June 22, 2011

Founder & Executive VP, Frederick Douglass Family Foundation

Ok, I admit it. This piece could have been more accurately called, The American Autumn. But, I figured, the more foreboding the title sounded, the better chance I would have of attracting America’s burgeoning Pessimist class. (I also considered using the words SHOCKING or STUNNING, but I didn’t want to risk copyright issues with the headline writers from Yahoo! News.)

Despite the title, I’m really only here to predict the demise of one thing — indifference. Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel called indifference “a strange and unnatural state in which the lines blur between light and darkness, dusk and dawn, crime and punishment, cruelty and compassion, good and evil.” The moment those lines become unmistakably clear, however, we must repair the wrong by demanding change. I’m certain that change is coming to the issue of human trafficking — a new social revolution.

It’s a daunting word, revolution. It brings to mind unpleasant images of upheaval and bloody protests, sacrifice and risk, “dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!” (Ghostbusters doesn’t get quoted enough.) Frederick Douglass was right when he said, “Power concedes nothing without demand. It never has and it never will.” This statement speaks to the necessity of revolution, not that it’s good or bad, but only that it’s a simple and constant expression within the evolutionary equation: obstinance plus revolution equals (what we hope we can call) progress. It’s nothing to be afraid of. If we had the chance to live for a thousand years, we could watch as social revolutions come and go inevitably like the seasons.

The Arab Spring — with its legions of individuals who were finally able to express, as one, their unwillingness to accept the withholding of their human rights another day — must help us believe we have the capacity to peacefully and powerfully organize in order to articulate our own discontent. One might think that any difficulties we share in a free society can’t compare to those of a people held captive under the repressive regimes in the middle east and, thus, may not rise to the need for revolution. But, then again, to what extent does injustice there correlate with our own acceptance of injustice here? And, do we have to wait for more overt expressions of injustice to bang us on the head before we decide to do something?

It can be said without exaggeration that the symptoms of collective displeasure have brought us to the brink of a new kind of revolution. Most of us grow weary of barely making ends meet while those most responsible for the ailing economy have hardly missed a step and are once again shoving bonus checks into the glove compartments of their new Aston Martins. We’re numb to the antics of our squabbling leaders, some of whom make misbehaving children seem mature in comparison. We’ve shunned tolerance and have begun directing our fears and anger toward the usual suspects. Beyond comprehension, the judiciary keeps selling off pieces of the people’s Constitution by way of corporate sponsorships. The voice for hope and change has been muted. And, sadly, as always, we discover that war is little more than a great profit center nourished by the suffering of soldiers who fight for ideals and by the treasure from our labor.

Convenience is what makes a new social revolution so likely to blossom in the fall. If it weren’t so easy, the prospect of change would be more remote. We are, however, living in a time when flash mobs dance, they sing and they terrorize. It only stands to reason that, much sooner than later, flash mobs will seek social change in America. The Arab Spring portends a much overdue American Autumn driven by a technology that can bring tens of thousands together with a single stroke of a key.

A revolution, however, needs specific objectives. The social and economic discrepancies described above may be issues related to your revolution. Mine, the one I hope to see enjoined by young and old from every corner of the country in the coming months, is directed toward the invisible institution of human trafficking and modern-day slavery. It’s invisible, like many other injustices, because it exists in a well-crafted knowledge vacuum. Those that practice the art of exploitation want us to believe, for instance, that women who sell their bodies to men for sex are savvy, well-paid and empowered entrepreneurs. They want us to believe that the term child prostitute is not a contradiction. They tell us migrant workers earn a good wage and enjoy living quarters in exchange for their labor. They say the housekeeper is just shy, that brick makers are working off a legitimate debt and that the panhandling child lost his arm when rebels attacked his village. Human trafficking is institutional because global competition requires reduced labor costs; because the officer requires his cut; because the politician wants his too; because there are billions of dollars at stake.

The power of the industry that thrives on human trade will concede nothing without the demand of the people: unscrupulous corporations will not concede better working conditions and better pay; governments will not concede better regulations and stiffer penalties for trafficking perpetrators; law enforcement will not concede victims’ rights and, finally, our own ignorance and indifference will not concede change until we convince each other that we’re unwilling to accept the withholding of our neighbor’s human rights another day.

So, get ready to grab your cell phones and… take heart. There’s a revolution coming. American Autumn is in the air.

Follow Robert on Twitter: @DouglassFamily