What is currently done to address sex trafficking at major American sports events and how do these measures compare to other nations? How can these approaches be adapted to more effectively address and prevent the issue of sex trafficking?

Sex trafficking is the second most lucrative crime business worldwide. While it is extremely difficult to measure, many feminist and tourism researchers believe that the temporary population spike of major sporting events brings with it a wave of increased trafficking. Traffickers typically target at-risk or isolated citizens, then exploit their relationship for commercial gain. The easier it is for someone to get “lost in the crowd”, the easier it is for traffickers to thrive in that environment.

Wright’s piece focuses mainly on Texas, Indiana, and Florida, three states which have all hosted the Super Bowl. These states are very different, but each have traits that make them particularly susceptible to trafficking. Texas’ long border with Mexico, Indiana’s proximity to multiple large metropolitan centers, and Florida’s numerous international airports and proximity to a number of island nations makes these states easy targets, especially when the citizens and law enforcement are caught up in the whirlwind of a Super Bowl. (Wright, 102-104)

These states have approached solving the issue of sex trafficking with a variety of methods. Inaugural legislation was passed in Texas in 2003, and the Texas Human Trafficking Prevention Task Forces formed around five years later. Florida took a more victim focused approach in forming the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking. Particular attention was paid to providing resources and security to rescued victims and escapees. Indiana passed new legislation just before hosting the big game in 2012, though it is worth noting that severe punishment was outlined specifically for trafficking involving minors. They too formed a task force dubbed the IPATH. (Wright, 105-109)

International efforts to combat sex trafficking are not so unlike those in America. FIFA, in partnership with UNICEF, launched a child safeguarding program and toolkit. (Dean) Leading up to the World Cup in Brazil, nuns and Pope Francis created the Play in Favor of Life campaign to denounce human trafficking. (Pullela) The IOM sponsored public service announcements which included a website for anonymous reporting during the 2006 World Cup. (Dean) Updated legislation, cooperation between organizations and increased awareness are key to addressing any problem, but particularly ones like trafficking that often go completely unnoticed.

In order to effectively combat sex trafficking policymakers must be willing to adapt to changing times. The sex trafficking industry is extremely adaptable and mobile. The prevalence of sex tourism, defined as “tourism whose main or major motivation is to consummate commercial sexual liaisons”, adds to the complexity of addressing this issue. (Graburn, 438) One approach cannot and will not solve every facet of the problem. As mentioned in the Reuters article, part of the problem is the taboo and lack of education that surrounds sex work. Efforts to empower and protect sex workers, like Brazil’s “Happy being a prostitute” campaign receive harsh backlash for being “pro-sex work”. (Dean) Additionally, many of the people that receive punishment are the exploited workers, rather than their clients or their traffickers. As recently as 2014, a number of victims of trafficking were “rescued” leading up to the Super Bowl. However, it is likely that only the juveniles will see it that way, as all of the adult women were arrested. (Lopes)

Here is one area in which international approaches differ heavily from those in America. Germany is heavily praised for their approach to handling sex trafficking during the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Alterations in policing strategies and proactive steps in increasing awareness helped decrease the number of people that fell victim to trafficking during the event, but one difference between Germany and the United States may provide a better explanation for their success. When advising South Africa on how to follow Germany’s example when hosting the 2010 World Cup, advocacy groups encouraged the nation to legalize prostitution. (Barr) Sex workers are possibly the most motivated and the most informed population when it comes to stopping sex trafficking. In places that voluntary sex work is illegal, they are unable to help these victims without incriminating themselves, pushing the issue farther into the dark. Regulation and supervision by the government provides sex workers with the proper channels to help the people being forced or coerced.

Sources

Barr, John, and Nicole Noren. “Concerns Raised about Illegal Sex Trade.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 4 June 2010, http://www.espn.com/espn/otl/news/story?id=5251940.

Dean, Laura. “A Stage for Human Trafficking: The World Cup in Russia.” The Russia File, Wilson Center, 18 June 2018, http://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/stage-for-human-trafficking-the-world-cup-russia.

Graburn, Nelson H. H. The Anthropology of Tourism. S.n., 1983.

Lopes, Marina. “45 Arrested, 16 Juveniles Rescued in Super Bowl Prostitution Bust.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 4 Feb. 2014, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-nfl-superbowl-prostitution-idUSBREA131BB20140204.

Pullella, Philip. “Nuns, Backed by Pope, Warn of Human Trafficking at World Cup.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 20 May 2014, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-soccer-world-trafficking-idUSBREA4J0IS20140520.

Wright, Abbey L. “Cleaning Up The Blood, Sweat, and Tears of the Super Bowl [Sex Trade]: What Host Cities Must Do in Preparation for Major Sporting Events to Combat Sex Trafficking.” Virginia Sports and Entertainment Law Journal, vol. 13, no. 1, 2013, pp. 97–125.

