I know “slave” feels like a dirty word to people but slavery has a dirty history. I know people want to lighten it up and say “enslaved” but at the end of the day my ancestors were slaves. And I recognize their humanity in the term-even if the term itself implies otherwise.

I have no issue with the use of the term “enslaved” and recognize why people use it (to describe the harm that was enacted on a person) but slave essentially is and was a social category rather than experience which renders the purpose of enslaved somewhat meaningless

There are plenty of racial, ethnic and cultural groups who experience a relationship to labor that can be described as “slavery”. But there is only one racial group that pops into a persons mind when you say the word “slave”.

To me this indicates that the word “slave” is more of an indicator of social category rather than a description of the degree of exploitation that exists in a person’s labor. That’s why I use the word “slave” more than I use the term “enslaved”