NEW ORLEANS (WGNO)— When you think of human trafficking, most often it’s sex trafficking. And yet a course in human trafficking is opening eyes at Loyola University.
Loyola senior Alexis Horton explains, “It is extremely difficult to track down specific numbers because a lot of times people who’ve been trafficked don’t want to admit that they’ve been trafficked, or maybe they think that they were just in an uncomfortable relationship. It’s not typical like you see in movies where you’ve been snatched off the streets. A lot of times it’s in intimate partner relationships.”
Horton is referring to her research this semester in Mapping Human Trafficking.
The course is being taught by Ty Lawson, the Marion M and John S Stokes Jr. Visiting Professor of Race and Culture in Media.
Lawson contends that forced labor exists in many spaces we don’t often recognize, “I think one thing that we always associate trafficking with is sex, but it’s not just sex there’s lots of labor trafficking. Some of these places we go for Taco Tuesday, some of those workers could be trafficked. You go to a beauty salon or nail shop some of the workers there can be trafficked.”
The Angola documentary “End Plantation Prisons” from the Promise of Justice Initiative filmmaker Sara Gozalo was also valuable this semester as students examined forced prison labor.
Junion Chloe Caudle stated, “We would think ‘hey, they’re criminals, they deserve this punishment, but no one deserves to be working around the clock dawn til dusk.”
And while these are tough issues that we, as a society wrestle with, this course tackled it head on.
“What is forced labor? Those types of concepts, taking all of that, being able to contextualize all of that and then present in the most fair manner you can but while also giving people the voice they deserve,” said junior Devin Cruice.
The course includes a panel discussion called Examining Forced Labor in the Bayou. A number of special guests will be a part of the discussion Monday at 7pm at Nunemaker Hall on the Loyola campus.
The panel is free and open to the public.