After their loss in the Spanish-American War, Spain ceded multiple territories to the United States, including Puerto Rice, Guam, and the Philippines. The Philippines remained under American control until 1935. During their colonial rule, the Americans suppressed numerous native insurgencies. In his piece on Excremental Colonialism, Warwick Anderson discusses one of the major tools of American colonialism, bodily control. He argues that the control they exercised over bodies, specifically over the waste produced by those bodies, “legitimated and symbolized their social and political control” (Anderson, 643). I support this analysis, as the United States continues to employ this tactic today, both domestically and abroad.

The people of the Philippines desired independence long before they received it. The Americans had to find a way to exert authority over their newly acquired territory. Upon arriving in the Philippines, Americans found a civilization very unlike their own, or in their eyes, a lack of civilization altogether. Dr. Henry du Rest Phelan found Surigao to be a “picturesque” site but noted that is was “all more or less filthy” (Anderson, 645). He quickly began a “crusade against filth” which bore immediate positive results on the surface, but during which the mortality rate in the region actually increased (Anderson, 646). The crusade’s intention all along could be interpreted not as an effort to improve the health and wellness of the Filipino people, but as a way to force them to conform to American influence.

Approaches to waste evacuation are still part of the standard by which Americans judge other civilizations. Consider the Turkish/Squatting vs Western toilet debate. Squatting toilets are the norm in many nations around the world. To the untrained eye, they may appear as holes in the ground. While this is inaccurate, it becomes a measure by which western tourists gauge the “safety” or “cleanliness” of a possible destination. Just last summer, while preparing to travel to Morocco, I encountered the problem of the squatting toilet. I had never used (or even seen) one before, but the warnings disguised as advice that I received in the weeks leading up to the trip caused a lot of anxiety. Upon arrival, we were relieved to find that all of our homestays had ‘regular’ toilets.

This exposes yet again the bias that both American colonialists and modern Westerners hold against alternative forms of knowing, particularly knowing that comes from a non-White or non-European perspective. There is nothing inherently wrong with using a squatting toilet. In fact, some health professionals suggest that this position may be more natural for humans expelling waste and may help combat hemorrhoids and constipation. While the scientific evidence is scant, the notion has resonated with many Americans, contributing to the economic success of the Squatty Potty (Barclay). This simple device (which retails at around $35) achieves the same end as a squatting toilet, through a different (western) thought process. This could be viewed as an admission of error, but the typical ‘westerner’ continues to fear the squatting toilet, so the rest of the world’s tourist locations continue to bend to that will.

Similarly, the first Americans that arrived in the Philippines never intended to understand or even improve the Filipino way of life. Imperialists viewed the Filipino people as “trained baboons” (Anderson, 648) and “like so many children” in need of strong leadership (Anderson, 646). The recent war and social disruption had little bearing on their impression of Filipino society nor did any potential knowledge already held by Filipino health professionals. All that mattered was finding a tool for bending them to the American will. The tool, both in the 20^th and 21^st centuries, takes the form of waste.

Sources

Anderson, Warwick. “Excremental Colonialism: Public Health and the Poetics of Pollution.” Critical Inquiry, vol. 21, no. 3, 1995, pp. 640–669. JSTOR.

Barclay, Eliza. “For Best Toilet Health: Squat Or Sit?” NPR, NPR, 28 Sept. 2012, http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2012/09/20/161501413/for-best-toilet-health-squat-or-sit.

Humanity and usefulness are two of the central concepts of Erica Tom’s piece entitled Humanizing Animals. She explains how, in prison programs like Second Chances Horse Program, the humanity of the prisoner is heavily based on their ability to make themselves useful. While these programs seem positive on the surface, one must consider the stereotypes that they reinforce. For example, creating a program like SCHP implies that the prisoner’s have lost their humanity in some way, or perhaps their humanity was altered from the start. They reinforce the need for the general institution of prison by saying, “See! Look what they were missing! They would have never grown like this in the real world.

The idea that a program like SCHP enforcing the public’s belief in the need for prisons is quite interesting. It is altogether possible that such a program would have a similar impact if it existed as a separate entity, rather than at a prison. Prison is a terrible punishment. The effect of prison life on an incarcerated person creates a self-fulfilling prophecy with regards to the persons lack or loss of humanity. The public immediately views anyone that has been convicted of a crime as less than human. They lock the person in a cage like an animal. Then when the person finally emerges from that cage, having lost a piece of their self while inside, the public judges that they were justified in caging that person from the beginning. Rather than perpetuating a cycle of dehumanization, prison could be regarded as a last resort, and SCHP related programs could exist as branches of therapy or rehabilitation, rather than punishment.

