Changing Our Minds: The Problem with Blacks and Whores

Blacks are not fully evolved, and thus, not fully human.

Blacks are lazy and need someone to keep after them or they won't work.

Blacks are like lost children without their masters; they need to be taken care of.

Blacks are from the line of Cain and biblically deserve to be enslaved.

Blacks aren't smart enough to read...hold a job...be free. 

Blacks exist for whites.

Blacks like being slaves. 

I shudder as I type these sentences, as you probably do reading them.  Yet this was once the mentality of thousands of people throughout the United States.  These were all lies people told themselves to feel better about their greed and oppressive actions. And the whites who believed these lies so many years ago really believed them - to their core. I wanted to use the "N" word in those sentences, to make them powerful and punch you in the face while you read this post, but 150 years of fighting for the dignity and equality of a once dehumanized portion of our population has been bred into my bones until it is impossible for me to use such an offense word.  Because I really believe Blacks are fully human, they are not intrinsically lazy, they are not biblically mandated to be slaves, and they are equal in intelligence, skill, and worth.  For me, a 21st century white person, it is incomprehensible that people once saw the world differently.  The fight has been worth it.*

But now we face a new foe (or, rather, an old that has yet to be conquered).  That of The Whore.

Whores are dirty girls who like sex and deserve what they get.

Whores don't mind being used by 50 men a day - hell, they're whores.

Whores (as women) biblically must submit to men in all things, including sex.

Whores (as women) are like emotional children who need to be led by a non-emotional man.

Whores aren't smart enough to hold a job other than whoring. 

Whores are the problem; they tempted the men in the first place.

Whores (as women) exist for men.

Whores like prostituting.

If you don't believe that the above-listed mentalities exist - and strongly - then we're not gonna get far in this fight against sex trafficking.  Trafficking begins as a mentality.  A girl is a whore before she is ever forced into prostitution.  She's a whore in the eyes of the mother who blames her when her dad rapes her.   She's a whore in the eyes of her classmates when she becomes promiscuous at school.  She's a whore in the eyes of the woman whose husband chooses to look at her...hit on her...sleep with her.  It is my strong belief that any girl roped into trafficking (not kidnapped and physically forced as some are, but rather coerced and manipulated) has some extreme brokenness in her past.  Rape by an older brother.  Rape by a neighbor.  Physical abuse by her parents.  There is something disconnecting in her that allows her to stay in a place where she's used 50 times a day - because no healthy woman wants to have sex 50 times a day with potentially disease-ridden, often physically abusive men.

If I have not convinced you that our collective prejudice against "The Whore" is one of the bonds holding her in captivity, then why is a girl picked up by the cops 100 times and her pimp not once?  Because she's the problem.  She's the one giving her body to the john.  Forget the father who raped her, the trafficker who addicted her to drugs, or the pimp who threatens her with death if she tries to escape.  Or why when I went to an anti-trafficking fundraising dinner did they only raise $7,000 for a recovery home, when I've been to pro-life dinners that have raised $20,000?  Because we're still not sure these girls are worth saving...after all, they got themselves into this in the first place, right? **

Need more of an argument?  I went to a signature-gathering training this weekend for an initiative strengthening laws against traffickers.  Someone raised the question of why the initiative would only strengthen laws against traffickers and not against the johns.  Our speaker said she'd fought to have something written in about johns, but all of her legal counsel told her not to.  Why?  "Because as a society we're still not ready for that.  The john is still not seen as a bad guy and the girl is still seen as a whore.  Were we to write harsher laws for johns into our initiative, it would not be passed."  Whoa. Yes, in a way most of the U.S. doesn't understand, our problem is The Whore.  Earlier I said I couldn't even type the "N" word, because it is so offensive. Yet 150 years ago people would have thought that impossible.  My hope - my sometimes shy, wavering, timid hope - is that 150 years from now, "whore" will be an equally offensive word because of how it once meant the dehumanization of half our population.  Let's start changing our minds.  Let's start seeing "The Whore "as the victimized girl she really is and get her the proper aid she needs to live a healthy and fulfilled life.  Let's erase "whore" from our vocabulary and our mindset and start treating all people with respect and dignity.

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*This is not negating that racism still exists in our world.  It does.  Yet how far we've come from those days!

**Why, if we're going to turn our backs on them 13 years down the road, bother being pro-life when we know many of the children "saved" are going to be born into potentially abusive situations that will make them vulnerable to trafficking in the first place?  Why are we so shortsighted? At the risk of making all my conservative friends angry, if we are unwilling to change our minds about "The Whore" then I would almost rather see the poor things killed in the womb before they are later rejected by us noble folk who've worked so hard to give them a chance at "life". If we're going to be pro-life, we need to be willing to go all the way.

