What life is like after being a victim of sex trafficking
A former Berkeley student told us their story
Human trafficking, to many, is a vague and removed term that appears occasionally in news stories before fading once again into insignificance. But for an unimaginable number of individuals across the globe who are victims of the persistent, complex, and prevalent crime of exploitation, it is reality.
Russell Wilson, a 49 year old law student at Golden Gate University and father of two, is active in anti-human trafficking efforts. Human trafficking was once his reality.
Russell spent his first nine years with his mother traveling from Southern to Northern California for the Renaissance Pleasure Fair as a gypsy/carny. He and his mother would live in a Northern California Commune or in their car while the fair was not in season. When Russell was nine, however, his mother abandoned him. She returned every now and then, leaving Russell to fend for himself in the foster system.
He opens up about his journey as a survivor – but more importantly, a ‘thriver’ – of being a commercially sexually exploited child.
If there was one thing that everyone should know about human trafficking, what would it be?
Probably the most important thing to me is that boys are also victims of sex trafficking. I think that is my number one take-away: for people to be aware that boys are also victims of sex trafficking and not to forget about that population because they are forgotten about even by people who are fighting human trafficking. That’s one of the things I get frustrated about. I go to conferences and discussions and they inherently speak about all these girls and girls and girls, and I don’t want to take away from that at all, they are the majority of the victims of course. But I’d like to hear people say more about these girls and boys.
I’m not here to be the voice for that population; I’m my voice for myself, but I’m not here to be a voice for an entire population. I can’t tell their story. I can only tell mine. I’m going to be my voice. This other guy who has been a victim of sex trafficking can’t be my voice, and I can’t be his. We can come together and agree or disagree, but I’m not going to speak for the. I’m only going to speak for myself.
What does the word ‘survivor’ mean to you?
I hate that word. I understand that in most cases there’s no other word to use and we are limited by the words we use through habit more than through almost anything. But this goes to a theory that I’m developing and working strongly and that is, being a survivor sucks.
People who are not survivors use it so casually: “Oh you’re a survivor”. Yeah gee thanks. I almost take it as an insult. I know they don’t mean it that way. What was I supposed to do but survive? The only other choices were that I either killed myself or I got killed. Death, basically. You either live or die. There aren’t many other choices there. I’m clearly in front of you and breathing air and talking to you – so yes, I’m a survivor. But so are you, you’re not dead. “Well i haven’t been what you’ve been through”. Well that doesn’t mean anything. Life can kill you. To call someone a survivor is one, pointing out the obvious. And two: we look at this definition, how we use it, as this badge of courage or this thing that you carry with you. If you’ve ever been in a truly survival mode, life and death survival mode, that’s a really shitty place to exist.
I like thriving. I tend to really gravitate to the concept of being a thriver. When you are thriving, you are fulfilled, the people around you are fulfilled; you are contributing to society and yourself, you feel that you have purpose you have meaning. Everything I do now I feel like has purpose and meaning. Whereas when I was surviving, it didn’t matter if I lived or survived. Okay I’m surviving – doesn’t mean I have a roof over my head, doesn’t mean I have the food I need, doesn’t mean I have the physical needs I need nor does it mean I have the emotional stability and satisfaction or comfort or the fulfillment as human beings we crave and also need to have a complete life.
Words can be incredibly liberating, but they can also be incredibly restrictive. I think [survivor] is restrictive and until we come up with a different word or different way to describe somebody who has transcended trauma to a place of not having to be constant state of trauma, there is no single word other than survivor. But really what we are saying is that you’ve been through an experience that most people have not been through and that you haven’t killed yourself and you haven’t been killed and you’re still alive – and that’s great. That’s a really long way to say you’re a survivor. But it’s a more accurate depiction of that word, again, the word itself is very limiting.
What flaws do you see in anti-human trafficking efforts?
It’s difficult for me to call out any specific flaws; however there can always be improvement. I think one of the things that can make a difference, rather than the fact that there are flaws, is funding. There’s just not enough funding to really do an adequate job. We are fighting a 150 billion dollar a year industry with probably in the U.S. we are pushing 30 million dollars to fight this – that’s a drop in the bucket compared to what’s made on this problem.
