Supermarket

[rebeccmeister]

The last time I chopped up broccoli I'd purchased from the supermarket, I thought back to what it is like to drive through the Salinas Valley, heading down towards San Luis Obispo. The density of agriculture there is surreal. Kale to feed millions. Buses to transport prison inmates are also everywhere - like modern-day chain gangs. My sister says they're eager to work in the fields. It beats the other things they might be doing.

Comments

[randomdreams]

It does beat other things, but it's also a type of involuntary servitude. I've read a fair number of essays making a case that slavery has transmuted rather than vanishing.

[bluepapercup]

Have you read The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander? It’s a book-length exploration of those ideas.

[randomdreams]

I haven't but will. It's something that we discuss a fair bit over on g+, though: slavery to sharecropping to hard labor. In the 1930's, black men were arrested for completely ridiculous charges ("whistling too loudly") and their bail was paid by white farmers, who then had them work off their debt for pennies a day in the fields.
Colorado voted on a proposed amendment, banning any type of involuntary servitude, specifically intended to address this. It failed in part because it lacked clarity on whether community service in lieu of a prison sentence would be available to non-violent offenders.