Humanity in the context of Tom’s writing may be interpreted as a variety of traits; empathy, patience, discipline. No matter what was lost or missing, though, the primary intention when restoring “humanity” is restoring usefulness. Yes, the prisoners may have formed emotional connections with the horses they’re caring for, but most importantly, now they know how to take care of horses. New knowledge has been gifted to them by the people running the program.

In general, people are not born possessing some inherent humanity. Humanity is bestowed upon us. The time and location of one’s birth determines who has the power the bestow humanity upon them. In the United States, the government, which consists primarily of wealthy, white men, dole out humanity. The US government began stripping populations of their humanity before its inception. From the native tribes that occupied the land that would become the United States, to the slaves that would form the foundation of the American economy, to the immigrants trapped at the southern border, populations stripped of their humanity struggle to find a place in society. These populations, these non-humans, could earn their humanity only by proving themselves to be useful, in the same way that animals earn worth – and effectively humanity – when people domesticate them.

In this way, the concept of humanity in Tom’s writing is very connected to Charles Mill’s racial contract. Restricting who counts as human is one of the many ways that signatories can enforce the contract. Dehumanizing the populations which they’re oppressing relieves the signatories and beneficiaries of any moral qualms. These populations are easy to identify. Society has given them names which ostracize them from their human counterparts; the homeless, the felon, the illegal alien. When these terms function as nouns rather than adjectives, the circumstances of a person’s life become defining features of their existence. They delineate the “them” not only as other, but as something other than human.

Sources

Tom, Erica. “Humanizing Animals: Talking about Second Chances, Horses, and Prisoners.” Racial Ecologies, edited by Leilani Nishime and Kim D Hester Williams, University of Washington Press, 2018, pp. 123–138.

Opinion: The European Settlers would not have survived if the Americas were in fact a vast expanse of “pristine wilderness”

In the section entitled “Myth of the Pristine Wilderness”, Dunbar-Ortiz discusses the belief, similar to that expressed by Locke in the last reading, that the Americas were a vast landscape of untamed wilderness waiting for the colonizers to come cultivate them. While many European historians and settlers depicted the Americas in this way, that was never the case. Dunbar-Ortiz continues to explain that had North America been a land of pristine wilderness, it might still be today. She includes a quote by historian Francis Jennings, who described the Europeans of the time as “incapable of conquering true wilderness” but “highly competent in the skill of conquering other people”.

While Jennings mentions that European nations did not have the technology, resources, or organization necessary to maintain a colony from such a distance, one does not need to make any assumptions based on the abilities of the European colonial powers of the period. Records of sophisticated Native American settlements exist in many forms, from both Native and European perspectives. In 1605, Samuel de Champlain, the well-known French explorer and cartographer, sailed by the site that would later become the Plymouth colony. He described the region as eminently inhabitable. He even drew a map of the region, which showed a series of Native towns and fields. Not long after, John Smith described the New England region as a “paradise of all parts”. Both accounts directly contradict any assumption of divine intervention saving the colonists.  

One must also consider the colonies that failed because they did not have any help from the surrounding Native population. The lost colonies of Roanoke and Popham epitomize what happened when the European settlers lacked knowledge of the land and cooperation from the Natives. The Jamestown settlement also suffered dearly, and may not have survived at all had it not been for the timely arrival of an English supply ship.

The evidence presented above, in addition to the information discussed in Dunbar-Ortiz’s piece, makes it near impossible to support the “Myth of the Pristine Wilderness” in the modern day. It is just that; a myth. The few early settlements that survived would not have done so without the Native Americans previously inhabiting and working the land they settled. Later settlers continued to use the gifts left behind by Natives that had been forced off of their land, as well as the lessons learned by previous failed settlements. As Jennings stated, when the Europeans founded American colonies, they did not conquer land, they conquered a people. Teaching anything to the contrary in the modern day is not only irresponsible but also dangerous. A misunderstanding of the nation’s history leads to the formation of misinformed opinions about its present and future. The same “altruistic” and divine justification of 17^th century colonialism continues to fuel modern American interference and imperialism, which Dunbar-Ortiz briefly discusses in the section entitled “The Calvinist Origin Story”. Teachers, historians, and citizens in general must stop promoting this skewed and inaccurate view of American history in order for us to properly analyze the current state of America.

Citations

Andrews, Evan. “The Lost Colony of Popham.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 12 May 2017, https://www.history.com/news/the-lost-colony-of-popham.

Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne. “Cult of the Covenant.” An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, Beacon Press, 2014, pp. 45–51.

Lumen Learning. “English Settlements in America.” US History I (OS Collection), OER Services, Dec. 2019, https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-ushistory1os2xmaster/chapter/english-settlements-in-america/.

Mancall, Peter C. “Why the Pilgrims Were Actually Able to Survive.” The Conversation, The Conversation US, Inc., 25 Nov. 2019, http://theconversation.com/why-the-pilgrims-were-actually-able-to-survive-106990.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

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