“Nobodies” - John Bowe
Somewhere along the line, I got all social justice on your rears. I would love to apologize… I know its not the American way, I know its not mainstream, heck, it may not even be culturally relevant. But it’s certainly Love relevant… not mushy-love, not reese’s-oh-so-good-peanut-butter-cup-love, but “most excellent way” kinda love. I’m not sure why it happened, or how it happened so quickly. I guess somewhere down the line Jon Foreman echoed in my soul:
This ain’t my American Dream / I want to live and die for bigger things
Tired of fighting for just me / This ain’t my American dream
- American Dream by Switchfoot
So it is with this backdrop and seemingly sudden change that I was drawn to a book entitled “Nobodies: Modern American Slavery and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy” (on an aside, why does every book have to have a huge subtitle? It is not helpful in bibliographies).
Slavery, both as we understand it and in its more subtle manifestations still exists in America today. Bowe takes a look at three high-profile cases that essentially affect our every day lives. From the produce grown on the east coast farms (Florida), to the steel used to store our oil (Tulsa), to the clothes on our backs (Saipan), much of what we would consider normal daily living products may only reside on our tables and in our closets because of the forced labor situations in our country. As Bowe points out, the shock and awe of the stories is not in the details of the specific cases he mulls over, but in the fact that our court system is chock-full of similar cases across the nation.
The underlying social theme is that power corrupts and money blinds and none of us are immune to the possible destruction. John uses his own life as example, citing the anger he felt for an employee whom he was having difficulties with. He restrained from abusing the employee, but reflecting on his anger eventually helped him to realize that we all have this corruption within us if the situation and circumstances led us to believe we could get away with it. An unfortunate case in point came to light recently when a family found they had this power over a mentally handicapped woman and ultimately tortured her to death simply to pocket her social security check.
The social side of Nobodies, and certainly an unpopular finding, is that the blatant labor abuse and near slave-labor situations all are contingent on immigrant workers (some illegal, but most with work visas) who do not know their rights and can’t speak enough of the language to learn their rights. The farms have Mexicans who come with the hope of sending anything back to their impoverished family, the steel workers were highly skilled workers from India who had promises of high paying jobs in America, and garment workers in Saipan (a US Commonwealth) were Asian immigrants who were coerced into prostitution. The cases, with the exception of Saipan, are clearly Slave-Labor situations and despite how we feel about foreigners taking our jobs or illegals costing us tax dollars, the fact remains that these people are being abused emotionally and physically all for power and money… The stories told may not change your political views about immigration, closed borders, or the global economy, but it certainly should challenge you to think twice before passing judgement the next time someone who barely speaks English crosses your path.
Beyond the the content of the book, its most redeeming quality lies in Bowe’s fairly unbiased approach to reporting. While his political and underlying social views do make an appearance from time to time, for the most part he simply assimilates, interviews, and reports information. By its very structure, he tends to save his personal views for sections that can be easily skipped, such as the short interludes between sections and the conclusion. The specifics and details of the Florida and Tulsa sections keeps the book rolling along fairly quickly, but it really hits a lull when Bowe gets to Saipan largely due to the fact that he is reporting on an overall acceptance of labor abuse in the commonwealth. In the three years he spends on Saipan, he can site several cases of labor abuse but cannot produce a solid story line of slavery like he does with the previous two sections.
I recommend this book to all, even if you choose to skip the political/social sections and focus only on the introduction, Florida and Tulsa. It is not a ground shaking spiritual book; at times Bowe comes across as if he does not trust religion at all. But a look into the lives of those we generally forget about or snarl our nose at may help us find a bit of perspective that will soften our judgementalism. I know it certainly softened mine.
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