are trafficked into the U.S. each year!
What is the difference between sweatshop or migrant labor and slavery?
The difference between slavery and extremely exploitative labor can be a thin line. Sweatshop workers and migrant laborers are exploited by being paid very little, forced to work long hours and often abused at their workplace. Slaves are subjected to all these conditions, but additionally they have lost their free will — they cannot walk away. Most slaves are paid nothing at all, and the physical and psychological violence used against them is so complete that they cannot escape their condition as a slave.
Source - Free the Slaves
Besides the above, there are thousands of women (many from South Korea, Russia, etc.) who are lured in these schemes and end up being transported to the US as sex slaves or prostitutes. (Unfortunately, there is a lot on the web about our own military stationed in S. Korea and how the military has a hand in the clubs, prostitution, and sex slave industry, etc. overseas.

)
And there is this:
US State Dept Report 2002
US State Dept 2004
The point is, slavery has been brushed under the rug and some of us like to believe it was all in the past and others want us to feel guilty about what went on in the past, but the point is....the issue still continues in so many covert ways. And, as long as we consumers continue to buy fresh produce or imported goods from China, India, etc. - we all are contributors to human slavery - EVERY ONE OF US! None of us are without blame!