Because for me, it’s not just about implementing laws and policies that will mitigate and stem this tide of human trafficking- it’s about changing social perceptions of human trafficking.
All the products that we enjoy – especially as a first world, western, and modern country – can probably be traced back to some form of human exploitation. Does that mean I’m not going to go out and buy my iPhone? No, I love my iPhone.
It’s getting people to realize that they have a role in this, even if they don’t go out and pay for sex, or go out and exploit a housekeeper, or whatever blatant example of human trafficking you can think of; you play a role by just being a modern human being.
Where have you seen strides and improvements taken in anti-human trafficking efforts?
A good example is how we’ve changed the laws; certainly in California recently, about prostitution – you can’t arrest minors for prostitution. You can’t arrest a minor for prostitution anymore. That’s new. It seems like that should never have happened long ago and it seems like common sense that you shouldn’t be able to arrest someone for something that they can’t even legally consent to. So they’re instantly a victim of this situation and not a perpetrator.
In the Bay Area in particular, there’s a lot of really good work going on in several organizations that train law enforcement (when I say law enforcement I mean prosecutors, DAs, and public defenders) and train them to deal with victims of human trafficking in different ways and a more compassionate way. To recognize that are victims of trauma and of a crime and that they are not really culpable. Because a lot of the times police deal with prostitution and victims of trafficking as if they are part of the problem instead of victims of the problem.
It’s a cliche, but better late then never. At least it’s happening. Ten years ago, no one was having this conversation- so obviously some progress has been made.
How has your past experience helped you get to where you are today – being involved in the community and law school?
I think when you’ve been in a place where you have nothing to lose – a lot of people call it rock bottom, and I guess I’ve hit my rock bottom for sure at times in life – there’s no where else but up to go. But at the same time, I got to a place where I also realized that if I didn’t make use of that potential that I knew was within me then I was going to look back on a wasted life and for me that was a big part of it. It’s really important for me to feel good about who I see in the mirror. And when I recognize an issue or a problem that I have that doesn’t make me feel good about who I see, I do everything I can to change that. I basically woke up one day and realized I wasn’t getting any younger. I had known I had potential to do anything in life, but I didn’t have the motivation and I started small and was like “I guess I’ll get my GED – can’t do anything without that anyways, right? I can’t even get into community college without a GED”. I got that. I went to community college and I got that.
So I went with anthropology. I was thinking anthropology and looking at refugee cultures – my ex-wife is Tibetan and was born in India as a Tibetan refugee. I lived in India for three years with her in a refugee community. Seeing it from the inside of living with these people and also seeing the global response the international legal policy type response to their status as well and seeing all these layers to this situation; that’s what I thought I was really going to pursue – diaspora.
When I got to Cal, that’s when I got to focus my time and energy on it. I met an amazing young woman who invited me to a discussion on human trafficking and so I went to this discussion and met several people. They were talking and there were discussions going back and forth like a town hall-like meeting. It was an eye opener as far as opinions and ideas and motivations- all these different things going on around human trafficking and there was very little discussion about boys and male victims of human trafficking. That got me a little riled up and I had to say something about that. I think that was the beginning of when I started to talk about my own experiences and coming from that past as a child myself and then the fact that nobody was really talking about the boys and the male victims, and it still isn’t really on the lips of the people that work in this field.
What is your ultimate goal that you’re working towards to achieve through your extensive community involvement and your law school education?
I have an idea of what I’d like to do and where I’d like to end up, but I also know that I need to stay mindful and open to possibilities that I may not even be aware of. Within that framework though, I’d like to do something involving human trafficking work, human rights, refugees, and those cross sections between those populations and communities- and international crime, international law, and hopefully take that and just raise awareness around these issues and maybe even come up with some solutions to some of the problems.
I’m a mix of optimism and cynicism. I don’t think that I can change the world, but I am optimistic enough to think that I should at least go through my life trying, even if I’m completely unsuccessful. At least I can look back on my time here and see that at least I tried. I may not have succeeded, but at least I tried. And I like to think that I can’t make it worse. And if I’m not making it worse, I’m cool – life well lived.