This is a story about a family in Georgia that kept a woman as a domestic slave. Several stories like this have come out in the last year, people who deceive people in coming to the US with promises of economic security or education and then force them to be domestic servants.

This story is fascinating for a couple of reasons. First, the comments on the different sites where articles about this are posted indicate that people don’t understand human trafficking, and, well, that really many people dislike immigrants. This family manipulated this woman, who is a victim of human trafficking. The comments section of articles like these, in part due to their anonymous nature, reveal the true feelings many have toward immigrants. This woman came over legally with a visa, and this family used fraud, one of the elements of human trafficking, to bring her here.

That also shows our tendency to blame the victims of crimes. It’s easier to find a way to blame this woman than to deal with the issue of power and oppression that we allow toward immigrants, even those who are legal, and other groups that are looked down upon by our society.

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