This article is part of a series in celebration of a new, dynamic voice in Black America: the NUBIANO Exchange. Brace yourself for the NUBIANO experience. 

  by Esther Coleman

To ponder the idea that had I been born centuries ago I would have been a commodity-- a thing sold for profit, a brutalized person without the ability to fight off sexual attack-- disgusts and saddens me. But to think, in this day and age, that women, who have left their home countries in the pursuit of better lives, often fall victim to the predatory motives of criminals, who rent their bodies out to whomever is willing to pay, is even more disturbing. Such actions are unsettling, not only because these women are being subjected to such inhumane treatment but more so because it is happening in the United States.

According to Dr. Kevin Bales of Free the Slaves, a nonprofit organization aiming to end slavery worldwide, there at least 10,000 slaves in the U.S. who have been brought in from other countries to do a number of things like domestic work. Women and children, in particular, are especially targeted for work in the sex trade. Many of them don't know where they are and have been socialized to fear the police and other authority figures that may be able to help. And, to make them believe that they are being taken care of, they are given small amounts of cash and food. The men who enslave these women constantly threaten violence against them and their families leaving them in an ongoing state of trauma.

But the enslavement of women in the sex trade isn't limited to immigrants. A recent story on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 highlighted the problem of child prostitution in Atlanta. Girls, as young as ten, troll the streets of Atlanta, drugged out and beaten. So called scouts scope out bus stops and even smaller rural towns in the area to pluck out the young girls who are most vulnerable and impressionable. Stephanie Davis, the policy adviser on women's issues for Atlanta's Mayor Shirley Franklin said that there's even advertising of Atlanta's sex trade appealing to the New York market touting the fact that they can "come to Atlanta for a day and fly back home at night." There is a sick logic behind the increased demand for these young prostitutes: this culture lauds the sexual appeal of young females, "johns" believe that these newer prostitutes have had less exposure to STDs and "pimps" are able to easily manipulate these girls.

Florida, New York, Texas and California are hubs of trafficking and enslavement because they are gateway states for immigrants and because of the industries located in those states; the sex trade, however, isn't exclusive to any particular region. In Oakland, underage prostitutes hang out on street corners talking on cell phones taking calls in response to Craigslist sex ads that they've posted. And in a place as benign as Loudon County, Virginia, you can find victims of trafficking working at bus stops and any other place traditionally known as a venue for the sex industry.

The idea that women and girls are being beaten, held at gunpoint and tied to bed posts-- under the control of someone making money off of their bodies-- is shocking, because it's hard to believe something like this can be going on without more outrage and mobilization against it. A major problem is that when these women and girls are caught for prostituting, they are criminalized, as if they chose for their bodies to be used in such a vile manner. Because it is a major human rights issue, significant work must be done to bring attention to this modern-day slavery. Unfortunately, however, we live in a culture that glamorizes strip clubs and "pimps," the makings of prostitution.


ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: