In November, CNN broke a story about modern-day slavery in Libya that went viral. Grainy video showed men and women being beaten and being sold for less than the cost of a smartphone.

When CNN broke the story several weeks ago that slavery—not wage slavery, not emotional slavery, not virtual slavery, but actual whips-and-chains-forced labor slavery—was alive and well in the North African nation of Libya, Americans finally started to take notice. Sort of.

It has almost become a mantra these days: “I can’t believe that this is happening in 2017.” The way race relations in the U.S. are going, we could be in 1917, or 1817, especially with the recent exposé of the sale of people—black people—in this the year of our Lord.