Marquette Students Join the Fight to Abolish Modern-Day Slavery
On Friday April 28th at 4:30PM, a group of college students gather to run a 5K, eat good food, and begin their weekend with friends and fun.
However, gathering for a good time was not their priority; raising money and awareness for a cause that hits close to home for them, human trafficking, was.
According to an alarming article in The Guardian, Milwaukee, the home of Marquette University, is also a hub of human trafficking and often referred to as “the Harvard of pimp schools.” Essentially, traffickers come to Milwaukee to learn the ropes of enslaving humans in the most discrete and effective ways because of the booming success the industry experiences in Milwaukee. The article also notes that “Milwaukee is tied with Las Vegas for the third highest number of young people rescued during the FBI raids across the US.” The jaw-dropping statistic is not shared to applaud the success 0f the FBI in their human trafficking investigations but to expose the harsh reality that traffickers prey on youth more in Milwaukee than the majority of United States cities.
A group of Marquette students can’t rest with this reality and took initiative on campus to join the fight against human trafficking by creating Marquette’s first anti-human trafficking organization on campus. They call themselves “Sold Out” because they “fight to get those who are sold, out”, says Paige Kelly, the current President of the organization. As Kelly has learned, human trafficking is “the exploitation of a vulnerability”. The industry thrives economically from taking advantage of vulnerable populations by selling them for sex, labor and a plethora of other services.
The mission of Sold Out is primarily education of and advocacy for victims of human trafficking in Milwaukee because peoples’ oblivion to the existence of the industry on Marquette’s campus and elsewhere severely hinders the fight for freedom. Kelly herself didn’t understand the prevalence of human trafficking until just last year, when a friend shared the facts with her. “I was horrified that I didn’t know about something that happened right in my backyard”, says Kelly.
Ignorance of human trafficking in Milwaukee is so severe because students at Marquette and anyone outside of the industry are not directly affected by human trafficking, and, as The Guardian article puts it, Milwaukee has an “embedded pimp culture”. The industry is secretive, underground, unnoticeable and typically only affects the most vulnerable groups of people, as previously mentioned. The Guardian article reports on the most directly targeted group by traffickers: young people who come from impoverished households. This group is arguably the most vulnerable group of the population, no matter where you are in the world. This population group is practically non-existent at Marquette considering the prestige of the school, so it only makes sense that a large majority are unaware of the horrific industry.
While Sold Out has received significant attention since its beginnings in the Fall of 2016, obstacles in the movement arise when students learn about the harsh truths of human trafficking and settle with having a broken heart for it rather than taking action.
You’re allowed to be hurt by it and torn up by it and think “wow that’s so sad”, but choosing to do nothing about it is not actually effective at all. How much you pour into it is a real test of how much you care about it, Kelly admits in her interview.
She attributes the lack of action to the reality that fighting human trafficking doesn’t look like people necessarily want it to. While students may want to be more involved with the rescuing and providing rehabilitation to victims of human trafficking, the “hands-on” work, such action is out of the reach of a college student and requires the work of professionals like the FBI.
So how can students be active in the fight? One of Sold Out’s answers is through helping them fund-raise for centers of rehabilitation for human trafficking in Milwaukee. Two Milwaukee organizations Sold Out partners with are the Benedict Center and the Inner Beauty Center. Both places are outlets for victims of human trafficking to go to for support and rehabilitation, and Sold Out has made a commitment to raising money for them so they can improve their facilities and provide for even more victims. Recently, Sold Out began volunteering at the Benedict Center too, serving meals to the victims and spending time getting to know them.
The 5K mentioned at the beginning of the article is a reference to Sold Out’s 5K for Freedom held last Friday. Participants could pay 20$ to run a 5K, eat at a cook-out and get a Sold Out t-shirt. 50% of the profits went to the Benedict Center and 50% went to the Inner Beauty Center. “The event was really successful because it didn't only attract students involved in fighting human trafficking, it also brought students who just wanted to run, eat good food and get a t-shirt. But they learned about the important cause in the midst of all of that.”
Kelly also stressed the importance of advocacy and education because the more students that learn about human trafficking, the more likely people are to get involved with anti-human trafficking movements and organizations after college, as they begin their careers. Although taking action against human trafficking is not as tangible as many desire, it is action that is necessary to take.
Because slavery is larger and more prevalent today than it has ever been before, there is still a long way to go in the fight. However, organizations like Sold Out are not discouraged by their limitations as a student-run organization and have high hopes for growth in their movement on campus.
The end to the industry starts with the acknowledgement of its existence, which is a goal that Sold Out has for the Marquette campus. Sold Out provides many opportunities for students to get involved and educated about human trafficking through monthly meetings and campus events. For Marquette students interested in pursuing the anti-human trafficking fight, connect with Sold Out by visiting Sold Out’s student organization page or e-mail soldoutmu@gmail.com.
