Intersectional Advocacy: How Social Justice Issues Collide
We as advocates understand the power our voices can hold for change when they are heard. The way we react to policies, culture and even media determines the communities we support and advocate for.
The term “intersectionality” was first used by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, a civil rights activist and legal scholar, who described it as “a lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects.” Over the past half-decade, the term “intersectionality” has described the way people from different cultures and backgrounds experience the world and the struggles they fight every day—particularly as a result of discrimination.
The reality is that human trafficking doesn’t evade all the overlapping, complex forms of discrimination affecting marginalized communities. Racism, sexism and classism all fall in connection with human trafficking. Recognizing that there are multiple forms of systemic discrimination and understanding the way in which they intersect in human trafficking is important.
So, in order to advocate for all people against trafficking, we need to recognize that people of color experience systemic oppression and, as a result, are undeniably disproportionately affected by human trafficking.
The Polaris Project shared that “the economic fallout of racism is the most direct connection between why people of color are more likely to be trafficked” than their white counterparts. When someone experiences economic fallout, the rich tend to get richer and the poorer get poorer. It’s the disproportionately affected communities that lack an advantage. According to Rights4Girls, an advocacy organization working to protect marginalized girls, “black children account for 53% of all juvenile prostitution arrests—more than any other racial group.”
Marginalized communities within society are largely affected by prior oppressions that make these groups of people susceptible to human trafficking experiences. BIPOC often live in communities that are economically disadvantaged and heavily policed, which leads to an increased risk for trafficking as well as the criminalization of victims.
“As the work to dismantle racist structures policies and practices continues, we have an opportunity to simultaneously bring down the systems that enable sex and labor trafficking to victimize Black and Latino people.”
Human trafficking intersects with many of the social issues advocates support, including LGBTQ+ rights, racial justice, and the safety of teens in foster care, so it is important to understand together the way that this intersectionality can foster oppression and injustices. To fight for the survivors of sex trafficking, we must also work for and with those in foster care and the LGBTQ+ communities. The LGBTQ+ foster youth population falls under the intersectionality realm, as well, as their age, sex, and ethnicity play a part in vulnerability factors for human trafficking coercion.
LGBTQ youth are three to seven times more likely to enter the street economy and engage in survival sex to meet their basic needs. They face high chances of becoming victims of sexual violence, with the likelihood amounting to 7.4 times that of non-LGBTQ homeless minors.
In 2019, one-third of the children entering U.S. foster care were young people of color who lost their connection to a safe, loving, and nurturing family. Even in foster care, neglect and examples of intersectional victimization and oppression can be found.
“Because the intersectional experience is greater than the sum of racism and sexism, any analysis that does not take intersectionality into account cannot sufficiently address the particular manner in which Black women are subordinated.”
Human trafficking survivors fall in disproportionate numbers depending on their specific social, economic and ethnic groups. The widespread effects of racism, sexism and classism in trafficking can increase the chances of exploitation of already-marginalized groups.
Here at Dressember, we are focused on protecting people within our society that are vulnerable to the perils of human trafficking, and we believe in the importance of understanding that those who have fallen in the subjugation of trafficking are largely fostered by their prior oppressions—meaning marginalized groups are more susceptible to human trafficking because they lack the privilege held by the systems and individuals in power. In order to be authentic, intersectional advocates against human trafficking, we must strive to advocate against injustice in all forms.
About the Author
Daniela (D) Molina is a Cuban gal pursuing a M.S. in Journalism at Indiana University. Since she was young she knew that words had power. She absolutely loves moths and is proud to speak Spanish with whoever she meets.