Human Trafficking Part 4- I Know, But There’s More
Just in case you’re not completely sold on the idea that human trafficking is woven into the fibers of the American cotton ball, consider these aspects of life.
Adoption
Sperm Donation
DNA Testing and Incest
If the courts say it, it’s real.
Natalia’s mother was heartbroken to find out what had happened to her baby. The Manses adopting all of those other kids for disability/state money is another clear example.
So, how do we know what’s trafficking and what isn’t?
Good question.
Kids need adoptive homes, and there ARE healthy homes out there.
Surrogacy
When I was a surrogate, and I’ll talk about it later, but while I was pregnant for friends I was also doing my Masters work on surrogacy. While my experience stands in defiance of the patriarchy, I can testify that the institutional version of surrogacy should end.
Military
The military is human trafficking that forces compliance. It’s a carrot dangled for those who can’t afford college, or whose families don’t have other connections. It scoops up those who we’ve shoved to the very corners of our populace. Their labor is that of enforcing the hierarchy.
It also attracts monsters.
Let’s Wrap It Up!
So Why Did I Bring You Here?
Because we’re all conditioned to go along with it one way or another.
Because my understanding of the world was very influenced by my place inside this system of domestic trafficking. None of what I experienced made sense until I understood this.
Because understanding this is foundational to healing the trauma from it.
Because even when it’s blatant, our country tries very hard to explain it away.
Because it’s doing so much damage.
Because we’ve never known enough to stop it before.
Because it robs us all of our greatness, potential, and authenticity.
Because I can’t bear to watch others try to condition my child.
Because my child’s teacher spent the entire year doing the work of the patriarchy.
Because I have to atone for the role I’ve played in it.
Because I want to shine a beacon for others to do the same.
Because it touches everything else- business, economy, family, education.
Because this is what we have instead of child care, universal health care, quality education, and so much more. It’s literally the reason we can’t have nice things.
Because it strips us of community.
Because it robs us of the richness of being human.
Because it’s so hard to break free from.
My sincerest hope in writing this blog is that somewhere out there, someone who is trapped inside of this, find in here what they need to escape.
You can.
There’s so much life outside of this.
If anything in this resonates for you, and you haven’t found your way out, it’s possible. I swear we are out here.
It’s All the Same Fight
I was at a McNair Scholar‘s Conference in Claremont, CA where they had arranged for A Mic and Dim Lights performers Kat Magill, Ghetto Speare, Manchild, and Besskepp. Ghetto and Manchild performed a duet piece that said it all.
“We In The Same Boat.”
Of course we all have our own battles, and those battles are colored by our experiences of gender, our ethnic heritage, our geographic location, the people we love, the people we’ve come from and so much more. We all have our own battles, but we have the same enemy- The Cult of the Ego, which birthed the Patriarchy, and has always had this country in a death grip.
The movement for Civil Rights is the movement to make those subjugated by The Cult of the Ego equals to those throughout the Cult of the Ego. It is the struggle to break this stranglehold.
Women’s rights are civil rights.
TERFs only uphold the patriarchy by reinforcing its roles and the position of “men” as those who have the authority to grant personhood. Ew.
Hispanic rights are civil rights.
Black rights are civil rights.
Immigrant rights are civil rights.
Homeless rights are civil rights.
To be Gay in a system that assigns who should be abuser and who should be abused is an act of rebellion. Being gay is a refusal to serve the cult, in favor of one’s one authenticity.
Being Transgender has always been an open defiance of the function of these assignments. Being authentic is the key to the Cult of the Ego’s undoing.
Being Genderqueer is a refusal to accept the roles and the dogma they carry, because that’s all gender is.
This is why someone ending up being a Single Female who owns cats is so offensive to them.
This is why Incels exist.
It’s half of the country y’all. Half.
The quest for enlightenment is a process of divorcing the Cult of the Ego, so they call people like me “whack jobs.”
A midlife crisis is nothing more than the realization that your life doesn’t belong to you, and that you’ve really been serving the Cult of the Ego.
Divorces and fights in marriages almost entirely boil down to not being able to handle the Cult playing out in our homes.
Teenage rebellion is a resistance to assuming the roles that are waiting for us, and a deep desire to live authentically.
Really it all comes down to this.
We In The Same Boat.
I’m leaving you today with the first piece I wrote when I started embracing my poet self. It’s based on Standpoint Theory.
Standpoint by Protyus A. Gendher
No, I am not you
I am not your experiences, but rather my own
Each unique person, each unique home.
But I know some things to be simple and true,
Even if it’s different from my point of view.
I know that discrimination is pain
Because we bleed in the face of the losses and gains
Of people unmade, when they should be loved
In the name of a tyrant who rules from above
In the name of tradition, a good ol’ boys club
In the name of the normal, whatever it means
To erase all the difference
Homogeneity
But I know that I live in a specific place
A specific body
Assigned a gender and race
A specific knowing
In my time and my space
I don’t think I have to know your life
To know that your rights should be equal to mine
Regardless of my perch in a privileged tier
Responding to a world censored through hate and fear
I know that I can’t know what it is to be you,
Or what it means exactly to do the things that you do
Your lived experiences and point of view
I know I don’t know what you face every day,
But I can still be mindful of the things I say
And I can always question who is hurt by my deeds
And carefully guard our equality
I can cringe when I hear words
Launched at you with the intention to hurt
And battle back and educate
Rather than pacify and placate
To struggle beyond the lip service lines
To build a world that’s as much yours as mine
Celebrating difference without a need to be blind
Replacing punishing difference as crime
Survivor Literacy 
What do you think?