Speaking for the Silenced
If you were driving down Wisconsin Avenue in the heart of Downtown Milwaukee on October 15th, 2016, your attention would have immediately been turned to a single file line of individuals dressed in black, their mouths duct taped shut.
Some carried signs displaying shocking statistics, and they might have handed you a flyer.
The group of about 100 individuals were marching 5.19km for the 27 million individuals around the world who have been silenced by enslavement to the human trafficking industry. The walk, hosted by Annie Olson, a college student with heart for the enslaved, was through A21 Walk for Freedom. A21 is an international organization that raises awareness to abolish slavery in the 21st century. Olson directed Milwaukee’s first ever A21 walk this past year, but A21 walks occur every year on the same day, in over 300 different places, according to Olson.
“The primary goal of the A21 Walk for Freedom is to start conversations- both locally and abroad,” says Olson. Human trafficking is a sort of taboo topic, often swept under the rug by a plethora of other, more visible social justice causes, such as racial and gender discrimination, LGBTQ rights and poverty. While these causes are just as important to care for, they are no more important to care for, and they shouldn’t overshadow the cry of the enslaved.
As the victims are, the industry is silent. And too many people are silent in the discussion about human trafficking because it’s not easy to talk about. It’s messy, confusing in legalities, and hard to spot. And what is the use of just conversing about abolishing the industry anyways? Olson believes it provides an essential building block in the fight:
Awareness is key. Knowing the signs enables teachers, public officials, nurses, restaurant employees, and customers to see through the lies and manipulation that conceal human trafficking.
Not only is conversation necessary in raising awareness about human traffikcing in Milwaukee, but it also can help human trafficking victims feel more comfortable speaking up about their enslavement.
“Prosecuting human trafficking crimes can be difficult because the victims may not want to come forward and identify themselves as victims,” says Karie Cattanach, a state assistant attorney general in criminal litigation in an article published by the State Bar of Wisconsin regarding human trafficking laws. The voices of human trafficking victims are not only silenced in the midst of enslavement because of control, but they are also silenced by fear even after they are free. They fear their trafficker, regardless if he or she is behind bars. They fear being ridiculed by friends and family. They’re ashamed. And many are brainwashed by their traffickers to feel sympathy for them.
The freedom walkers receive stares, media attention and insults throughout the walk. To engage onlookers, they hand out flyers that share the purpose of their walk, why human trafficking matters, and how people can get involved in the fight. Often people applaud the movement, but that isn’t always the case- especially not in other parts of the world.
“One Walk even had a nasty article written about them, as they were going through the Red Light District,” Olson says. The Red Light District defines areas of the world that are hubs of prostitution rings, brothels, and strip clubs. They’re found in many parts of Asia and Africa and some Western European and North American countries, like Canada and Mexico, too.
Human trafficking looks differently around the world, and when asked to speak on human trafficking specifically in Milwaukee, Olson described a plethora of ways the industry can look:
“[it] looks like the thirteen-year-old girl acting out in school, because her mom is selling her when she gets home. It looks like the pornography present in homes all across our city. It looks like the young immigrant girl working in a “massage parlor” to pay off her travel debts. It looks like twelve teenage boys being forced to work on a farm in extreme cold, unable to ask for help because they don’t speak English. It looks like a heroin addict being used when she’s too high to say no.”
The variety of forms that human trafficking has makes the industry difficult to spot and hard to define. The ambiguity of the term “human trafficking” keeps much of the industry hidden and more victims silent.
There are also blurred lines between prostitution and sex trafficking, according to Forward, writer for the State Bar of Wisconsin. Our society understands prostitution as a voluntary act of selling one’s body for money and rarely identifies the likelihood that it is in fact involuntary. More often, the latter is the case. Victims understand the stigma around prostitution, so their voices are only silenced more.
The A21 Walk for Freedom is one of the first steps taken in Milwaukee to bring the topic of human trafficking into conversation and into the light. This year, the walk will be on Ocotber 14th in Milwaukee and all around the world. Marquette University’s anti-human trafficking organization, Sold Out, will host the 2017 walk in downtown Milwaukee. For those interested in joining the movement and breaking the silence, get connected with Sold Out. If people on the outside of the industry don’t speak up about it, who will?
