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Volume 79 – Number 23
Who’s loving you?
Human trafficking and modern-day slavery in
By Patreice Massey
On Saturday, Feb 13, PW Media in Collaboration with NEW Life Community Development Center presented its premier luncheon event with the incomparable Iyanla Vanzant. From welfare mother to five-time New York Times bestselling author, from the Brooklyn projects to two-time NAACP Image Award winner, and from broken pieces to peace, Iyanla Vanzant is one of the country’s most prolific writers, public speakers and among the most influential, socially, engaged and acclaimed spiritual life coachIyanla Vanzant — Ta- es of our time. tiana Wheeler photos The author of 16 books, Vanzant’s work has been translated into 23 languages and has sold over 8 million copies. With her no-nonsense approach and underlying message of “live better by loving yourself,” Vanzant has ignited a universal spark of self-discovery. Vanzant was on hand to converse, over an intimate lunch, about the power of self-love. Of the topics discussed were why singles are unfulfilled because of who they don’t have, why others are unhappy with who they do have and how our ability to love others is affected by how deeply we love ourselves. She started the afternoon with a spoken word version of “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” by Detroit’s own Aretha Franklin. In a twist she made the song spiritual in a way no one had before, changing the song from one about a woman acknowledging how good her man makes her feel to giving that same praise to a higher power. Vanzant’s message was one of how we must have our spirit in order and how self-love is the answer to many of life’s missteps. “Regardless what you may know, believe or have experienced in the name of love, loving you is an essential ingredient for experiencing and expressing love to others,” she said. “Loving you means holding yourself with unconditional positive regard. It means giving yourself the time and space to make
See VANZANT page A-3
February 17-23, 2016
Detroit
By Roz Edward
profit,” explains Edee Franklin, founder and CEO of Sanctum House, a rehabilitation facility for women survivors of sex trafficking. “Women, young girls and even boys are coerced and forced into lives of degradation and depravity every single day of the week in the streets of Detroit and all over Michigan. But it is virtually impossible to gather reliable statistics since these victims are categorized and treated as prostitutes and sex workers.”
If slavery is the absence of one’s rights to self-determination, human trafficking, which treats and trades people like commodities, falls within the definition. Reports of human trafficking in urban communities around the world and across the nation are increasing in number and in the scope of depravity its victims are forced to endure and suffer. Conversely, while Atlanta has earned the dubious distinction of being a Tier 1 city for the exploitation of women and children, Detroit maintains relatively low profile on the continuum of human sex trafficking activity.
But the truth is, there is no such thing as a “child prostitute.”
With the exception of a January 2016 nationwide sting known as Operation Cross Country X, which netted 159 sex traffickers and rescued 150 child victims, with 19 of those young victims having been rescued from slave-like conditions in Detroit. Detroit police say the multi-state sex slave ring lured and kidnapped girls as young as 13, and it was only after one of the victims was rescued by a store security guard that the perpetrators were apprehended. To get a sense of how ex-
tensive the problem is in Detroit, only one day after that multi-agency coordinated sting in January, a law enforcement official was injured in separate incident and a suspect was killed during a violent confrontation related to human sex trafficking in Southfield. The FBI’s Southeast Michigan Crimes Against Children Task Force conducted a raid at the Southfield Marriott hotel and confronted a man allegedly involved in human trafficking. During the confrontation, the suspect shot at the officer who was wearing a bulletproof vest and was killed when the
officers returned fire. The problem of sex trafficking in local neighborhoods being so prevalent, but managing to stay relatively under the radar, is extraordinarily unusual in a city like Detroit. Law officials and the city’s citizens are all too familiar with the socioeconomic impact of vulnerable and impoverished population segments falling prey to depravity and greed, and the accompanying exploitation for profit. “You can only sell an ounce of cocaine or a pound of marijuana once. But you can sell a woman and child many times over and realize a much larger
“You can be a ‘prostituted child’ ... you cannot be a child prostitute, by definition. If we change our language we can get these children the help they need (rather than labeling them and incarcerating them) and we can get the abusers the penalties they deserve,” Franklin says resolutely. The FBI did not begin tracking human trafficking and including it in its data report until only two years ago. Michigan has experienced a 16 percent increase in reported human trafficking cases, according to data released by the National Human Traffick-
See TRAFFICKING page A-4
The health and wealth connection in Flint water crisis A group of experts that focus on building wealth for communities of color has called on Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to establish a Health and Compensation Fund for the victims of water contamination in Flint. The fund would be modeled after the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund and would pay for claims, health screenings, treatment, and
research on the socioeconomic conditions related to the crisis.
of Flint should receive the same consideration that others have been afforded.”
“Government has a history of creating policies that compensate Americans unduly harmed by circumstances where government was culpable,” said Dr. Maya Rockeymoore, president of the Center for Global Policy Solutions and an organizer of the letter. “Residents
Other recommendations by the group include: • Homeowner relief in the form of writing off existing debt and tax liability of all properties affected by the water contamination. • Suspending tax cuts and breaks to other groups
or industries in Michigan until the infrastructure needs are met. • Implementing a state program to modernize aging infrastructure in a way that would create jobs for those living in depressed areas like Flint. “The impact on home-
See FLINT page A-4
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