Human Trafficking

In the past month or so, I have seen an influx of posts concerning human trafficking, usually child trafficking, on social media, and I feel the need to address these posts, because this is such a serious issue and they are such strange posts:

First, yes. You are right.

This is an issue we need to be concerned with. It is a terrible tragedy. We need to be aware of it, so that we can stop it. This is exactly why we spread information and posts about racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, islamophobia, antisemitism, classism, ableism, etc.

If we don’t talk about it, we can’t fix it. So please, keep talking about it.

Second, we can, and should, be concerned about more than one thing.

The majority of the posts that I have been seeing are bashing people who are worried about Covid or BLM when “the real problem is human trafficking!!!” No, stop. These are all real problems. Being upset about one does not equate to saying that the other doesn’t matter.

If your mission, if your call for justice, is human trafficking, please continue to fight that fight--but please stop shaming people who are fighting other fights.

We all want the same thing, right? A just and safe world.

If you can’t fight for one person’s justice without putting down another, you are not fighting for justice. If you can’t say that children deserve to live without saying that the immunocompromised people deserve to die from Covid 19, you are not actually fighting for children.

Please ask yourself what you’re actually upset about. Is it child trafficking? Or is that you have to wear masks in public?

Because to me, an observer of these posts, a sexual abuse survivor, a survivor of internet child grooming, and a mother of a small child, it really doesn’t look like you care about me or my baby. In fact, it looks a lot more like you think I should die since my asthma makes me more vulnerable to an extreme case of Covid 19.

Third, very much related to second, many of these posts have inaccurate information regarding the numbers of human trafficking and Covid 19, when it has any information at all.

As I noted, there’s a lot of comparison of human trafficking versus Covid deaths. These posts often say that human trafficking is a greater risk than Covid, so why is the MAINSTREAM MEDIA ONLY TALKING ABOUT COVID?!

Before I give you the facts because looked up the data, I wanna say:

Mainstream media is talking about Covid 19 more than human trafficking because, are you ready to have your mind-blown?

Human trafficking has been going on for thousands and thousands of years and Covid 19 has only been going on for about 9 months.

Does the age of the problem make it any less of an issue? No! Of course not! But do you really expect the news sources to do nightly reports on things that have been true for thousands of years? The sky is blue, summer is hot, and humans think that they can kidnap and sell other humans--more at 11!

This is, of course, part of the problem. Human trafficking is so ingrained into our societies that we don’t talk about it. Which is why you, the individual posting on social media, need to talk about it. Once again, I’d like to say that this is why we have to talk about all of the other things too. Mainstream media isn’t going to report on human trafficking until we make a change for them to report on. Until then, it’s old news.

Alright, now let’s move on to some actual data.

The argument: human trafficking is more of a concern than Covid 19.

As of August 10th, 2020, there have been over 160,000 confirmed Covid 19 deaths in the United States alone.

In all of 2019, there were 105,787 cases of confirmed human trafficking world wide.

This means, that the US has exceeded yearly world wide human trafficking numbers in Covid deaths by roughly 60,000 in less than six months. If we assume our numbers will be exactly the same in the next six months as they have been in the past six months, we will exceed it by nearly 250,000.

If we look at confirmed Covid 19 deaths world wide, it is 740,000, which is 635,000 more people dead from Covid 19 in half of year than people trafficked in an entire year.

We must assume that Covid 19 is more of a pressing issue than human trafficking.

And yes, I know and understand that there is likely more people trafficked than we have numbers for. I am very specifically using the word “confirmed” when I talk about these numbers. The thing is, most of the people kidnapped and enslaved are the people we won’t notice missing.

This is the perfect lead-in to point number four, none of these posts talk about vulnerability.

When we look at the data surrounding human trafficking and who is more vulnerable to it, it’s not the little white kids in the suburbs that you keep sharing pictures of online that go along with your outrage*. It’s the immigrants at the border, the Black kids in the inner city, the poverty stricken especially West Asia and Central and South America, the homeless, the mentally ill, the addicts, women.

*Are those images public use stock-photos that the child and the child’s guardian have consented to? Or are you also sharing images of vulnerable children online for your own entertainment? I’m not saying it’s the same thing, I’m just wondering.

I want to address these vulnerabilities that I mentioned individually.

Immigrants at the border.

The current administration imposed a policy which separated children from their parents and guardians. There are now literal cages filled with children separated from the people who love them in a foreign country where many of them likely speak very little if any of the language.

We have seen multiple reports in the past four years on such things as; the horrible conditions in which these children are kept, children dying in these conditions, children being hit, beaten, and abused in these conditions, and guards verbally abusing these children.

If this is what we know is going on, what is going on that they aren’t telling us?

