Acknowledging the US anti-trafficking movement's history of racial bias and discrimination: a thread.

(I'll have an article coming soon, but here are the main points):

The US anti-trafficking movement has enabled the criminalization of POC since its inception. The Mann Act (1910) was created to prevent trafficking but really became a way to police interracial relationships. Black men were punished for consensual relationships with white women.

Our government has used anti-trafficking efforts to justify racist and anti-immigration policies since the Mann Act. Look no further than Trump's anti-trafficking argument for his border wall. In reality, Trump's immigration policies have actually enabled trafficking in the US.

Our CJ system treats non-white trafficking victims with suspicion/doubt. They are often misidentified as criminals and face harassment, arrest, and prosecution. Along with the compounded trauma coming from misidentification, they can also lose access to victim services/resources.

Additionally, POC are disproportionately charged, prosecuted, and sentenced for human trafficking. Black traffickers in particular face much harsher punishments for their crimes than white traffickers do.

"White slavery" rhetoric falsely depicts all trafficking victims as white. Sensationalized campaigns that fail to acknowledge the victimization of POC perpetuate systemic racism within the US anti-trafficking movement and criminal justice system. Most trafficking victims are POC.

We also need to talk about white saviorism within the movement. Playing hero by rescuing trafficking victims while simultaneously discounting, minimizing, and even promoting the very policies and systems that marginalize POC in the first place is a major problem.

So what now? While acknowledging the movement's history of racial bias/discrimination is important, ACTION must follow. It's crucial to work with orgs dedicated to addressing underlying causes of trafficking like poverty, unemployment, homelessness, prison reform, addiction, etc.

We must regularly educate ourselves on the systemic/institutionalized racism that inundates America. One article isn't enough— this is a lifelong learning process. We must be committed to wholeheartedly fighting for change, not hiding behind white saviorism to half-ass it.

We cannot truly declare that #BlackLivesMatter until we address the anti-trafficking movement’s role in perpetuating systemic and institutionalized racism in America.