to wonder why the people I know who are most enraged about past slavery are perfectly happy to benefit from modern slavery?

[mosquitofeast]

For background, I work on a project reintroducing freed child slaves into education.

There are thousands of slaves in UK, many of them children. The worst industry by far is the cannabis growing industry, and no, I don't think legalising it will help. How could legally grown cannabis compete in price with cannabis grown by unpaid slaves? Don't buy cannabis. You are supporting child slavery, possibly within a few miles of where you are sitting right now.

The sex worker industry relies totally on trafficked woman and children, and slavery, and yet its ok to go on an BLM march in the morning, and a stag do using a company invested in people trafficking in the evening?

Nail bars and clothing factories, even some illegal UK ones. Don't buy counterfeits. Simples.

(And the Chinese Uighurs need a whole thread on their own.)

So much anger and outrage and blame about historic slavery, why can't that be funnelled into taking a stand against the slavery that thousands of people are experiencing in the UK today?

@Goosefoot why should people even have to sell anything to the population in the first place? If someone has to sell to me the wide pay gap between men and women for doing the same job in this day, then it is clear that I am willingly choosing to overlook the issue because I don't consider as much an issue.

People who are doubtful about the marches are the people who do not think there is anything wrong in the first place and that the protesters are just attention seeker because they are over-sensitive. I believe in peaceful protest but I also know there will be some trouble makers who will join a protest just to cause trouble but that does not mean the subject itself is not important or the movement is wrong. It happens with every protests not just BLM but the media will clearly lay emphasis on the bad because bad news sells and it divides the nation even more.

I took my child to school one day and whilst the children were waiting for their classroom door to be opened, a child in reception (age 4) came over and started screaming "go back to Africa" to a black boy and all the parents watched and did or say nothing. The black boy responded "who is Africa"? and it just goes to show, that the mentality that a certain race is better than the other has not died out and will continue until there is a change in people's mindset especially people who teach their innocent kids this. Unfortunately, some people take this mindset to a place of authority and use their power to act out their hatred.

No one should have to highlight that being treated fairly is a must, it is every human's given right to be treated like a human being.

SurrT you make an excellent point about chocolate.

Most of the cocoa used to make our chocolate comes from West Africa, and production heavily relies on child labour -- more than 2 million children, many of whom are trafficked, and work in conditions akin to slavery.

So by the OP's logic, I hope everyone who cares about modern-day slavery never eats any chocolate.

[quote SurrT]@Goosefoot why should people even have to sell anything to the population in the first place? If someone has to sell to me the wide pay gap between men and women for doing the same job in this day, then it is clear that I am willingly choosing to overlook the issue because I don't consider as much an issue.

People who are doubtful about the marches are the people who do not think there is anything wrong in the first place and that the protesters are just attention seeker because they are over-sensitive. I believe in peaceful protest but I also know there will be some trouble makers who will join a protest just to cause trouble but that does not mean the subject itself is not important or the movement is wrong. It happens with every protests not just BLM but the media will clearly lay emphasis on the bad because bad news sells and it divides the nation even more.

I took my child to school one day and whilst the children were waiting for their classroom door to be opened, a child in reception (age 4) came over and started screaming "go back to Africa" to a black boy and all the parents watched and did or say nothing. The black boy responded "who is Africa"? and it just goes to show, that the mentality that a certain race is better than the other has not died out and will continue until there is a change in people's mindset especially people who teach their innocent kids this. Unfortunately, some people take this mindset to a place of authority and use their power to act out their hatred.

No one should have to highlight that being treated fairly is a must, it is every human's given right to be treated like a human being.[/quote]
In order to have political change, you have to have people behind it. I mean concrete political change, policies, programs, that solve or help real problems and have a positive effect on people's lives and the community.

That's why you have to sell it, because otherwise, what are you doing? Just virtue signalling. It's not meaningful politics, and it comes from a place that doesn't really give a shit about the people it claims to be helping.

Many people are affected by militarisation of the police in the US, it's a problem across race. This means that it should be very possible to build an effective and broad political coalition for changes.

If you don't think that's important I would ask you what you imagine you are accomplishing, and I'd suggest that maybe it's not others who are ignoring problems that actually exist.

The major problem I have with BLM on this is that they are reductionist about the causes of the problem, which means they will not address it effectively. And more than that, they hold to a theory of race that is essentialist - that is the reason they can't address real causes, and fundamentally it is why their analysis is so shallow.

I have worries about the fruit/veg pickers in this country too. The ones who are shipped over and live in caravans for months and get paid a pittance.

All those jobs that the British don’t want to do because they are too hard and the pay is too low. It has always struck me as a form of slavery or at least exploitation to use foreigners to do this work instead of improving conditions.

Agriculture is actually the biggest area it's happening in. Which is a problem when buying. It's various farms incl ones supplying big supermarkets.

[quote UgaBaluga82]@PicsInRed

I was unaware of the rioters being privileged white people, was that covered in the media? Were they arrested and found guilty?

Disguising themselves as Black people and rioting is horrendous. Where can can I find some facts & stats on this please?[/quote]
There were plenty of - very clear - photos and also videos on social media. The media-media weren't interested. It was easier to say that black people burned down a Burger King or smashed bank windows and spray painted "BLM", than to delve deeper into who was actually committing the crime entitled middle class white anarchists happy to leave the blame on perfectly law abiding black protestors.

Hmmph I agree that fruit/veg pickers (in many countries) are horribly exploited, to the point we might call it modern slavery.

So should we criticise activists who are trying to get people to eat less meat, for ethical and environmental reasons, because this means eating more fruit and veg which are produced in pretty horrible conditions? I don't think so. I think people who care about the ethics of our food supply should work on multiple fronts, and understand people might care about some causes more than others.

Clothes are legal.

Much of it is made in sweat shops powered by the forced labour of slaves.

Legal changes nothing - except making it more widespread and using more slaves to meet greater demand.

So we shouldn't wear clothes?

Sorry, pressed post before I meant to.

Of course legalisation won't solve everything, but it's a defeatist attitude to say legalisation changes nothing.

Op - would you be willing to give a list of things that a person should do in order to minimise the likelihood that we are benefitting from modern slavery.

For example - should we avoid all beautician type places that do nails or just nail bars or just some nail bars? What shops are better clothes wise? I have never taken drugs or bought sexual services so I’m less worried about that!

It is very difficult to get things completely right but I generally think that it is often fairly easy to be a bit better.

I think knowledge is the answer.

People genuinely don’t know how much still exists. When they do know, they stop buying from the place. BooHoo suffered massively when it came out about Leicester. People do care, they are just unaware (and don’t research). Put on a tv show about, for example, Leicester clothing factories and who they supply and people will stop buying those clothes.

But along with this, we need education about good alternatives!

Amazing thread even though its about people like me. 100% guilty of some of these things and hate past slavery

Boohoo should have suffered when similar came out years ago. Difference is that this time it affected the "normal" folk of Leicester...

Not necessarily - many of the children would be enabled to go to school for instance.

You think that's likely?