Thanks to the 13th Amendment, slavery has been vanquished from America, or so we thought. Around the year 2002, a Mumbai, India company hired a group of experienced welders. The company brought them to the City of Tulsa, Oklahoma. People later found out that the workers were tricked into becoming slaves for the company. This led to many ethical issues that occurred, which included human trafficking, slavery, and poor working conditions. While reading the excerpt, I observed numerous ethical responsibilities that I would have, some examples are spreading awareness of the slaves in Tulsa, coordinating and cooperating with people to educate them on their rights, and boycotting slave-made items.
The first ethical issue that I noticed was the use of human trafficking. The company took advantage of the workers by offering them a high-paying job to trick them into coming to the U.S. just to be a slave. As Gatehouse Media states, “The workers are often coerced into signing documents revealing the true nature of the jobs just they are at the moment of highest vulnerability’ when they are deep in debt and about to leave their countries.” (“Expert says…”). This is not only deceiving to the workers who are trying to gain a better salary and standard of living for their families but also taking advantage of their situation and causing worse problems for the workers. Bales states that “Human trafficking is the modern term for forcing and transporting people into slavery.” and “the false promise of a better life often draws victims into the control of criminals.” (Bales par. 1) This further proves that what the company did to the workers is considered human trafficking because of the use of deception about the well-paid jobs and the use of transportation into slavery.
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On top of this, once the workers arrived at the factory grounds, the employers treated them somewhat like slaves. This is an extremely big ethical issue that occurred. The company prohibited the workers from leaving the facility. Additionally, they were intimidated, and threatened, and had a chain link fence around them to keep them from escaping. The workers could not go anywhere they pleased. This is a big violation of human rights and gives the workers no sense of independence and self-control. History.com concluded that “slave owners sought to make their slaves completely dependent on them,” and “their behavior and movement was restricted.” (Gillon par. 15) This shows the similarities of the workers with how the slaves were treated back then and how much of an ethical problem it was.
The last big ethical issue I noticed was the poor working conditions for the workers. The workers had to share beds because the company couldn’t sustain the number of workers. Additionally, they didn’t get the appropriate amount of food. This is a big ethical issue because while working, they could be starving and are forced to work until they can’t work anymore. This further proves how great of an ethical issue this is for the workers in Tulsa.
The first ethical responsibility that I have is to spread awareness about what happened to these workers. As it says in the Lesson: Got Ethics? “people are only out to do what benefits themselves. They don’t care about me so why should I care about them?” (Marshall) This quote is important because I think people today are so worried about what is happening and befitting to them. They do not look at the bigger picture of what is happening and benefitting people other than themselves. Also, they are not aware of the calamities that are happening. I think that it is an ethical responsibility for me to try and spread awareness about what is going on so people can begin to recognize what is going on around them. I can do this by posting documentaries or articles that are like the slaves in Tulsa on the internet to spread awareness. Additionally, some people may not want to get involved., They may want to ignore what is happening because it may inconvenience them, and they may feel it does not affect them. People may not want to get involved because it may require a sacrifice of something that they have. People may not see it as worthwhile for that sacrifice. If they were aware of how the workers were treated in Tulsa and the ethical issues that happened, then they would most likely try and take part in preventing that issue from happening again in the future.
Furthermore, another ethical responsibility that I would have is to help educate people on the rights they were given when they came to America. When people come into the country, they may not know what rights they have. If the workers who were brought to Tulsa were informed of their rights when they arrived in America, then things could have been different. For example, if the workers in Tulsa knew that the company wasn’t allowed to take their documents and visas, the workers would have refused and prevented that incident from happening. That is why I think it would be my ethical responsibility to help educate or remind people who are new to the country about what rights people have in our country. I would be able to do this by coordinating and cooperating with other informed agencies and people to help these individuals. For example, in the Lesson: The Sociological Imagination, The Promise and the Problem of Social Order “COORDINATION creates order. This means that when we DON’T coordinate with each other, disorder (anomie) happens.” And “COOPERATION creates order. This means that when we DON’T cooperate, disorder (anomie) happens.” (Marshall) This shows that by cooperating and coordinating with people who aren’t used to America, then I would be able to help educate the workers about the rights they have.
The last ethical responsibility that I would have is to support a boycott of materials made by slaves by not buying certain products produced by slaves. Also, started a campaign to stop buying materials made by slaves. This is because since people are consumers, boycotting products made by slaves would kill off the profit for the government. The government would start to find different people to buy from that don’t use slave labor to make the products. Willen states that “only when consumers in large numbers refuse to buy products made with slave labor will the raison d’être for it will evaporate.” (Willen par. 6) This means that people who are selling products that are made by slaves won’t get any money because of the boycott of slave-manufactured items. That would cause fewer people to want to get slaves and would greatly eradicate slave-manufactured items. Henceforth, the slaves in Tulsa would have possibly never happened if the boycott started before the incident.
Conclusively, while reading the excerpt I found that the slaves in Tulsa had many ethical issues that included human trafficking, slavery, and poor working conditions. Many ethical responsibilities that I had found and listed were spreading awareness, educating people who aren’t informed about the rights people have by coordinating and cooperating with them, and boycotting items made by slaves. If all these ethical responsibilities had taken place before the incident in Tulsa, then the slaves in Tulsa would’ve most likely never would have happened.
Works Cited
- Bales, Kevin. “Human Trafficking.” Issues: Understanding Controversy and Society. ABC-CLIO. 8 September 2019. Web. 8 September 2019. http://issues2.abc-clio.com.db02.linccweb.org/Search/Display/1097985
- “Expert says Tulsa Trial Example of Human Trafficking.” Oklahoman. Gatehouse Media, LLC, 14 September 2003. Web. 2 September 2019. https://oklahoman.com/article/1946069/expert-says-tulsa-trial-example-of-human-trafficking
- Gillon, Steven. “Slavery in America.” HISTORY. HISTORY. 28 August 2019. Web. 2 September 2019. https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/slavery
- Marshall, Debra. Lesson: Got Ethics? EFSC Canvas Course SYG2000, https://easternflorida.instructure.com/courses/1461288/assignments/6299727 27 August 2019
- Marshall, Debra. Lesson: The Sociological Imagination, The Promise and The Problem of Social Order EFSC Canvas Course SYG2000, https://easternflorida.instructure.com/courses/1461288/pages/lesson-the-sociological-imagination-the-promise-and-the-problem-of-social-order?module_item_id=15402957 27 August 2019
- Willen, Mark. “Talking Ethics. Doing Good When No One’s Watching.” Talking ethics. Talking ethics. 16 September 2013. Web. 2 September 2019. https://talkingethics.com/2013/09/16/slavery-whats-your-ethical-duty/
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