The Slave Market in Our Midst

This article was published by Crisis Magazine. It can be read freely there. The introduction follows:

Imagine being transported to another time, in which you’re standing at a slave market. The slaves are shackled and afraid. You watch as your neighbors bid on the purchase of these people. You go home and hear from your excited uncle. He has a new worker, a slave, a child. The social norm is to congratulate him on his purchase. Would you?

It’s so easy to say no when we’re departed from it, when we’re never going to be tested, so we issue our denials thoughtlessly and yet with confidence. Slavery has appeared across civilizations—from ancient Mediterranean cities to medieval Europe where Slavs were captured and sold, and beyond. Its cruelty was never limited to any one race or culture.

Most of us jump reflexively to deny that we would be party to such an evil, and we readily paint self-portraits of our would-be heroism in the face of it. But reality can be an unforgiving mirror.

Continue reading this article at Crisis Magazine. (Crisis doesn’t have comments, but they are welcome below)