CONTENT WARNING: Graphic This article was written before Jim Crow-era laws began to return in some red states as of recently. If you haven't read my piece on modern day slavery explained, start there.
Segregation happens when slave owners and house slaves prevent street slaves from gaining social status.
There are a few questions that can help identify whether a person is experiencing segregation.
- If you had a medical emergency, would you be barred from entering an emergency room, and threatened with arrest if you tried to enter?
- If someone committed a heinous crime against you, would emergency services assist you, and would you have the legal rights to press charges and go to court? This question does not refer to whether justice would be served if you pursued these services, but rather if it is possible to pursue them in the first place. Crimes from class action lawsuits do not count unless the person is already unable to to get emergency services or legal rights, or has lost these rights in the future for heinous crimes in other areas of life; it's less about the company's power over legal processes and more about whether you could get in touch with legal services and emergency services. Segregation appears in many other ways- many people are rejected from housing and job opportunities or experience extreme discrimination or hate crimes in their personal life. The two examples above are the most extreme, and cannot be confused with oppression majorities may experience, for example the working class. There are other ways segregation can be identified; however I do not know a good way it can be identified without experiences being mistaken for slavery or a generic tragedy as opposed to societal exile.
Segregation is not a clear-cut, black-or-white label. You won't see signs saying certain groups aren't allowed to enter. Street slaves are segregated against, but who is considered a street slave can be in flux.
Common segregation identities experience segregation wherever they go. This includes but is not limited to people who are homeless, victims of domestic abuse, and people with invisible disabilities.
Location-based segregation identities experience segregation based on where they are. Examples may include but are not limited to: transgender people living in a conservative rural area, Black people living in the rural south, an indigenous person native to Alaska. What makes common segregation identities seperate from location-based segregation identities are their ability to perpetuate segregation or avoid experiencing segregation if they were in another geographical location.
Segregation is such an important issue because an end to slavery can not be achieved without an end to segregation as well. In the United States, many house slaves call for an end to "wage" slavery (quoted to differentiate different concepts used in my article) meanwhile committing segregation against street slaves.
One of the most painful aspects of this is that societal progress requires significant labor; specifically labor that many houses slaves can not do because of time poverty. While I don't have statistics on exact percentages, there are many street slaves care deeply about societal progress and want to do the labor required for societal progress as leaders, organizers, or volunteers within their community and have the time to do it but can not do so because of a lack of accommodations and respect of being seen as equal. We have the ability to end the violence of slavery; but if we can not acknowlege the uncomfortable realities systemic oppression, revolution will be smothered and if it succeeds it will recreate the violent system that required revolution in the first place.
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