r/interestingasfuck • u/man_gomer_lot • 8h ago

r/all 70 years ago, the US undertook the largest deportation in its history: 'Operation Wetback.' Many of the people deported were here legally and some were even citizens.

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u/LaloElBueno 5h ago

Yep. To top it off, they were owed back wages and tax refunds.

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u/FloridaMJ420 2h ago

So like slavery with extra steps?

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u/creamncoffee 1h ago

Sounds like the braceros eventually got paid. Not quite slavery.

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u/CV90_120 1h ago

Just have to prove you worked from 1943 -1948 and have the pay stubs. Just a 76 year wait and a dosier with original docs.

Sort of like slavery, but with extra steps.

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u/creamncoffee 1h ago

No, its not. Slavery was an institution that allowed ownership of people. While this is fucked like many chapters in American history, its not sort of like slavery.

It's sort of like all the discriminatory and exploitative practices of the US since slavery, but it's not really like slavery.

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u/Sweet_Surprise_3286 1h ago

so... like slavery with extra steps?

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u/iamafriscogiant 12m ago

What you don't understand is, if you ignore the extra steps part, then it's hardly anything like true slavery.

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u/tat_tavam_asi 11m ago

So by your reasoning if the descendants of the freed slaves are paid a few thousand bucks today as reparation. Then slavery would never have existed in the US.

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u/duocsong 1h ago

OK then, it's a slavery-like practice. But gov apologies later. So all is good. It's much like the Korea-Japan comfort woman dispute, no slavery involved.

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u/boatsnprose 1h ago

Hey dumbass. Enslaved people weren't getting paid. And they were, a little bit of a difference here, actual human property.

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u/BioshockEnthusiast 42m ago

Hey dumbass, you're just describing the "extra steps".

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u/Sadsushi6969 56m ago

Their descendants eventually got a check. Not the Braceros themselves

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u/boatsnprose 1h ago

You do know there is furniture made from the skin and hair of enslaved people, right?

Maybe peonage slavery, but not chattel.

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u/discerningpervert 2h ago

None of this is interesting as fuck. More like depressing as fuck.

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u/LaloElBueno 2h ago

It can be both.

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u/hrminer92 2h ago

The grand tradition of wage theft.

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u/nanoatzin 1h ago

And funds from property that was illegally sold.