• popcap200@lemmy.ml
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    6 months ago

    Forcing prisoners to repay a debt to society through labor, and forcing the minority you’re actively genociding to produce goods feel like two very different things.

    I strongly disagree with US prison labor, and our prison system’s focus on punishment and repayment rather than actually correcting the behaviors, but it’s legal by the US constitution.

    The US DoL has an article on the situation with these laborers in China. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/against-their-will-the-situation-in-xinjiang

    • TrippyFocus@lemmy.ml
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      6 months ago

      I don’t really care if it’s legal in the constitution, it’s “legal” in China too. My point is that I want it changed so there’s no forced labor in a country that that corporations can profit from it since it’s going to inherently drive conflicts of interest and I feel it too often gets ignored in this country.

      Also with minorities being incarcerated at a much higher rate than white citizens. I find that just saying it’s paying back a debt to society fails to recognize the law isn’t being applied equally.

      Also in many cases they’re already having to pay for their incarceration.

      • popcap200@lemmy.ml
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        6 months ago

        Yet the overwhelming majority of the time, they’ve committed a crime. There may be systematic issues in the justice system, and US that lead to the higher conviction rates/arrest rates, but we have the right to appeal, the right to representation, and our criminal justice system is regularly investigated and publicized.

        On the flip side, on a mass scale in Xinjiang, people are being systematically targeted, sterilized, tortured, being forced to work, etc. solely because of their culture and skin color.

        The two systems are very different. Two things can be bad, and one of those bad things can be substantially worse. It’s like wondering why Texas will execute a serial killer, but not someone who punched someone at a bar. Both things are bad, but the scale is completely different.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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      6 months ago

      Why should the red line be at genocide?

      The U.S. justice system is inherently racist and it utilizes forced labor. That should be enough.

      • popcap200@lemmy.ml
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        6 months ago

        Having the red line as genocide, or as slavery from the buying and selling of people feels like a pretty safe line to have. Blocking goods is a very serious move in international relations.

        The US justice system is not inherently racist, it’s systematically racist, which isn’t good, but is a different thing. Nearly every person in the US prison system is there because they committed a crime. The people in Xinjiang did nothing but have the wrong culture and skin color. It’s still a false equivalency.

        Anyone can involve themselves and investigate the US court system, they can file complaints, they can sue for unfair treatment etc. International monitors are barred from Xinjiang.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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          6 months ago

          Nearly every person in the US prison system is there because they committed a crime.

          Many of them low-level crimes that wouldn’t exist without the pointless drug war and far more often people of color for those crimes than white people who do the same thing. In fact, white people are far less likely to be convicted for a crime of any sort compared to people of color. I’d call that inherent.

        • VirtualOdour@sh.itjust.works
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          6 months ago

          Our prisoners: bad, evil, guilty

          Their prisoners: heroic, moral, innocent.

          • of course you belive this and of course the Chinese believe it.
    • SeattleRain@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      They’re not two different things. They both incentivize the government to subjugate people to enrich themselves and corporations.

      This means many innocent people are enslaved or are enslaved for crimes that do not deserve enslavement. That’s why the US has far and away the most prisoners of any country.