It’s Time We Learn the Difference between “Slavery” and “Enslavement
slavery
the activity of legally owning other people who are forced to work for or obey you
the condition of being legally owned by someone else and forced to work for or obey them
enslavement
the act of making a slave of someone
the act of controlling someone’s actions, thoughts, emotions, or life completely
the process of forcing someone to remain in a bad situation
There is a world of difference between these terms. Slavery is an activity or condition — it’s passive; it carries with it no responsibility — it simply is. Enslavement is an act, a process of forcing — it’s active; it is something one person or group does to another.
Language matters. Language both shapes and reflects how we think. When we use the term slavery we are speaking in the abstract — we talk about the “Slavery Era” as if it were something long past, like the Byzantine Era, or the Pleistocene Era. We distance ourselves from this activity, this condition however odious we find it.
What if were to shift and speak of enslavement? The act of some people of controlling others’ actions, thoughts, emotions, or life completely — the process of forcing some people to remain in a bad situation. In those terms, enslavement is not something that was and is no more. When white people say “I don’t see color” or “all lives matter,” they are denying the everyday, every minute experience of Black people and People of Color — it’s a form of gaslighting: the action of tricking or controlling someone by making them believe things that are not true, especially by suggesting that they may be mentally ill. The purpose of gaslighting is to control others’ actions, thoughts, emotions, or life completely. When redlining, income disparity, job discrimination, calling police for walking (or driving or living) while Black prevents Black people and People of Color from moving from run-down and violent neighborhoods to better living conditions, that is the process of “forcing some people to remain in a bad situation.” In short, enslavement.
So lets stop the gaslighting and speak the truth — let’s stop talking about slavery as something in the past. Slavery exists today. More importantly let’s recognize that enslavement continues and must be stopped.
(all definitions from the Cambridge Dictionary)
