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My Family’s Slave

theatlantic.com

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Re: My Family’s Slave

#511

Post by Baeocystin »

Chris2048 wrote: post #494
Baeocystin wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Left is not the epitome of tolerance it pretends to be any more than the Right is the epitome of morality it pretends to be. I remember very clearly who it was that made my mother miserable for daring to enjoy being a housewife and mother, and it wasn't our conservative friends. I also remember who made our family miserable for loving and caring for my gay brother as he died of AIDS, and it wasn't our liberal fri…

> for loving and caring for my gay brother Is this the right, or the religious right?

Both.

Re: My Family’s Slave

#513

Post by beaconstudios »

anovikov wrote: post #444
gambiting wrote: post #433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you should stick your nose outside a bit more often? In Poland if you make ~$20k/year you are super rich, can easily afford to not just buy but build a new house. There's absolutely nothing miserable about it. Saying that "nowhere in the world" $55k provides a good life is just hilariously wrong. Even in UK, I make ~$35k before tax and I'm living a very comfortable life.

I live in Lithuania actually and spend about $140K a year. I don't scrap by, but no luxuries either, i fly coach and stay in 4* hotels. My kid goes to best private school, that's about the only luxury i can afford, and that's just because i am really determined to help her not live her life in same shit as myself.

where is your money going? According to wikipedia, the average net annual income in Lithuania is around 7,400EUR (or 8,000USD) so you are in a very high income bracket for your country: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_countries_by_...

The fact that you say your kid is going to the best private school and yet you can't afford other luxuries (while clearly holidaying regularly) makes me think you may be disconnected from the average person's idea of what a luxury is.

Re: My Family’s Slave

#514

Post by 4bpp »

wavefunction wrote: post #39
lordnacho wrote: post #20

I had a terrible "Billy" moment a few years ago. I was travelling and a friend said I could use her house, because it was empty. This was perfect for me, since I had a wife and kid. It turns out there was a housekeeper. She did everything for us, made us feel very comfortable, cooked, served, helped with the kid, etc. Then one day I found out she didn't have her own room, despite the place being a multi storey mansio…

I guess I would have taken her to the authorities and helped her get whatever help she needs as soon as I determined her situation. And your friend is no feminist or idealist.

How likely would that be to lead to a better outcome than both the slaver or the slave being deported?

Any solution that grants immigration status to people (who are often, as the woman in OP's story, not even literate) "just" on the basis of them having been enslaved is probably not politically tenable in the US. The most you can hope for is some sizeable amount of damages to be paid, and depending on the legal framework of the source country they subsequently get expelled to, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the slaver could just reclaim the money once they are back.

Re: My Family’s Slave

#515

Post by nirav72 »

yardie wrote: post #165
praneshp wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you usually ask your Indian clasmates' caste? Or did they volunteer that information themselves?

If you're familiar with Indian culture you can kind of tell the caste from the surname.

Not really. Sure you can most likely tell a Brahmin by their surname. But anything below that in the caste hierarchy and hard to tell. For example in Gujarat, many lower caste people have last names that are same as Rajputs. They changed their names to avoid discrimination.

Re: My Family’s Slave

#516

Post by sleepychu »

anotheryou wrote: post #486

An honest question: Is the "animal howl/cry" something normal to write? To me as a non-native speaker it sounds tinted in a bad way. On something else: "I tapped the cheap plastic box and regretted not buying a real urn, made of porcelain or rosewood." Even in the very end, she's still not one of them for him. I'm glad though, he was brave enough to write this article anyways.

> An honest question: Is the "animal howl/cry" something normal to write? To me as a non-native speaker it sounds tinted in a bad way.

I'd say so, I think it refers to a sort of primal response to pain, a reaction you'd have if you were deeply wounded.

Re: My Family’s Slave

#517

Post by efaref »

snowwrestler wrote: post #379
rayiner wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pre-Industrial agrarian societies have quite a different structure. A "housewife" is defined by a wife performing domestic labor supporting a husband who in turn participates in the market economy. That's not how it works on a farm, where the husband and wife both work on the farm.

And who owned the farm? In many such societies, only the husband--meaning the wife's work was still uncompensated. The problem of uncompensated labor by women does not break down neatly on the borders of economic concepts like captitalism, agrarian, industrial, etc.

I thought mostly the farm was owned by landlords, with the people who worked there (male or female) being tenant farmers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenant_farmer

Re: My Family’s Slave

#518

Post by DashRattlesnake »

johndotsun wrote: post #435
DashRattlesnake wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You understand that you are now complicit in her abuse, yes? You understand that you are an accomplice to this crime? FFS, you literally know next to nothing about the situation. Why do you feel like you're in a position to self righteously adjudicate him as being a criminal? None of us, not even lordnacho himself, know enough about his friend's housekeeper to legitimately make claims like that (or casually throw a…

>Seriously, the housekeeper's situation may not be too far off from the archetypal startup employee working 18 hour days and sleeping under his desk. None of us know, and none of us should claim to know. Do you really believe that some 23 year old fresh out of college programmer working 18 hours days by choice in hopes of either a significant payoff or at least experience that will anyways lead to a very well compens…

> in hopes of either a significant payoff or at least experience that will anyways lead

You're moving the goalposts. It's not about whether they have equivalent opportunities, it's about whether they're slaves. The overworked-and-sleeping-on-a-mat-programmer and the overworked-and-sleeping-on-mat-maid may both simply have paid jobs with shitty bosses. People here are jumping to the conclusion that being worked hard + sleeping on a mat = slavery, when clearly it doesn't.

Re: My Family’s Slave

#519

Post by logfromblammo »

mgkimsal wrote: post #149
logfromblammo wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why US government employees and employees of contractors get mandatory training in how to recognize human trafficking. In this situation, at the very minimum, you need to ask "Do you feel your employer treats you fairly? I will keep your answer confidential." If the answer is "yes", then your moral obligation is satisfied. If the answer is "no", you may have to dig down through "uncomfortable situation," pote…

If you discuss the answer with anyone... you've not kept the answer confidential.

You can discuss your own observations without ever referring to your conversation with the housekeeper, or even admitting that a conversation happened.

Re: My Family’s Slave

#520

Post by JCharante »

emodendroket wrote: post #263
randyrand wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How hard is it to have empathy for others? That really depends on the person. Some people don't have empathy. As a sufferer of DPDR, a lot of times I don't even feel I have emotion.

I think that even people with extreme mental disorders can probably imagine that they themselves would not very much like to be slaves who are beaten and scolded on a whim.

and yet would continue to support an industry and enjoy the result of torture.
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