Pimping = Slavery

A few years ago when I was a freelance Legal Advocate for women and girls that were in prostitution, a young girl (15) called me and wanted me to meet with her alone.  I agreed to meet with the young lady and she was in tears and didn’t know what to do.  She confessed that she was involved in prostitution and she thought she was in the wrong not a victim.  Shortly after I hadn’t heard from her, when I called her phone the person that answered said she committed suicide.  I went to the funeral to pay my respect to her and an adult woman who happened to be her caseworker gave me the young girl’s diary.  In her diary she shared her deepest secrets of how she became a child prostitute and how a teacher’s aide at her school coerced her into it.  I went to the school and approached the school counselor and said I’d like to be a guest speaker at your school about trafficking and stranger danger awareness.  The school counselor said to me that there was nothing wrong with their school and there is no child prostitution going on.

 

I made a bargain with the school counselor and said, “I have a DVD of a popular music video “PIMP” By 50 cent, if the students are not familiar with the video I will pack up my things and will not show my face again.  The counselor agreed so we set up a time and date for me to speak at the auditorium.  I TV was front and center, I placed the DVD in and the music video popped up, the music haven’t even been played yet and as the students walked in, they cheered with glee cause they knew what this music video was about.  I looked at the school counselor and she stood there in shock.  Let me remind you that this was not a public school it was a Christian Private High School.  I didn’t play the whole video just the beginning, just enough to see how many students were familiar with this type of music.

 

When the students sad in the bleachers, I challenged them to get a pen and paper and to draw a line in the middle.  Write woman on one side and man on the other.  I told them if they were familiar with the video to describe to me in one word list what they believe the music represented.  Then I asked for 6 volunteers (3 girls/3 boys).  The amazing thing was they ALL had the same answer:  woman (half naked, dog chains around their necks, silent, behind the man); man (front, center, kings, master, fully clothed)  after reviewing what they wrote, I told them when they listen to these types of music and see no harm they are encouraging slavery.

 

I then pulled out a large poster of the Atlantic Slave Trade of a Master that was fully clothed, front, center, status of wealth and a cane, in front of the slavemaster, was the slave: half naked, silent, dog chain around their necks.)  The children gasped with surprise.  I told them that the word “Pimp” is nothing of fashion, but a contribution of slavery.  After the presentation, few of the girls came up to me and confessed that someone in their school had promoted prostitution through a record label deal.  I encouraged the girls to share this information to the school counselor and after wards we had the police involved.  We don’t realize what is circulating in the media or what our children are watching and when we say it’s harmless, it only becomes a stepping stone of encouragement of that type of behavior.  I wanted to share this with you to help you realize that even something so small as a music video can encourage a young child’s mind that slavery is ok.

 

Note:  Due to confidentiality, I did not note the person’s name, school or whereabouts of the school, but all is true and this is just an FYI that we need to encourage schools to join in the fight of slavery.

 

Thank you!

Pass Her By

The still picture of her smile,

resembles a life she had.

The date that it was taken

was the last memory of her

spirit dancing.

Beyond that point,

only one can imagine,

but do you stop and wonder

if she’s still pleading?

You look, then walk away.

You excuse yourself

by saying,

“She’s not mine.”

Doing Nothing,

makes you part of the problem

NOT the solution.

You go home remembering

the face of the girl,

you stare at your own children

and think,

“No, it’s not going to happen to me.”

In the evening you kiss your girls

goodnight and just know in confidence

that they’ll be there to wake you in the morning.

Morning rises and laughter fills the room

you kiss them goodbye as they ride the

bus to school.

You head to work, assuming things

will remain the same as usual.

You come home, you see police cars surrounding

your perfect lawn.

You walk in to find your spouse on the couch,

then it hits you.

Your little girl has become the girl

you saw in the picture.

Now that you’ve passed her by,

just imagine how many more will pass yours.

 

(c) Chong N. Kim

 

I wrote this in anger, because I saw people walking by Walmart, a wall filled with “Missing Children” and people DON’T CARE.  This angers me and nor do I EVER wish this on anyone, doesn’t mean it won’t happen.  Traffickers are nothing but Beasts, they hunt, they prey, they watch and then they pounce and all it takes is for them to have up to an hour to escape and do what they do best.  I’ll leave that part up to you.  This note is to make you angry and make you WANT to do something.  These victims aren’t prostitutes so quit calling them that.  They are our children.

Poverty Pimping

I’m writing this note, because there was a status on someone’s page about a young man that robbed a place, I was watching the feedback from some of the people’s comments and most were of racism and ignorance of lack of knowledge of why crime exist in America.  By no means am I excusing ANY criminal behavior, but before we start assuming that people are stealing because of the stereotype reasons; of drug addiction and lack of job by choice, I decided to put in my two cents about what is truly going on.  What I’m about to share with you is what I call, “Poverty Pimping”.  You don’t have to agree with me, but I assure you once you read this I’m sure you’ll find others who will realize this is very true.

 

As long as we have corporates out sourcing jobs in third world countries for slave labor, causing Americans to fall into unemployment while the rich stays richer, the poor remains poor, how does one find employment?  We’ve created a system for people begging for more unemployment instead of creating an incentive way to provide jobs.  Most employment agencies won’t even hire you if you are having poor credit or have had recent bankruptcy, which leaves the employment pool for those of higher status of wealth, while the ones in poverty is stuck on welfare and the middle class is stuck suffering.

 

Plus we’ve stigmatized our children who run away from abusive homes and prosecute them into detention centers all because they’ve fallen victims to child abuse. There are less than 20% of actual kids running away for petty offenses and/or rebelliousness, but most of the children I keep running into are those who’ve fallen into a victim world of child abuse, domestic violence and child sexual exploitation.  We cut programs that provide outreach and resources to children and family, who’s in desperate need to empower the community, but we’ll spend tax dollars to rebuild the same highway that was fixed 2 yrs. ago.

 

If we don’t end this vicious cycle of Poverty Pimping then poverty will only increase, children will be extinct and families will no longer exist.  I’m not saying there aren’t bad people, there are but why contribute to crime even more when it doesn’t need to happen. People are stealing because they can’t afford food, gas, diapers and most become jobless.

 

Whatever happened to tags that say, “Made in the USA”? Now we replace them with starving children who are enslaved 20 hours …a day with very little break all because corporate wants more money in their pockets. We have churches going overseas to assist the homeless and feed the poverty, but people turn a blind eye on our own children. You take 2 girls who are only 11 yrs old. One is an immigrant the other is an American. We raise awareness on Human Trafficking in America, but here’s the problem . . . The immigrant girl gets a Visa to stay here, she gets financial benefits, medical, legal assistant and even a good home. Do you know what the American 11 yr old girl gets? Handcuffed, put into the system and registered as a sex offender as long as she has that label who is going to give her a home, job or even a chance to live?  That registered sex offender child, will commit crimes only to survive.  What kind of a country have we turned into?

 

Poverty Pimping is no different than Human Trafficking and Trafficking  by any means isn’t new or different from any other criminal offenses  that happen, but we tend to sub-categorize it as if it’s different.   Labor victims of trafficking can also be sexually exploited, no victim  is traumatize more by any other, both victims whether Americans or not  need to be treated equally and both traumatic experiences is no worse  then the other.   I hope this helps.

 

Thank you for letting me share.

 

-Survivor