These children were kidnapped, are being kept in cages, are being abused, and some are dying. This looks a lot like child trafficking to me. In past situations that are very similar to this, we know there have been sexual abuse as well. Do you really think there isn’t any going on in these internment camps? Even if there isn’t any sexual abuse, there is still more than enough evidence here to be outraged by the treatment of these humans, both the adults and the children.

It’s also probably worth noting that more of those who are enslaved due to trafficking are used for labor rather than sex.

Let me put in another point here before I move on; we know that President Donald Trump has previously had relationships with known human traffickers. In fact, just a couple of weeks ago you couldn’t browse social media without seeing photos of President Trump, or yes, Former President Clinton, hanging out with Jeffrey Epstein. President Trump was friends with a child sex trafficker; he then imposed a policy which keeps children in cages.

You cannot be pro-Trump and be against human trafficking.

Black, indigenous, and people of color.

As in all things in this country, BIPOC are more vulnerable to human trafficking than white people. We know that those who have less resources are more vulnerable, and we know that, in this country, BIPOC have less resources.

I am going to specifically talk about Black people, although idigenous (did you know that Native women go missing at a much higher rate than any other ethnicity in this country?) and other people of color (such as the latinx at the border) are vulnerable as well, because I have seen a lot of child trafficking posts in response to Black Lives Matter posts.

These posts will say things like:

Black Lives Matter? What about CHILDREN’S LIVES?

Child trafficking is a huge problem! Where is BLM now?!

and so on and so forth. You get the idea, I’m sure.

There are few things wrong with these posts and this attitude. Please return to point number two if you need to, and remember that you can be upset about multiple things.

Saying Black Lives Matter is not saying that children deserved to be stolen, sold, and enslaved. In fact, it is saying the opposite. Because, you know, stolen, sold, and enslaved is literally the origin story of the majority of Black people in America.

BLM is saying that Black America hasn’t recovered from what white America did to it, that these harmful systems still exist in various forms, and that their children are dying at alarming rates. The fact that they were stolen, sold, and enslaved hurt them, and continues to hurt them and their children.

You cannot be against BLM and against human trafficking. It’s just a different side of the same battle.

Furthermore, Black people are more vulnerable to modern human trafficking than white people. Because Black people are more likely to a) be born into poverty, b) be in foster systems, c) be labeled criminals or felons, d) drop out of or be unable to attend high school, e) be homeless f) be unable to seek treatment for mental illness due to stigma, money, or any of the other aforementioned issues, g) have a weaker support system (e.g. family, friends, teachers, etc) due to the aforementioned issues, and MORE.

If you want to stop human trafficking, you will also have to fix the racial disparities in this country.

If you are against BLM and what they are saying and doing, you are pro human trafficking. If you are against human trafficking, you need to be in support of BLM. It’s the same battle.

You cannot be racist and be against human trafficking.

The poverty stricken.

The poorer a person is, the more vulnerable they are. See, a lot of traffickers use economic struggles to create financial dependency. This vulnerability is then exploited and used against that person in various ways, such as coercion or building trust before kidnapping.

This is also one of the reasons why homeless people are more vulnerable than your average citizen. The more needs you have, the more those needs can be exploited.

You cannot be pro-capitalism and against human trafficking.

As for the nationality of the poverty stricken, most of those who are trafficked in the United States come from or through the Philippines or Mexico.

Yes, American children are also trafficked, but most of those who are trafficked, even in this country, are not American children. So the stats that you give and the ones I gave previously, are not all American children.

These humans being stolen, sold, and enslaved are majorly from poor nations which the United States has frequently in the past exploited. If you don’t understand what I mean, please read about the Philippines.

You cannot be nationalistic and be against human trafficking.

You cannot be for closed borders and be against human trafficking. If you are against human trafficking, you must think globally and you must allow those from poor countries to seek asylum and immigration into your own country.

You cannot be against economic migrants and be against human trafficking.

Mentally ill.

People with mental illness or neurodivergents are incredibly vulnerable to human trafficking. If you don’t function well within the systems and society, you are likely to have a weaker support system and face many struggles that make your exploitation and/or disappearance more likely. Many, many of the homeless have untreated mental illnesses.

Oftentimes, mental illness goes untreated for one of the previous reasons I mentioned.

Money is a big factor. Healthcare is expensive in this country, health insurance is expensive, co-pays are expensive, and even those who do have health insurance often don’t have insurance that covers mental health. It’s a system designed to cheat us, especially those who have mental illnesses which inhibit their ability to make money.

Health treatment shouldn’t be kept away from people who need it. Your right to health should not based on how well you are able to perform within capitalism. It’s barbaric. And mean.

If you want to cut down on the amount of people trafficked, you will need to treat those with mental illness, whether or not they have money.

You cannot be against universal healthcare and against human trafficking.

Addiction.

At this point, it should not surprise you what I am going to say. Those with addiction are more likely to have the other vulnerabilities mentioned. The thing is that addiction is currently treated like criminal behavior, which decreases the person’s ability to have a job, instead of treating it like a health issue, which it actually is.

