Trafficking.
Sex trafficking.
These are trigger words for certain institutions, including too many that are supposedly designed to help.
From what I’ve witnessed, it seems like institutions such as police departments and hospitals don’t have the skills to effectively intervene for victims or potential victims. In fact, it almost feels like they’re trained to cover incidents of trafficking up. Not necessarily for nefarious reasons. More like deer in headlights reasons. They don’t know how to recognize victimization or what to do to help. They just follow orders. And those orders? Could be nefarious.
At the same time, I don’t doubt that there are also bad actors in both the legal and health industries — people whose harm or neglect is intentional.
In the summer of 2023, I came into an emergency room in Las Colinas, Irving, Texas — a facility that claims to specialize in treating trafficking victims.
But I didn’t look like what the media says a trafficking victim looks like.
The media tells us trafficking victims are mostly children. Or runaways. Or people who’ve hit hard times. Maybe a young adult in their early 20s who ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Except… according to Polaris, 53% of trafficking victims are adults.
And another statistic that stands out: 40% of trafficking victims in the United States are Black women and girls although we only make up approximately 6.5% of the population. Yet 70% of the demand in the United States comes from White men.
To me, this echoes chattel slavery in the U.S. When it was literally illegal for a Black woman to deny a White man access to her body. During that time, the law stated that any assault against a Black woman’s body could not be classified as assault or rape.
But it was 2023.
I was seeking care for the unthinkable. And I was dismissed. Treated as if I were psychotic. I could not get help for what happened to me in my own hometown, the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex.
The town I’d lived in since I was three years old.
Where my baby sister was born.
Where I held my niece and nephew the day they were born.
Where I fell in love for the first time.
Where I discovered what I loved.
Where I celebrated so many Thanksgivings and Christmases with family and friends.
Where I dedicated myself to my education, staying inside and studying while life outside passed me by — all so I could make my mark in the world.
Dallas/Fort Worth is where I pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
It’s where I graduated summa cum laude.
Where I earned my business degree.
Where I worked.
Where I bought my first home.
It’s my home of record when I joined the Air Force in January 1995 — following in the footsteps of my big brother.
It’s also where, decades later, I was designated as disabled due to my service.
Dallas is where I returned seeking refuge after the unthinkable happened to me while I was on a personal spiritual journey in Mexico during the summer of 2023.
I came home and reached out for help.
And they tried to imprison me in a psych ward instead.
After all my life. After all my work. After making my city proud. Didn’t I?
They labeled me. Dismissed me. Tried to lock me up.
Why?
Possibly because a White man named Jim Atkins, LCSW at the Dallas VA, told them I was psychotic and that my story wasn’t true. And they believed him. Not me.
Also, the man who tried to assault me in my Airbnb in Mexico, after I was covertly drugged, was a White man from Dallas. Plano, to be exact.
Does he know Jim Atkins?
Before returning to the U.S., someone in Mexico warned me not to go back. He spoke like he had inside information. But I didn’t listen. The United States is my home. Why wouldn’t I return. Especially after what I’d just been through?
But he was right. I should’ve listened.
I had to come back to Mexico just to feel some semblance of safety.
Yes. The same country where the trafficking (or trafficking attempt) happened.
Because at least here, I can feel a sense of humanity.
I can access medical care.
I can afford a therapist who specializes in my needs.
You may ask: “How the hell did a woman like you get trafficked? Especially at 47?”
Well, that’s what I ask myself every day.
And here’s an answer I keep coming back to:
Trafficking is a $250+ billion industry. I read a statistic that over half of the victims are adults.
And the United States is the biggest driver of the demand that keeps it going.
That means there’s a well-oiled infrastructure in place.
People are stationed and ready to make that sh*t happen.
Money changes hands in this industry every single day.
And here’s something else I’ve learned since 2023: A lot of trafficking victims were handed over by their own families. It looks like not just children. It looks adult kids too. Like me.
I went no contact with my parents at the beginning of 2022.
I told them I needed serious “me” time to heal.
I spent an entire year in solitude before traveling to Mexico in 2023.
My brother, who I kept in contact with, told me in 2022 that our parents were bugging him for updates on me. They didn’t sound happy about my decision.
But I was in my mid-40s. An adult. It was my life. And I had taken full responsibility for my mental, physical, and spiritual health. I held the reins, and I wasn’t letting go.
I told my mother she’d hear from me again when I was ready.
I thought I was ready in summer 2023.
So I called her.
That was a mistake.
Like illegal drugs, human trafficking is an industry where most of the demand comes from the U.S. The United States is its main fuel.
The truth about what it is and who it affects is hidden.
The word itself is charged. Misdirected and misunderstood. But underneath it all, it’s essentially the same slavery this country was built on. And it remains unatoned for.
Why?
Because too many White men don’t want it to end. And too many others are making money off it.
It is a sin the Western world refuses to reckon with. A global industry operating in shadows — and sometimes in plain sight, dressed up as something else. It is kept secret. And that is not an accident.
#HumanTrafficking #HumanTraffickingAwareness #HumanTraffickingPrevention
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