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"No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her own body." --Margaret Sanger
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"In my heart, I think a woman has two choices: either she's a feminist or a masochist." --Gloria Steinem
Aug
17
Slavery in America: more than just history
Filed Under class and economics, courts, discrimination, human rights, legislation, media, misogyny, patriarchy, race and racism, rape and sexual assault, sex work, sexual exploitation and harassment, violence against women and girls, work | Posted by Cara |
For those of you who haven’t yet checked out the Summer issue of Ms. Magazine (and you should), AlterNet has an excerpt from their excellently researched article on human trafficking and sexual slavery in the U.S. It’s a horrifying story– the kind that we are taught from the day of our birth is “not possible” in America. Well, it is.
The fact that around 80 percent of these victims are female says an awful lot about our society, as does the fact that most are non-American women of color.
Due in large part to the efforts of feminist groups, in 2000 Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), which created a special “T-visa” that enables victims of sex and labor trafficking to remain temporarily in the United States — if they agree to assist in the investigation or prosecution of their traffickers. After three years, the attorney general can admit them for permanent residency. The TVPA also made victims eligible for services such as housing, food stamps, cash assistance, health care and educational and job services.
But seven years after the passage of what was hailed as a very innovative law that created powerful new tools to prosecute and punish traffickers, the Bush administration has failed to fund and implement its provisions in a meaningful way. There has been a shocking lack of trafficking investigations — just 639 were opened by the Department of Justice between fiscal years 2001 and 2006. Only 360 defendants have been charged, resulting in 238 convictions.
“Here we have this crime that is often rape plus torture plus assault, and yet we have virtually no enforcement,” says Kevin Bales, president of Free the Slaves, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit. “Think of it this way: roughly 17,000 people were murdered in America last year — about the same number as the Bush administration claims were trafficked. Imagine if we only prosecuted, as we do with slavery, a little over 100 of those cases. People would freak out; it would be on the cover of Time.”
There are, of course, several problems here. As I see it, there are three main problems directly under the control of the U.S. The first is the demand for slave labor and the willingness to be involved in it, created by our highly unregulated, extremely worker-unfriendly capitalist system, as well as the inability to see all humans (particularly female and non-white humans) as equally valuable.
The second problem is the lack of diligence in prosecuting these criminals, which shows an unwillingness on the behalf of the government to intercede on the behalf of the powerless (something we shouldn’t be surprised about at this point), and an equal inability to see these victims as equally valuable to white Americans.
The third problem is the government’s utter callousness in its legislation. Sure, we want to prosecute more of these criminals and find a way to stop them from abusing and enslaving other people. But to deny visas to those who won’t assist in investigations? These are women who have been scared shit-less, been threatened, had their families threatened, and are extremely likely to have been physically abused and sexually assaulted on numerous occasions. We cannot deny them help when they won’t name names. If you would be outraged by a government funded program for rape victims or domestic abuse victims that would only help those who agree to file criminal charges and turn away the rest, you should be outraged by this. The last thing that assistance to victims should be is conditional, particularly when the condition is what the victim fears most.
And all of that isn’t even touching on foreign economic issues that cause women to be vulnerable to these situations.
The whole thing is disgusting, and I’m not sure where to direct my anger first.
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Comments
2 Comments so far
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"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." —Margaret Mead
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"Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less." -- Susan B. Anthony
Very interesting. I had only heard something in passing about this new legislation when it first came in. However, then as now, I had no idea about the conditionality that it placed on these victims. It is tantamount to dangling the carrot of safety, rescue and a new life based on whether you can overcome your trauma and fear for your life/families life and name these people. Sometimes, these people genuinely have no evidence to give. Either way, as you said, they should in no way be forced to relieve things, prolong the trauma for the sake of rescue. They should be rescued and helped to start a new life, period.
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