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Conference sheds light on realities of modern slavery
By Jessie Yale
jyale@mscd.edu

The U.S. Department of State estimates that 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year, generating $7 billion to $10 billion in illegitimate revenue.

“We need to push the envelope on how we look at this growing problem,” said keynote speaker Rachel Lloyd at Colorado’s Response to Modern-Day Slavery and Human Trafficking conference. Lloyd is the creator of the program Girl’s Educational and Mentoring Services, or GEMS, in New York City, and a survivor of the sexual exploitation industry herself.

“We are talking about U.S. citizens, what others call child or teen prostitutes,” she said.

Lloyd said the images people have of victims of human trafficking are not the norm.

“People get these images of people chained up with guns to their heads when they think of human trafficking, and really, that’s not usually the case,” Lloyd said. “You don’t have to be chained to a bed to feel you can’t leave. You don’t have to be from another country to feel you have no other choice.”

The victims Lloyd describes are mainly youths who are seen as unacceptable in society, such as drug addicts and runaways. She explained that many in today’s culture have a hard time seeing these people as victims.

"Society views them as people who have chosen this lifestyle and if they wanted to they could leave,” she said.

There is also the problem with some victim’s reactions when approached with help.

“It’s not all about ‘Oh, thank you! I’ve been rescued.’ It’s more like, ‘Fuck you. I like my life and I love my pimp.’ They are angry about it,” Lloyd said. “It’s not so much about rescuing, as supporting and empowering.”

Lloyd said it’s time society became involved in changing the way this problem is looked at.

“People need to focus on changing the language from teen/child prostitution to human trafficking or commercial sexual exploitation of children and look at the problem,” she said. “They are victims, and although someone else may think these victims have a choice, they may feel they don’t. Not everyone has the same economic advantages.”

Every child under the age of 18 is a target for human trafficking, she said, whether they are in the mall, walking home from school or surfing the Internet.

Some children are at higher risk than others, including those with lower incomes, minorities and those who have a historical mistrust of law enforcement.

The growth of this industry can be blamed on several factors.

“Society says it’s okay to look at porn and go to strip clubs. Porn is getting more and more violent and when men watch it, it becomes a fantasy that they want to act out,” Lloyd said. “The guy doesn’t see a 12-year-old prostitute as a child because he paid for it, he feels he can do whatever he wants, including beating her.”

Advertising and pop culture also add to the problem. Lloyd explained that, with adolescents, it’s all about what you have, not who you are. Traffickers and pimps play on the wants of children who have nothing; they give them the support, attention and material things they crave.

The “glorification of pimps ’n’ hos culture” leads to the idea that this industry is cool and glamorous, Lloyd said. She used last year’s Academy Awards as an example, when Three 6 Mafia’s “It’s Hard out Here for a Pimp” won the award for best original song.

“They changed the word bitch to witch so it wouldn’t be offensive, but the fact that the song was about selling sex didn’t offend anyone. Try changing the words to ‘It’s hard out there for a trafficker’ and see how people feel about it,” Lloyd said. “People need to change their views about prostitution and human trafficking. It’s the same thing.”

Right now the cause is not widely known. To make this a larger cause, many others will have to get involved and bring attention to it, which is happening more and more, according to Lloyd.

“When Oprah decides it’s an issue then people start to recognize it as an issue,” she said.

She explained the need to spread the word to homes, schools, workplaces and communities.

“People need to stop ignoring it and face the reality that it’s happening,” Lloyd said. “A sexually exploited child in Calcutta is no different than a sexually exploited child in the U.S.”