Who's Stealing Little Black Girls?
Published August 13, 2009 @ 08:05AM PT
Across America, young African-American girls are vanishing from homes, schools, and neighborhoods and reappearing in brothels, escort agencies, and strip clubs. But what's happening to them isn't magic- it's slavery. And the insidious part of the trick is that no one seems to be helping them.
Across America, about 800,000 children are reported missing each year, 33% of which are African-American. In New York City last year, half of reported missing children were black and 60% were female. And these aren't 17-and-a-half-year-olds; most of the girls were between 13 and 15. Other urban areas like Atlanta, Washington DC, Chicago, and Los Angeles with large African-American populations also have high instances of young black girls being kidnapped or "running away". But what's happening to these girls? Surely they don't vanish into thin air?
They vanish, in fact, into pimps' pockets; these girls end up as trafficking victims in the commercial sex industry. Some meet pimps on the street and are deceived or coerced into street prostitution. Others are forced into strip clubs or filmed for pornography. Still others are advertised on Craigslist, escort agency websites, and other corners of the Internet. They are just as much human trafficking victims as the Vietnamese women enslaved in brothels in Thailand or the Guatemalan girl held in a home in El Paso.
However, many law enforcement agents still understand human trafficking as an international crime and seek it out primarily among communities of immigrants. According to the AMBER Ready Inc./Foundation,
Law enforcement in general only discusses human trafficking in terms of the Asian and Latino immigrant population while ignoring the threat to young and under-aged indigenous Black and Latino women.
In addition to the lack of attention by law enforcement, significant public outcry has claimed missing black kids are not featured in the national mainstream media as much as missing white kids. In an entirely un-scientific study, I thought about the last few missing kids I remember, and yes, all of them were white. I live in Washington, DC, a majority African-American area, and all I can remember are stories of missing white kids. True, my memory could be faulty, but I think few would argue that missing black and white kids get truly equal time on the national news.
So between a faulty understanding of human trafficking and a racially-biased national media, young black girls are falling through not so much cracks as gaping holes in America's safety nets. And at the bottom of those holes are pimps waiting to make money and johns wanting to "get lucky". At the bottom of those holes is a life of rape and abuse and slavery.
We know who's stealing little black girls, and they aren't magicians or illusionists. They're human traffickers, and it's time we put an end to their act.
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Comments (9)
Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in the posts. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; that contain ad hominem attacks; or that are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion.
Author
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Amanda has been a full-time abolitionist for six years. During that time, she has created reports, documentaries and training materials on human trafficking in the United States and around the world.
you are 100 percent true it is wrong enough that they are being forced to have sex with tons of strangers who could carry deadly diseases but its even worse that they are only minors who arent even old enough to have sex its wrong to that they are beaten too you are a true genious too point it out and please keep on writing cause i will read your articles
Posted by stephanie evoe on 08/16/2009 @ 08:27PM PT
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why not have the topic focus on all american children, why does it have to be only based on the color of their skin ? isnt that a racists ideas to only look for the help for one race and not all children who are americans ?
I swear I am so sick and tired of articles, which uses the race card to gain sympathy...
Posted by Lara Nunes on 08/27/2009 @ 08:45PM PT
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because nobody is paying attention to Black girls. It's not "[using] the race card to gain sympathy" it's pointing out a distinct lack of focus. There is also the fact that it's so disproportionate- African Americans make up perhaps 20% of the United States' population and we need to combat what makes them so vulnerable, which will also make it safer for all children.
Posted by Stephanie Haase on 09/14/2009 @ 11:18AM PT
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It is an article about how this issue affects Black people disproportianately! Geez, if you're "sick and tired" of these kinds of articles--DON'T READ THEM.
Posted by Moriah Stevenson on 10/20/2009 @ 05:50PM PT
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Obviously you're the one who's hung up on race, not the author of this article. You completely overlook the horrifying and disproportionate statistics this article is trying to get us to care about and just focus on the fact that it's dealing w/ black females. You're more disgusted by the notion of helping black people than you are by the idea of a young black girl being abused.. You should be ashamed of yourself. You're the reason why we don't see missing black children in the media.
Posted by Amanda Lane on 11/02/2009 @ 12:00PM PT
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You are saying that 4% of all young American teens disappear into the sex trade each and every year? That's one in every 25 kids. If you extrapolate an individual child over the four year span of the sub-set it comes out to a 1-in-6 chance they will permanently disappear?
http://www.census.gov/popest/national/asrh/NC-EST2006/NC-EST2006-02.xls
Posted by j k on 08/28/2009 @ 12:55PM PT
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I must admit I am glad to see an article addressing this issue. It is a fact that black male and female children endure substantially higher rates of disease, crime, and death than other American children.... Like wise American Indian children also endure higher instances of broken homes. If it were an all American children endure these rates it would mean a VAST improvement for both groups. So thank you for seeing that things are still very unequal.
Posted by Tracy Jamison on 08/29/2009 @ 02:19AM PT
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So fricking painful to read about.
Thank you for writing this article... the media needs to make this public knowledge that EVERYONE knows.
Posted by Cdin Org on 09/06/2009 @ 01:38PM PT
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All American Children, Teens, & Adults have been affected by this. "We the People" Need to Make a Stand and Start putting the Perverts Behind Bars that solicit these places and the Disgusting Pimps that are stealing these children for their own gain should be put in jail with some one much bigger than them, so they know how it feels to be raped. Pimps come in many colors also. If you notice some one doing these things in your neighborhood or any where REPORT IT, talk to the child and ask if you can help them. If you know some one is a pimp get evidence and report them!!! IF YOU WANT IT TO STOP, TAKE ACTION.
Posted by Vikie Howell on 09/21/2009 @ 12:33PM PT
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