VOA -- CONNECT
Episode 16
AIR DATE: 05 04 2018
TRANSCRIPT Friday
OPEN ((VO/NAT))
((Banner))
Connecting to Roots
((SOT))
Capoeira is for everybody, but everybody is not for Capoeira. Capoeira like a snake, Capoeira will grab you.
((Animation Transition))
((Banner))
Protecting the Vulnerable
((SOT))
And I said to him, I think we have a case here of human trafficking. I think this man is trying to take her to New York against her will.
((Animation Transition))
((Banner))
Facing the Past
((SOT))
5000 blacks were lynched between 1880 and 1940. My experience in there is that it is so painful.
((Open Animation))
BLOCK A
((Banner: Human Trafficking))
((ANIMATION W/ GFX, CAPTIONS, PHOTOS))
An estimated 4.5 million people are trapped in forced sexual exploitation globally. (International Labor Organization)
((PKG)) SEX TRAFFICKING / AIRPORT TRAFFICKING
((Banner: Intervening))
((Reporter: Carolyn Presutti))
((Camera: Mike Burke))
((Adapted by: Martin Secrest))
((Map: United States / Charlotte, North Carolina))
((DONNA HUBBARD, AIRLINE AMBASSADORS INTERNATIONAL))
I am a human trafficking survivor. I was bought and sold. I wasn’t kidnapped. I was a young mother with young children who was looking for love in all the wrong places. I wanted to fit in.
I work with Airline Ambassadors International as a human trafficking awareness trainer. And I provide insight on what to look for, what to report, who to report it to, and why it’s so important for everyone to be aware of their surroundings. Because people think that human trafficking is going on everywhere else. It’s going on all around us, because human trafficking is not just sexual exploitation. It is human trafficking. But the sexual exploitation of women, girls, men and boys happens so subversively and so subtly that sometimes you don’t recognize it. Sometimes it looks like something else. And so, when I’m walking through an airport, I’m looking very differently at what I see. I’m looking at groups of people. I’m also looking at people who look vulnerable. They may be children that are traveling with someone that doesn’t look like they’re related. I’ve seen, the times that I have actually witnessed a couple that were traveling with a young boy. But this little boy was lethargic. He had a high fever. He was in pain. They were carrying him. But this little boy was maybe five to eight years old, and I’m wondering why are they carrying this child? So those are the kind of things that, you know, that we look for. If I had a child that was that ill, I would not be getting on an airplane, you know. Why are these young girls traveling with nothing but a purse? They didn’t check anything. They didn’t check any luggage, but all they have is their purse and a one-way ticket. And they don’t know who’s meeting them. They only, “Oh, we saw a picture of him on Facebook. And we’re going to be models. We’re going to be movie stars.”
((NATS))
((DONNA HUBBARD, AIRLINE AMBASSADORS INTERNATIONAL))
I was looking at these little girls over here.
((NATS))
Flight attendant: So what are you guys doing, are you going on vacation?
Man: We are.
Flight attendant: Yeah, where are you going?
Man: We’re going to New York.
Flight attendant: Oh, New York, that sounds fun. What are you going to be doing there?
Man: She and I will just be vacationing.
Flight Attendant: Alright. Well, have a great time.
((NATS))
It’s just a little off, he’s answering for her. She doesn’t look you in the eye. I’m asking questions but they’re very evasive about it.
((NATS))
Charlotte Ops 267 coming from Orlando. We have an unusual situation with a passenger, a male and a female in seats 10D and E. I’d like to report the flight attendant observations. We’d like to have law enforcement meet us at the gate to observe the situation and hopefully we can resolve this issue.
((NATS))
((DONNA HUBBARD, AIRLINE AMBASSADORS INTERNATIONAL))
I just don’t want another girl to go through what I went through. I don’t want another young woman to feel that they don’t matter, that they’re invisible.
