Have you ever been ignorant or blind to a situation right in front of you that once reality hit you squarely in the face, you saw the truth? I’m talking real hard truths.
Me too.
For the last decade of my life, I was an elementary educator, molding the minds of the future leaders of America. I knew human trafficking existed. I painted a red X on my hand in February to share about the #enditmovement at school and on my Social Media platforms. As a former third grade Social Studies teacher who taught South Carolina history, we delved into the horrible facts of slavery that our country lived. I recall one student asking if slavery still existed today and I told them “yes,” but that it looked differently than what we were studying. The extent of what I “knew” was what Hollywood portrayed trafficking to be: happening overseas to people being snatched up against their will.
Fast forward 10 years, I left that teaching job to specifically fight to end human trafficking right here in the very state I have lived in for my entire life. Last summer, I began to be bothered by the injustices I saw happening all over our country and it caused me to sit and learn from those different from me. It was through this learning and growing experience that I found myself at SWITCH as their new Intervention Coordinator.
I had no idea the reality of what was right under my nose all this time. My training and conversations with staff and volunteers left me speechless, the blinders that were on my eyes had fallen off. It was almost as if I started to truly see the very real, very hard, very uncomfortable things happening right here in my very own community.
As I grow in this position and begin building the programs the Lord has directed me to lead, I find myself having very passionate conversations with people who simply ask me what I do.
If you were to ask me what I wish people knew about trafficking in the Upstate of South Carolina, I’d say that I wish the ignorance that we have about dancers and prostituted women would be shattered, 100%.
A common myth is that these women love what they do and choose to exploit themselves in this manner. That could not be farther from the truth. I have met amazing women who have overcome their horrible experiences. “Most of the women in the sex industry have had a history of childhood abuse or of being trafficked. They want to leave the industry but see no other means of survival” (Treasures). Some of the women in the strip clubs are controlled by a pimp or trafficker, some are being exploited as a means of providing for their needs.
I wish we would shed this ignorance and see the humanity in the woman on the other end of the dollar. Behind every image that you see of a woman in a strip club or porn, is a real person with a real story (Harmony Dust-Grillo).
Somehow our stories are a part of His plan, and these women’s stories are not to be discredited.
Jesus consistently shows us through His Word that He sat with those the religious turned their nose up to. I admit, I once was one of those religious people, until Jesus got a hold of my life and humbled me.
If I am to be more like Jesus, I must be willing to sit with those that are consistently excluded from society or seen as unworthy. The reality and the truth is He loves them too and He sees the humanity in them.
Afterall, the ground is level at the foot of the cross.
I pray He continues to help me see others through the lens of His loving eyes. And I pray the same for you, too. Because somehow our stories are a part of His plan.
Have you seen? Have you heard? What will you do about it?
