Strollerderby : slavery

Dad Sells Daughter for Beer; Calls Cops for Non-Payment

JeanneSager — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:44:00 GMT

I applaud stupid criminals - especially when their stupidity lands their own sorry butts in jail. Like Marcelino de Jesus Martinez.

The California father has been charged for allegedly selling his fourteen-year-old daughter into a forced marriage with an eighteen-year-old. So how did police catch him?

Martinez allegedly called them when the groom-to-be, Margarito de Jesus Galindo, didn't turn over the agreed upon some for the poor little girl's hand. According to news reports, the neighbors had worked out a deal that would have included handing over one hundred cases of beer, $16,000, several cases of meat, wine, Gatorade and soda. When Galindo reneged, cops said Martinez called for help in getting his daughter back. Ah, so now she's worth something to him? Something more than the makings of a good backyard barbecue?

Martinez has been booked for "receiving money for causing person to cohabitate" and Galindo for statutory rape.

The most disturbing part of all of this? The girl went willingly - because it's an accepted practice where she's from.

The incident happened in Los Angeles, but her family hails from Mexico - and police in the LA area say they are finding more and more Mexican immigrants (generally from remote areas of the country) are engaging in similar practices. So while many people in America still think of "human trafficking" here only in relation to a coyote bringing people over the border and forcing them into slavery, it's happening within the confines of a family life too.

Sadly, that only compounds the problem for Martinez. He is obviously lacking as a father, but if he's from a community that condones this behavior, chances are, he doesn't even think he did anything wrong.

Image: NBC Los Angeles

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109 Year Old Daughter Of Slave Votes For Obama

Brett Singer — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:45:00 GMT

The line to vote for President and other stuff today might be kind of long. If you get cranky, here's an inspiring story to keep you a little bit sane.

From the Austin American Statesman:

Amanda Jones, 109, the daughter of a man born into slavery, has lived a life long enough to touch three centuries. And after voting consistently as a Democrat for 70 years, she has voted early for the country's first black presidential nominee.
…
Jones' father herded sheep as a slave until he was 12, according to the family, and once he was freed, he was a farmer who raised cows, hogs and turkeys on land he owned. Her mother was born right after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, Joyce Jones said. The family owned more than 100 acres of land in Cedar Creek at one point, she said.
Amanda Jones' father urged her to exercise her right to vote, despite discriminatory practices at the polls and poll taxes meant to keep black and poor people from voting. Those practices were outlawed for federal elections with the 24th Amendment in 1964, but not for state and local races in Texas until 1966.

First of all, the fact that anyone lived to be 109 is cool. More importantly, though, is her story. I can't imagine what it must have felt like for Amanda to cast her vote in this Presidential election.

Source/Image: Statesman.com

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House of Representatives to Apologize for Slavery

Amy S.F. Lutz — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:08:00 GMT

Lately, whenever any of the 8 kids living in my house get into a scuffle - which, as you can imagine, happens fairly frequently - and the aggressor is directed to apologize, the aggrieved party is likely to retort, "Too late!"

Where they got this from, I have no idea, but now, thanks to Congress, I feel confident telling my kids that it's NEVER too late. If the House of Representatives can decide, 146 years after the signing of the emancipation proclamation, to finally apologize to African-Americans for the horrors of slavery and the injustices of the Jim Crow era, and if African-Americans can accept that apology with grace, then a five-year-old can certainly accept an apology from her four-year-old cousin for poking her with a plastic sword ten minutes before.

Although several states have apologized individually for slavery, this resolution - introduced by Rep. Steve Cohen, from Memphis, Tennessee - would be the first time any part of the federal government has done so.

Is this apology long overdue? Definitely. Does it change anything? Not really - the resolution doesn't address the controversial issue of reparations. But, on the whole, it's still a positive step. As they say - and as I say to the kids - "Better late, than never."