Posted January 18, Reviewed by Vanessa Lancaster. According to the Congressional Black Caucus , Latinx women are the largest vulnerable group in the United States for labor trafficking; the Department of Justice estimates that up to 60 percent of labor trafficking victims are Latinx women.
In the agriculture industry, 76 percent of likely victims were from Mexico. Globally, more than half of trafficked persons are from Asia. The disparity of race in human trafficking mirrors not only current racism overall but is a vestige of colonial exploitation and historical slavery. Parallel to this is the exoticism and othering placed on Asian womenβfirst through the colonization of places like the Philippines and Thailand by Spain and France, respectively and then by militarization through wars like the Vietnam War, which institutionalized red-light districts.
Throughout the world, this pattern of colonial conquest included the commodification, slavery, and objectification of indigenous communities as a whole. Similarly, men were made to seem either overly effeminate or almost animalistic instead of human, supporting methods of treatments slavers and now, traffickers use such as inhumane work conditions, deprivation, and physical abuse.
Many of these relationships morphed but maintained the same functions of oppression, commodification, and exploitation. Ignoring the racial roots of human trafficking is dangerous.
It creates blinders about how to prevent trafficking and slavery. Worse still, communities of color continue to be marginalized in the overall anti-trafficking movement. Blatant and microaggressive behavior must be addressed and also prevented. But how? The first step is to raise awareness. This occurs through better data collection and research to understand what is happening.
