大俠行天下日記 我見我聞我思 05/05

今天美國社會的奴工

美國南卡羅納州法院判決一家餐廳的老板愛德武十年有期徒刑，因為他不但長期不發薪資給一名黑人员工，並對他不斷虐待，法院並裁定要這家餐廳向斯密士加倍發還五十四萬元所欠的薪水。

這名黑人员工從十二歲開始就以童工身份在餐廳從事洗碗工，在過去十九年他是得到薪水，但從二OO九年開始，他被迫每星期工作一百小時以上而沒有薪資，並且经常虐待他。

這宗奴工事件，居然發生在二十一世紀的美國，真是令人不耻和难予置信的大笑話。

当地的非裔政治聯盟人士表示，我們簡直又回到了奴隷時代了！

老實說，我們的社會底層存在著太多令人痛苦和悲傷，許多人因為自己無一技之長，長期生活在掙扎之邊緣，因此受到顧主們之壓榨，迫於糊口生活，只有長期忍受下去。

今天我們生活在美國的華亞裔族群，可能對竅苦階層長期想得到政府之救济表示不滿，請你們也不要忘記許多民權都是他們為大家爭取來的，不是嗎？ 如今你坐享其成， 反而怪罪他們，這是應該有的態度嗎？

Horrible Enslavement Story

A restaurant manager named Bobby Edwards forced a black man, John Smith, to work for over 100 hours every week for years without pay. The South Carolina court ruled that the man should receive more than $546,000 in restitution after his former manager pleaded guilty. 

A U.S. District Court Judge in 2019 ordered Edwards who is white to pay Smith around $273,000 in restitution which represented Smith’s unpaid wages and overtime. But the court said in failing to include liquidated damages that this falls under the Fair Labor Standards Act and that the amount owed and to be paid to Smith needs to be doubled.  

Smith started working at the cafeteria as a part-time dishwasher. For his first nineteen years, he was paid for his work. But when Edwards took over the restaurant in 2009, Smith was moved into an apartment next to the restaurant and forced to work more than 100 hours per week. Edwards was taking advantage of Smith’s intellectual disability and keeping him isolated from his family and threatened to have him arrested and routinely verbally abused him.

Local NAACP charter president Abdullah Mustafa said, “We are talking about enslavement here.”

This is really a big joke that this should happen in our modern society. It is really unbelievable. This is America. This is also very shameful. Local politicians did not speak out.

When we are talking about the civil rights around the world, where are the rights for the people at the bottom of our society?