Restoration: Volunteer

A lot of anti-trafficking organizations involved in the restorative end of the movement are just small, non-profit recovery homes that don't have large budgets.  Places like this can always use volunteers.  Be prepared though: when you offer your services you may not always be working directly with the children or women in the home.  It is just as likely they will have you answering telephones, sorting through clothing donations, or cleaning the toilets.  The thing about abolition work is that you need to be willing to work where you're needed.  Romantic fantasies about rescuing kids, mentoring them back to emotional health, then releasing them back into the wild are all well and good, but they are not reality. Even the counselor sitting across the table from a rescued girl or boy is as likely to see him or her choose to go back to an abusive lifestyle as to move forward in healing.  We can only offer ourselves, we cannot guarantee that our offerings will be accepted.  So.  If you call the local women's shelter and they say they have enough people working with the ladies but that they need someone to put stamps on their bulk mailing once a month - do it.  It may not be glamorous, but it's important. Places that directly deal with people who've been trafficked and where you can volunteer:

1. Recovery homes for rescued victims
2. Abused women's shelters
3. Homeless shelters
4. Prison or juvenile detention ministries

Restoration: Rescue Work

The first time you heard about trafficking didn't you just want to go straight to the streets of the nearest big city and rescue kids from their pimps?  Yeah...I would fall asleep at night thinking about kicking gangsta tail.  But don't do it.  Just...don't.

Rescue work is dangerous.  While we do still have unjust laws regarding human trafficking, things are getting better and the police force is slowly beginning to understand the problem.  If you see an instance of what appears to be human trafficking, do not confront the supposed trafficker on your own.  Observe what's going on and get as much information as possible: make, model, and license plate of any car being used by the potential trafficker, approximate age, race, height, and build of the traffickers and victims, along with any apparent johns.  Then call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1.888.3737.888.  Describe to them what you see and hear and they will tell you what steps to take next.  Remember that traffickers do not work alone - going up against a guy who looks like a pimp is a serious issue, because that guy has 10 more guys behind him.  If you try to take him out yourself you're liable to end up hospitalized or dead.  Call the authorities; do not - DO NOT - try to handle it yourself.

If you like the thrill of the chase and putting yourself in situations where you could end up dead, then consider joining the police force where you can be on the front lines of this kind of work.  Also get in contact with your state or county Human Trafficking Task Force and find out what you can do to be more actively involved in rescue missions.  But do not, do not, do not try to go out there yourself and do it alone.   The best way for you to be involved in rescuing trafficked kids is to memorize the National Hotline (again, 1.888.3737.888) and be willing to use it if you ever see a potential instance of human trafficking.

Preparation, Prevention, Restoration: Pray

(Note: if you're non-religious the things I say here may not mean much to you.  But please be kind about it!)

As a Christian, I believe prayer is the most important thing any of us can do ever.  It is in prayer we find peace, though the world rage around us.  It is in prayer we find direction when there are 100 voices telling us what to do.  And it is in prayer that we find a Loving Parent who listens, who loves, and who acts accordingly.  I believe that the work of abolition is ultimately God's.  We are called to contribute where we can, but as Jesus says, "Ask the Lord of the field to send workers into the field..."  We cannot do any of this on our own strength.  We need to ask God to go before us, to change minds, open hearts, break the locks off doors and the chains off feet.  We petition God and He prepares the way.  If you are religious and are interested in abolition work but are not praying about it...then how interested are you in it, really?  Do you believe God is bigger?  If you believe this, then you will be praying about the issue of human trafficking.  Prayer needs to be part of our process from beginning to end - from the time we first start thinking about human trafficking to the moment we're sitting across from a child who's just described the first time he or she was gang-raped.  Prayer prepares our hearts to handle the heaviness we're going to face as we learn more about what really goes on in trafficking circles.  Prayer sustains us when we're in the thick of it.  And prayer restores us when we've reached our own beds again at night, weary beyond words from the battle we've just fought.   Pray, pray, pray.  Prayer is our doorway to peace.

