Every year, an estimated 40.3 million people are exploited by human traffickers around the globe. But as diverse as the world is, human traffickers disproportionately target people of color. As the U.S. Department of Justice reports in its 2008-2010 overview of human trafficking incidents, 40 percent of victims in the U.S. are Black, despite the fact that Black people account for just under 15 percent of the national population.
Socioeconomic Status:
One of the most significant factors that increases one’s risk of being trafficked is socioeconomic status. “I was raised on welfare and lived in poverty,” survivor Mary Holmes explains. In that dire situation, her trafficker promised “a life where money was not a concern.” Holmes’ story illustrates the tendency of traffickers to target poor communities because, without the requisite means to provide for themselves and their families, people living in poverty are more vulnerable to being lured by the promise of higher-paying jobs or opportunities. In the U.S., this proclivity places Black women at a substantially higher risk of being trafficked since the poverty rate for African Americans is twice as high as that of white Americans.
Foster Youth:
Not only does low socioeconomic status endanger Black women at higher levels, but it also endangers Black youth as well. The fact is, traffickers target the weakest members of society — those down on their luck, in need of money, and without stable support systems. Often, these conditions correlate with children in the foster care system. According to estimates from the Foster Youth Institute, around 60 percent of child sex trafficking victims were, at one point, in the foster care system. Once more, this tendency disproportionately affects African Americans, given that Black children, at 23 percent, are overrepresented in the foster care system.
Foster children face the highest risk of being trafficked when they either run away or outgrow foster care. These children often end up homeless and are then extremely vulnerable to traffickers. A study conducted by the OLP Foundation found that of those children who age out of the foster care system, at least 22 percent end up homeless. In turn, between 20 to 40 percent of all homeless teenagers are lured into human trafficking, which is especially dangerous for African Americans because 38 percent of all homeless youth identify as Black.
Biases and Discrimination:
But it isn’t just the actions of traffickers themselves that endanger African Americans; it is also the lack of action by those sworn to protect them. As the U.S. Department of State acknowledges, “ingrained racial biases and stereotypes (within the justice system) hinder progress in anti-trafficking efforts.” The report goes on to state that the stereotypes engendered by a long history of racism in the U.S. affect “which communities law enforcement target for anti-trafficking operations (and) which victim witnesses the criminal justice system deems credible.” And even when the justice system does act, it often criminalizes the very people it ought to protect. A study on human trafficking survivors conducted by Polaris found that of all survivors, around “62 percent had been cited, arrested, or detained by law enforcement at least once.” What’s worse, 80 percent of these arrests were made while these survivors were still being trafficked. This is especially dangerous for African American women who “are disproportionately arrested and incarcerated for prostitution and prostitution-related crimes while being sex trafficked.”
For too long, the stories and experiences of Black women have been overlooked. “The marginalization of Black voices in the anti-trafficking movement has resulted in white survivors and survivor-led organizations receiving bigger platforms, more media visibility and more funding than those of their Black counterparts,” survivor Shamere McKenzie writes. “Now, it’s time the anti trafficking movement listens to Black survivors to tell the real story.”
Lydell, whose home rests on a quiet street in Bonn, Germany, is currently a junior at Brown University studying English and Political Science. As an aspiring writer, Lydell not only appreciates the beauty of language, but recognizes its extraordinary power. It is through reading that many of us learn, and so it is through writing that we can educate and tackle the complex issues that pervade the world around us. Especially given his background as an African American, Lydell is passionate about facing modern iterations of slavery, and dismantling the injustices that populate our landscapes.
