Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/24680
backtalk I BY DONNA BRAZILE Break the Chains! Slavery still exists, and we must all join the fight against it Sadly, there are thousands who are trapped in various forms of enslavement, here in our country. …It is a debasement of our common humanity. —PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA its wrongs, confused by how to move forward in a coun- try founded on values both espoused and eviscerated: that all people are created equal. Except those bought and sold as property. Sadly, slavery—better known now as “trafficking of persons”—still exists. In fact, it is more prevalent, more profitable and more violent than ever before. About 12.3 million human beings may be enslaved, and that number, experts say, is just a conservative estimate. Modern slavery isn’t any kinder or gentler than the most brutal slavery of yore. All that has changed is the availabili- ty of slaves, thanks to economics and population growth. During the U.S. slave trade of the early 19th century, hu- man chattel was a significant investment, equivalent to or higher than a yearly salary. Now, the price of a human be- ing is so low that slaves are treated as disposable assets. As Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stated in W a recent op-ed, “Human trafficking may seem like a prob- lem limited to other parts of the world… [but] it occurs in every country, including the United States.” This minute, there is probably a young girl being tricked into leaving her home by the offer of a good job, only to be sold, gang- raped, resold as a virgin, then gang-raped again. How can something so reprehensible still exist? First and foremost, human slavery is an economic institution. If economic incentives were aligned against it rather than for it, slavery would die out. But unfortunately, incentives often work in favor of slave labor. In one bit of good news, the Obama administration has www.msmagazine.com E TALK ABOUT SLAVERY AS IF IT WERE ONLY a sordid part of our past. We are angered and shamed by our history, wishing we could right decided to take a stand to end human trafficking by speed- ing approval for grants to help victims in nearly 70 coun- tries as well as here at home. A scarcity in the funding for anti-slavery advocacy in the past has caused organizations to fight one another over their portions, rather than ask for what it will take to solve the problem. Do we assist countries where the slaves originate? Or the countries to which they are sent? Do we aid citizen victims or foreign nationals? Do we focus attention on sex slaves or agricultural slaves or domestic slaves? Are we helping foreign police forces arrest and prosecute brothel owners, pedophiles and pimps who offer young children for sale for sex? The answer should be “yes” to all of the above. If human beings are violently controlled, paid nothing and unable to walk away, America has a responsibility to help them. If there aren’t enough resources to assist both U.S. citizens and foreign-born victims enslaved on Amer- ican soil, that’s a problem Congress must fix. We need to ensure adequate services, protections and prosecutions at home. We need to address corporate op- erating procedures that drive the demand for slavery. And we need to stop glorifying the exploitation that leads to both sex and labor trafficking, making heroes out of vio- lent pimps and glamorizing the sexual degradation of women and girls. We have a slavery problem, and we can do much more to fight it. Women were at the core of the abolitionist movement when it started, and the moral imperative has only grown. In a world with more and more human beings held in bondage, our work is not nearly done. DONNA BRAZILE is adjunct assistant professor of women’s studies at Georgetown University and chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Voting Rights Institute. She is the au- thor of Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in Ameri- can Politics (Simon & Schuster, 2004). FALL 2009 | 63