The criminalization of addiction only leads to more vulnerabilities, more homelessness, more illnesses, more criminal behavior, and more addiction.

Now I can almost hear the echo of voices saying that addicts, drug dealers, etc. deserve whatever they get. I think that’s mean, and I disagree with you. However, I’m going to say;

What about their children?

If an addict needs healthcare and instead they go to jail, what happens to their children? Children of those with addiction or mental illnesses end up in those same vulnerable situations that their parents do. By helping those with health issues, like mental illnesses or drug addiction, we are helping the children of those people. Criminalization of drugs hurts way more than just the dealer; it hurts innocent children, and it puts those children at higher risks for human trafficking.

You cannot be against the decriminalization of drug addiction and be against human trafficking.

Women.

Finally, I want to tell you all that the biggest risk factor for human trafficking is being female presenting. Women and girls of all ages, races, and economic backgrounds are at a far higher risk for being kidnapped, sold, and enslaved than men and boys. Please note that I am including transwomen and feminine nonbinaries within the category of women and girls.

Transwomen are all likely to be homeless at some point in their lives. Transwomen of color are even more likely. These are two incredibly vulnerable groups.

You cannot be transphobic and be against human trafficking. You cannot exclude transwomen from your feminism and be against human trafficking.

All of the previously stated vulnerabilities are still true, but being a woman is the single greatest risk factor for human trafficking. So take in all of those previous vulnerabilities and add in “is woman” or “is girl”, and you have an extremely likely victim.

I am not suggesting that we all stop being women; that’s not the problem, and it’s simply not practical. Also, I don’t want to.

The problem is sexism, the patriarchy, and toxic masculinity. We live within a culture where women are considered less than men, and where men can hurt women and get away with it.

I want to use two examples here: rape culture and the gender pay gap.

Rape cultural is the language, attitudes, and policies surrounding rape and sexual assault. Common examples are: rape jokes, asking what the victim was wearing or if the victim was drinking, not processing rape kits, not charging rapists, defending rapists (i.e. talking about the rapists athletic skills or his bright future), and defending bragging about sexual assaulting women as “locker room talk” (and then elect the sexual assaulter into one of the most powerful positions in the entire world).

As long as these, and other issues, continue to exist in our society, women will continue to be considered second class and issues which concern women at higher rates, especially if the issue is sexual, will continue to be a problem. We cannot fix human trafficking without destroying rape culture.

You cannot be anti-feminist and be against human trafficking.

You cannot be pro-Trump and be against human trafficking.

The gender pay gap is the difference between what men and women make performing the same job. On average, a woman makes $0.81 for every $1 a man makes. I bring this up for two reasons: first, because it beautifully illustrates the national mindset of women being worth less than men. 19% less, in fact. We cannot fix issues relating to women without addressing the sexism in our everyday life. We cannot end human trafficking without changing the national attitude towards women.

Second, because so many of the issues I have already discussed are wealth based issues. Money is one of the biggest reasons for vulnerability in this country, and women have statistically less money than men. We cannot end human trafficking without ending capitalism, and we cannot end capitalism without ending the patriarchy.

I want to further note that the average woman’s wage is $0.81 to a man’s $1. When we add in race and ethnicity, we see that Black women earn on average $0.66 to a man’s $1, and Latinx women earn on average $0.58 to a man’s $1. So we can see that this adds even more opportunities for vulnerability to human trafficking based on the support and opportunities afforded to people based on wealth.

You cannot ignore the gender pay gap or the racism therein and be against human trafficking.

Abortion access, affordable and available birth control, paid maternity leave, and free child-care are all also very good ways in which supporting women will decrease the number of people vulnerable to human trafficking. If you want to protect children, protecting their parents is a very good place to start.

You cannot wage a war on women and be against human trafficking.

Of all this has been to say: you have to care about more than one issue, because they are all the same issue.

If you care about human trafficking: good! You should! But if you’re not addressing racism, sexism, nationalism, classism, ableism, capitalism, transphobia, etc. you’re not really fighting to end human trafficking.

Maybe you’re only fighting to end human trafficking for one group of people. Maybe you really do only care about the little white, blonde kids you’re posting pictures of along with captions about outrage over child pornography. Maybe your outrage is only performative.

So many of these posts I keep seeing are saying that the liberals don’t care about children or human trafficking. Those posts are wrong.

I can’t speak for other people, of course, but as for me, I really fucking care.

P.S. posting pictures of vulnerable children with a #savethechildren hashtag is really good way to get a hashtag temporarily banned in order to remove the harmful images you were sharing on Facebook.

P.P.S. I have not included my sources because a quick google can fact check them. If you need help with the googling process, let me know, and I will send you a shit-ton of links with data and articles and graphs. But seriously. You can google it as easily as I can.