Adrenochrome, satanic sex cults, and spirit cooking— oh my! Perhaps these topics of interest are new to you, or maybe they aren’t. Either way, the words definitely trigger a reaction of horror, curiosity, or disgust. Maybe all at once. While the buzz surrounding the “conspiracy theories” that track these topics is harmfully dismissive, what if there is a bit of truth to be gleaned from their overarching sentiment? Human-trafficking is the unsaid evil backbone of the world. The last time a major news outlet devoted highly-viewed screentime to the topic is so far out of the public consciousness that no one cares anymore. The truth is, human trafficking is more atrocious than the media is portraying it, more accurately— not portraying it. Americans, in particular, tend to build up delusions of foreign Latin American children being pummeled into drug cartels or frail Vietnamese children working in clothing factories for two cents and a spit in the eye. Yet, while some of these examples hold true, this black sheep of social justice is painfully American in many ways. This paper aims to shed light on a small fraction of how the tech industry, Hollywood, and the media in America are all complicit in human trafficking— whether through the buying of slaves or the obstruction of key information to the public on the matter.
Not only are over 200,000 American children at risk for human trafficking, but over 17,000 foreign women and children are trafficked into the States alone (Office of Victims of Crime). Even more striking, America is the no.1 leading country in the world for human trafficking— with over 300,000 people said to be enslaved in the U.S. alone (Pasley). These facts, of course, don’t even account for the numerous people trapped in the business that don’t make the estimate. After all, Polaris1 approximates over 20-40 million are in the trafficking industry alone, so if America is the top leader in human trafficking— why wouldn’t the number be higher? Human Trafficking is a high reward-low risk industry, making it the second most profitable business in the world (it will soon surpass the drug trade). The plight of human trafficking on our society is unequivocally an American issue: it’s in our backyard.
One of the many facets keeping the modern slave trade alive is the tech industry— which harbors thousands upon thousands of sex slaves, and has not faced any reprecussions for their transgressions. Such a situation presents itself in the recent silicon valley scandal, Amazon and Microsoft were complicit in thousands of young women getting trafficked out of and from Asian countries into America. Newsweek has titled them “Horny Unicorns” since it is rare the media finds out about the tech industry’s involvement in the sex industry. A group of men who worked for the aforementioned companies from 2014-2016 were involved in hundreds of email chains involved in the pacific sex trade. Even though they were exposed by the authorities, they never faced charges because they had the resources to pay for high-performing attornies. Unfortunately, this story is one of many in the tech industry— similar findings in the Seattle tech industry correlate to this silicon valley horror story as well:
A study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice found that Seattle has the fastest-growing sex industry in the country, more than doubling in size between 2005 and 2012. That boom correlates neatly with the boom of the tech sector there. It also correlates with the surge in high-paying jobs, since this “hobby” (the word johns use online to describe buying sex) can be expensive. Some of these men spent $30,000 to $50,000 a year, according to authorities. (Burleigh)
These men continue to go on without prosecution because of the money powering the tech industry. Tech companies like Amazon and Microsoft quietly fuel the sex-trafficking industry while millions of Americans harmlessly scroll through Amazon this Christmas for toys.
After the Epstein scandal, millions of Americans swarmed around the internet looking for information on the sex trafficking rings. Yet, the buzz surrounding the scandal has slowed to a weak pulse. Why? It seems that Hollywood is entrenched in the horrors of human trafficking; in fact, many of the producers and TV personalities that America has come to enjoy the labors of are all involved in the blackmarket slave trade. John Paul Rice, who produced Remember The Titans, claims that the traces and evidence of human trafficking in Hollywood are everywhere. He said he considered retiring from the business due to the fact that many of the corporations funding film productions were on Epstein Island and other human trafficking rings: “the most powerful six corporations in the land are all implicated in human trafficking of kids” (Dmitry). Rice isn’t the only one to speak out on the ongoing atrocity; in fact, many A-list producers and writers have come forward about the trafficking industry such as Mel Gibson.
However, these whisteblowers seem to underwhelm the American public— laughed off as being “crazy”. Perhaps instances of real-time human trafficking in Hollywood would sound the alarm? Yet, Roman Polaski, an affluent Hollywood producer who received three oscars for The Pianist (2002) and continues to work with film elites, raped a 13-year-old little girl involved in human trafficking in 1977. He then fled to Paris where he escaped all his allegations and went on to win the awards for The Pianist in 2002 despite knowing his background. Similarly, Allison Mack, an actress on Smallville, aided major businessman Keith Raniere in the human trafficking and sex enslavement of multiple young women for a fake self-help organization called NXIM. The details of their actions are bone-chilling:
Mack would recruit women and convince them to turn over nude photos and admit embarrassing details about themselves that Rainiere would then use as blackmail … Rainiere brainwashed women, forced them to starve, brand themselves with his initials, and have sex with him. (Oxenberg)
One would think the accumulation of horrifying even after event would trigger an in-depth search of the Hollywood human-trafficking scene, yet the public and the media seems to be eerily silent on the matter.
The media has not only lack in giving human hrafficking the attention it needs, but it portrays a false representation of human trafficking when it does. One of the main issues with how the media portrays human trafficking is the way it pictures the crime itself. The focus is always on the direct perpetrator instead of the roots of the trafficking:
Stories about trafficking appear in the news as short articles focused on who gets charged with what crime. Ashley Hedrick, graduate assistant and researcher for The Irina Project, said this language limits the public’s understanding of trafficking. (Whisant)
The reasoning behind why this portrayal is problematic is because it affects the “bottom bitch”. The bottom bitch is a person in a human trafficking ring who is coerced into managing the payments and transportation of children. The purpose of such a position is to prevent the real villains behind the scenes from being implicated in crime charges. Because of this situation, bottom bitches end up serving time for a crime that they were forced into doing. Perpetuating these ideas only keeps the real bad guys safe while innocent people suffer— the cycle goes on.
It’s difficult to surmount evidence of the media’s lack of reporting on human trafficking… simply because there’s a lack of reporting. Yet, when a recent cross-search scanned for key words surrounding human trafficking in the media and academia, it came up dry: “Searching “trafficking” AND “human” in the Communication and Mass Media database re-turned 44 results, but searching “trafficking” AND “women” in the same database returned only one” (Alexandre 162). To any sane person, the lack of exposure on human trafficking should nauseate and provoke them, yet why is society quiet? Why doesn’t the media blast stories of childern being stuffed into whore houses and sold on the black market? Interesting.
Human trafficking is not a far-away problem. It is here— on American soil. The businesses we support, the movies we watch, and the news we hear are all implicated in the matter. The sources I’ve presented are a droplet in a rainstorm. How many more million children have to be sold, raped, and killed for the American public to care? And when will the people of this supposed constitutional republic demand justice for the innocent? Enough is enough.
Mariva DeBorde
Mariva DeBorde is a sophomore English and Biblical studies major. Aside from writing, she has a podcast, composes songs, and runs in her free time. She has won multiple awards for writing essays— including a sister cities national paper. She enjoys writing because of the venue it gives to unheard voices.