((ANIMATION W/ GFX, CAPTIONS, PHOTOS))
The National Human Trafficking Hotline has received reports of 22,191 sex trafficking cases inside the United States in the past decade. (Polaris Project)
((PKG)) SEX TRAFFICKING / SEX STING
((Banner: The Sting))
((Reporter: Carolyn Presutti))
((Camera: Mike Burke))
((Adapted by: Martin Secrest))
((Map: United States / Baltimore, Maryland))
((Locator: backpage.com))
((Locator: Baltimore, Maryland))
((Banner: Corporal Chris Heid of the Maryland State Police looks for minors being sex trafficked on the Internet))
((CORPORAL CHRIS HEID, MARYLAND STATE POLICE))
So Backpage, it’s a legitimate website, and we go in here, like I said, daily. So, I’m obviously going to go to Maryland. And sometimes we go to the District of Columbia. But now this is kind of like a, almost like a Craigslist type thing. But then we’ll look here at these different ads, and we’re going to scroll through and we’re going to look for the girls that look really young. We’re also looking for pictures of girls that aren’t taking their own photos. Because if that’s the case, there’s probably somebody else in that room with them. Under here, there used to be an actual section called ‘Escorts,’ and they’ve changed that now, and now it just says, ‘Women Seeking Men.’ But if you click on there, you’ve got to agree that you’re over the age of 18, and you can just see the amount of ads that were posted just today.
((NATS))
You want to try this one?
((Banner: Posing as a customer, Heid calls a listing he suspects involves an underage girl))
((NATS))
Hey, I was calling to see if you had any time available? Are you in a hotel? Yeah, send me the address.
((Banner: Two other police officers join Heid to meet the girl))
((NATS))
I’ll stay on the phone with you, but I’m going to walk in.
((Banner: Officers discover a 15- year-old girl being sex trafficked by a woman she said was her sister))
((CORPORAL CHRIS HEID, MARYLAND STATE POLICE))
Now we, in this case with a juvenile, we would deal with our local social services. So, she’ll need to be placed tonight in some sort of, you know, foster care facility or somewhere secure because she’s a juvenile. So, we’ll have to call them out to make arrangements for that.
((Banner: The girl will be returned to her grandparents in California))
((CORPORAL CHRIS HEID, MARYLAND STATE POLICE))
I mean, the recovery I guess is more than anything just trying to help someone, and get them the help they need. I think that’s the biggest part. Just our success, in my opinion, isn’t measured by the amount of pimps we arrest, or ‘johns’ we arrest. It’s the lives that we help. And if we can get a girl to quit doing that and get her life back together, that’s what makes it worthwhile for us.
((NATS))
((Banner: Federal authorities shut down backpage.com in April 2018))
((CORPORAL CHRIS HEID, MARYLAND STATE POLICE))
Since Backpage got shut down, we’ve, kind of, hit a little bit of a roadblock. For a period of a few days there at least we were, kind of, like trying to figure out where all the postings went, so where all our potential victims went. We were able to come up with a few different websites that the girls have relocated to. The main problem is right now we don’t have one central location. So, when we had Backpage, or had access to Backpage, every girl in Maryland was pretty much posting on Backpage. So, it made it a lot easier for us to go to one central website. Our fear is that the minors may end up out on the streets at this point. If the girls do end up going to the street, that there also could be an increase in, you know, drug abuse.
((ANIMATION W/ GFX, CAPTIONS, PHOTOS))
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children estimates 1 in 6 endangered runaways reported to them were likely sex trafficking victims (2016 figures)
((PKG)) SEX TRAFFICKING / VICTIMS
((Banner: Moving Forward))
((Reporter: Carolyn Presutti))
((Camera: Mike Burke, Arash Arabasadi))
((Adapted by: Martin Secrest))
((Map: United States / Virginia))
((NATS))
((Banner: “Amy’s” daughter was sex trafficked at age 14 by a gang))
((AMY, KATE'S MOTHER))
The indicators that I first started to notice in “Kate”, her moods begin to change, and we went from this picture-perfect family to a daughter who resented us. She would distance herself from us as much as possible.
((Banner: “Kate” began, at age 14, a relationship with a 21 year-old male attending her school))
((KATE, SEX TRAFFICKED VICTIM))
So, we started talking. Months and months passed by. I started sneaking out to parties with him, and he would introduce me to a lot of his male friends, and I started getting, like, red flags. And again, I wasn’t aware but I was literally walking into sex trafficking. I was at the gates of it and had no idea that sex trafficking even existed.
