World Day Against Human Trafficking is Coming

The Legacy of 400 Years of Racism

and Colonialism

By Jennifer Reyes Lay, Executive Director of USCSAHT

As we approach the annual World Day Against Trafficking in Persons on July 30^th, it is important to reflect not only on the present reality of human trafficking in our communities, country, and the wider world, but also the longer history that has brought us to this particular moment in time. In order to work more effectively in realizing a world without slavery with a network of services and resources to inform the public, prevent the crime and assist survivors to achieve a fulfilling life, we have to understand the intersecting systems of oppression that fuel the demand to exploit the bodies of vulnerable human beings, and what makes them vulnerable in the first place. The current reality of human trafficking, often referred to as modern-day slavery, continues the persistent legacy of slavery and exploitation going back to European colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade over 400 years ago. 

Throughout the world, centuries of European colonization spread the beliefs and practices of supremacy which deemed those with darker skin and different worldviews as “savage,” less-than-human, even equivalent to animals, and therefore could be used and abused for the profit and sexual gratification of the powerful or simply exterminated. It is estimated that between 5-10 million indigenous people were murdered and hundreds of thousands more forcibly removed from their homelands during colonization in the United States. In addition to the genocide of indigenous communities this system of dehumanization and exploitation showed up in the transatlantic slave trade where it is estimated between 10-12 million Africans were kidnapped and forced into slavery, about 10% of whom were brought to what is now the United States.  At the time of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, there were an estimated 4 million enslaved persons of African descent in the United States. These enslaved Africans had to endure not only brutal forced labor conditions, but also torture, sexual abuse, and rape at the hands of their masters and other wealthy people.

Ending Slavery is Everyone’s Work!

I invite you, particularly if you are , to take time this month leading up to the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, to learn more about this history of slavery, racism and colonialism; lament for the harm done; repent for our complicity both past and present; and begin to make reparations so that this legacy of slavery, abuse, and exploitation finally ends. Reparations for US Catholic Sisters Against Human Trafficking looks like sharing our time and resources with those who continue to be impacted by these legacies of slavery, racism, and colonialism; challenging the cultures and beliefs that allow this crime to continue, centering and lifting up the voices of those directly impacted; and amplifying the reality of the Black girls and Indigenous girls and women whose stories, abuse, and murders do not get the same attention as girls and women.