If you haven't had much experience praying, here are a few good books on the subject:

Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer
Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart

Prevention and Restoration: Careers

As there can be a lot of crossover between the preventative side and the restorative side of abolition, I have combined the posts into one.  First note that for a lot of these careers you'll need further education. While God can and does use uneducated people, working with people who have experienced extreme trauma, like trafficking victims, usually requires special training. Here are some ideas of which training or degrees to pursue if you want to go further:

Master of Social Work (MSW)

• As a social worker you might work in the court system, with a non-profit, in the hospitals and schools, overseas, and have many other doors opened to you that would not otherwise be available. As an MSW you can also be certified in therapy so in the end it's like an MFT plus plus plus. As a social worker you can be involved in either the preventative or the restorative end of abolition; working with foster-care kids you'll encounter a variety of life stories and backgrounds.  In my non-expert, unprofessional opinion, an MSW is like gold in the fight against human trafficking. 

Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT)

• An MFT is a Master's degree in marriage and family counseling.  This is mainly helpful on the preventative side because the children most at-risk for being trafficked in the U.S. are abused children, those in the foster care system, and runaways.  

Psychology

• I don't know a ton about psychology, but I do believe you can have emphasis in different fields of psychology that will prepare you to specifically work with trafficked victims.   If it's something you've always been interested in anyway, then it's worth doing some research on.

Psychiatry

• I'm not a huge fan of pills and modern medicine (What did you say the side effects of that medication were?  And you still want me to take it??), however, if a person has been trafficked he or she may have acquired some chemical and mental imbalances due to emotional trauma, physical trauma, and/or forced substance abuse.  As a license psychologist you would be able to provide medical help for the whole-person-healing of a trafficked victim.

Endocrinology

• In my unprofessional, non-medical-person opinion, endocrinology is one of the most important medical fields in dealing with trauma victims.  Stress puts a lot of pressure on our endocrine system (our hormone regulating system, like our thyroid), and too much stress can make it begin to fail.  This is why stressed people begin to lose their hair or gain weight, etc., because their hormones are no longer balanced since their endocrine system cannot handle the stress.  A thyroid specialist I once spoke with said that 80% of the women who came to him on anti-anxiety or anti-depressant medication had been misdiagnosed by a psychiatrist and actually had a thyroid imbalance.  I have personal friends and family who have had direct experience with this type of situation.  So considering the level of stress a trafficked victim has gone through, it is my belief that the field of endocrinology could be extremely helpful in restoring them to not just physical, but also emotional (hormonal) health. 

The Medical Field

• Aside from psychiatry and endocrinology, other areas of the medical field can be beneficial to trafficked victims also.  Just use imagination!  A girl who has been trafficked for 5 years and was forced into drug usage probably has some dental issues she needs dealt with.  A boy trafficked for sex is gonna need good proctologist.  And E.R. doctors and nurses can be on the front lines of reporting incidents of human trafficking when prostitutes are brought in for various reasons.   The possibilities are endless - if your parents have always pushed you to go to med school, maybe it's time you started listening to their advice. 

Judiciary System

• Straight up, our laws on human trafficking are not strong enough.  Though there are federal laws against human trafficking, most states prosecute under state law, which is often weaker than its federal counterpart.  In fact, there are 4 states in the U.S. that don't even have anti-trafficking laws in place.  We need lawmakers - lawyers and judges and governors and lobbysists - who will work toward more stringent laws for perpetrators and more lenient laws for victims.  Another need we have in the judiciary system is judges who understand the realities of human trafficking who will send prostitutes to recovery centers rather than to prison and give traffickers the harshest sentencing possible in order to keep them off the streets.   Though we try, our legal system is far from perfect.  Uncle Sam needs YOU to help make it better!

Police Work

• We all know who the PoPo are and generally have varying levels of fear, respect, or dislike for them.  No matter what your feelings toward the police may be, we need more people educated on the realities of human trafficking to sign up for the force.  In my opinion, two of the biggest issues that keep trafficking in place are piss poor laws and a police force uneducated on the realities of modern-day slavery.  The problem lies in our mentality: prostitutes are dirty girls doing a dirty job who need to be taken off the streets.  Reality: most prostitutes were lured into the trade when they were still underage by a pimp who threatened them, beat them, and tried to kill them if they tried to run away.  Though I don't have any link or stat to throw up here, I have heard countless stories about prostitutes being arrested over and over while their pimp sat in a car 10-feet away.  Why didn't he get arrested?  Why is it always the prostitute?  We need police on the force who are going to arrest the pimp and get the prostitute to a recovery home.

Your Job

• What is it you do?  Accounting?  Data entry?  Construction?  To fight human trafficking we need people with ALL types of skills.  The person crunching the numbers at IJM is just as important as the field worker rescuing kids out of sex work.  Ministry cannot run without logistics, so rather than running off and obtaining a new degree so that you can work in abolition, first take a look at your own skills and think about how they can be plugged into what is already going on.  If there's a particular organization you're interested in, ask what their needs are and see where you fit.