Human Trafficking Awareness

I remember clearly learning about human trafficking about five years ago.  I was driving through a rough part of Ft. Worth and witnessed a wild funeral procession.  Cars were turning corners on two wheels with girls sitting out of the windows.  Loud music was basing enough to rattle my windows. 

When I recounted the event to some friends, their comment was, “Yeah, there is a lot of traffic in that area.”  I thought they were talking about funeral traffic or daily traffic.  Sadly, they were actually talking about human trafficking.  I knew a young lady who was working with Redeemed Ministries, but I didn’t really understand everything. 

My friends told me read two books: Sold and Not for Sale.  After reading these books, I went to my principal and asked to buy a class set of Sold as an option for my PreAP English class.  It was not a required reading, but every single kid read it that year.  We had lots of conversations about the story and how trafficking looks in different countries.  We paid attention to the news and stories of a local restaurant not paying workers.  That year, we became aware.  We learned more than we wanted to know.  And we can’t be unaware now. 

Today I’m in a different kind of classroom at a discipline campus.  My students are learning history and literature that I get to flavor with my knowledge of what I’ve learned.  That’s what teachers do: bring personal experience to the classroom.  I get to talk to the students about the amendments and the Civil War.  We talk about what slavery used to be and what it is now. 

More people know about it today, but not everyone does.  I find it easy to talk about the subject because I am a teacher.  But what if you aren’t a teacher?  How do you bring it up in conversation?

Watch the news.  Talk about Redeemed.  Find fair trade products like Sparrow House Botanicals and others to promote.  Read a book.  Follow social media movements.  Do any one of these things and it will help one more person become aware.  It will help to save one more person.  One more person counts for everything.  

Social Stigmas

Reposting from http://redeemedministries.com/social-stigmas-of-victims/

As an English teacher, I feel that it is my duty and my pleasure to become a complete literary nerd with the classics.  However, I somehow did not read many of them in high school or college.  That is probably some kind of system failure.  Although, maybe the detriment of my youth will lead me to a better appreciation of the classics as an adult.  I also read current Young Adult fiction that my students enjoy.  The amazing thing that I notice is that there are trends that never seem to die.  Trends that probably should die. Let me explain.

Stigmas in Literature

Recently, I read Dracula for the very first time.  Vampire literature has become very popular in the past decade.  Yes, I’ve read the Twilight series, but that’s a whole separate topic.  Diving into Dracula was exciting for three reasons: it’s a classic, it’s a vampire story, and that’s one of my nicknames.  I enjoyed how the story was narrated from different points of view and how the characters came together to fight against this evil.

But here is the kicker: I was totally thrown off balance when Mina Harker was rejected by God because of something that Dracula did to her.  She did not want it or ask for it.  This doesn’t give too much away, I don’t think.  It is a classic worth reading for its style, descriptions, and suspense.  What I really want to point out is the idea that because Mina was bitten by a vampire, God rejected her.  I was more horrified by this idea than the evil vampire.  Dracula’s role was was no Edward Cullen of a gentleman.  I think this book reveals something more about cultures around the world.  It reveals how society views victims of sexual crimes.  Thank God that this is not how God really views us and our sin.  Thank God that He still loves us!

I couldn’t let this idea go that easily.  Other characters in other books carry these stigmas as well because of something done to them instead of a crime or sin that they committed personally.  Tess of the D’Ubervilles suffered shame after a child was born to her out of rape.  She had a child out of wedlock.  Hannah in 13 Reasons Why carried the weight of a false social image that was unfairly forced on her.  It was part of the reason that she committed suicide.  Melinda in Speak drug the shame of ruining a party although no one understood why.  Lakshmi in Sold probably was never able to return home because her stepfather sold her into a life of slavery.  She would be rejected forever because of what was done to her.

Literature often reflects the culture.  These novels, whether classic or young adult fiction, reflect the views that society has held against the victims of sex crimes for too long.  Check out these studies that expose what culture is thinking.

Studies

According to The Atlantic, “moral values play a large role in determining the likelihood that someone will engage in victim-blaming  . . . rating the victim as ‘contaminated’ rather than ‘injured.’”  I had to stop and check my morals.  Life used to be so black and white and easy to understand.  Now there are so many shades of grey.  I remember reading Sold and the way that Lakshmi was considered “contaminated.”  Do we think the same way?

A study done by Southern Connecticut State University highlights the dangerous issue that often victims feel like it is harder to come forward if society will possibly blame them in some way for the abuse that happened to them.  That statement is so difficult to believe even as I type it.  It is probably difficult until someone is faced with a real situation.

The Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape agrees with Southern CT and adds that “offenders may intentionally encourage victims to engage in bad or illegal behavior knowing it is one more layer of protection for themselves should the victim report their sexual assaults.”

So then . . . 

Reading stories like these give personal accounts of the victims’ experiences.  Reading helps us to connect to these situations that we would otherwise never encounter.  Reading helps us to add emotion and background to a circumstance so that we can connect with a character on a different level.  Even the fictional accounts originate in reality somewhere.  These accounts help us to change our minds as a society in order to help real victims gain the opportunities for a good life which was stolen from them.  We’ve got to see them as victims who are people that have something valuable to offer society.

http://time.com/4909912/congress-sex-trafficking-bill/

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/10/the-psychology-of-victim-blaming/502661/

http://southernct.edu/sexual-misconduct/facts.html

http://www.pcar.org/blog/common-victim-behaviors-survivors-sexual-abuse