((AMY, KATE'S MOTHER))
I got a call one early February morning, and it was this boy. He called to tell me that Kate was in trouble. And I said, “What are you talking about? She’s upstairs sleeping.” And he said, “No, she’s not. She’s at a party and she’s drunk and she’s high and she needs your help.”
((KATE, SEX TRAFFICKED VICTIM))
I was with all these old men. All I saw was they thought I was pretty. They thought I was cute. They gave me attention. I started drinking. I was under the influence by many drugs, and I was sex trafficked that night. I remember blacking out. After a couple days of running around with them, and just honestly feeling like I would never be found, I was stuck in that lifestyle. All I wanted to do was self-medicate. I didn’t want to feel anything. I didn’t want to remember anything. So, I would use and use until I would forget about what happened. And I lost faith in my family. And this was just the second day of being gone. I didn’t think they would find me. I didn’t think anyone would find me. Who would look for me?
((AMY, KATE'S MOTHER))
And when she went missing, I knew deep down inside that she needed me to find her and I was going to find her.
((KATE, SEX TRAFFICKED VICTIM))
When I was found, I was in the process of being sent to a whole other area, a whole other state. I remember almost getting into the car and then seeing blue lights, and squad cars. I remember seeing my mom again. I went to another hospital in Richmond. While I was there, I, of course, met my detective, and he helped me through a lot, that what I went through did matter and then I started realizing, oh, this is what I went through. This is what this is called.
((CAROLYN PRESUTTI, VOA NEWS))
So, what’s your message to parents? How can they protect their daughters and sons?
((AMY, KATE'S MOTHER))
I think the first step is understanding that human trafficking is a real problem here in the United States. That it’s not something that’s going to go away, and, you know, the age range for children is anywhere from nine to 19, with the average age of being 11. These captors will use the children, will groom them for six, eight, ten months at a time. And if they have the resources to groom these children, then we should have the funds and resources to help combat it.
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up….
((Banner))
Legacy of Terror
((SOT))
White supremacy was not just a terror on black community, it was a terror on white community. Because if you didn’t fit that mold, there was no way for you to express your difference.
BREAK ONE
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
BLOCK B
((PKG)) PEACE AND JUSTICE MEMORIAL
((Banner: Facing the Past))
((Reporter: Kane Farabaugh))
((Adapted by: Philip Alexiou))
((Map: United States // Montgomery, Alabama))
((Banner: A New Memorial Recognizes African American Victims of Lynching and Terror))
((NATS))
((ISOKE FEMI, VISITOR))
My experience in there is that it is so painful.
((REVEREND JESSE JACKSON, CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER))
5000 blacks were lynched between 1880 and 1940. We must face the truth of our origins. We are a post-genocidal, post-slavery, post-Jim Crow society.
((MARK POTOK, AUTHOR))
I have spent my career tracking racial terrorists today but, of course, that kind of terrorism is very small and almost insignificant compared to what it once was. So, you know, I know from living in Alabama for 20 years now, that it has been simply impossible to move ahead in this state because of the unwillingness of a lot of people, mostly whites, to really look at the past.
((ISOKE FEMI, VISITOR))
White supremacy was not just a terror on black community, it was a terror on white community. Because if you didn’t fit that mould, there was no way for you to express your difference. There was no way, and so what does that say? The love that it took to do this, the commitment, the courage, and the fact that everybody is here, that it’s not just something that black people are coming to. Everybody, even if they couldn’t form the words, they couldn’t say the words, they want the healing. They want the healing of America. They want their hearts to be set free.
((PKG)) CAPOEIRA ANGOLA
((Banner: Honoring the Past))
((Reporter / Camera: Mayra Fernandes, Karina Choudhury))
((Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki))
((Map: Angola to Brazil to Washington, D.C.))
((ANIMATION W/ GFX, CAPTIONS, PHOTOS)) CAPOEIRA
Capoeira is an art form that combines music, dance and martial arts.
Rooted in the rich cultures brought to Brazil by enslaved Africans in the 1500s, Capoeira found resonance in the United States in the last half century.
((NATS))
((DINAJ, CAPOEIRA PRACTITIONER))
A lot of people, blacks in America, are always looking for some way to get back to their roots, something that, kind of, connects them. So, I thought it was fitting that Capoeira was banned in Brazil before being allowed for all Brazilians to participate in, because so many aspects of black American life were banned before being opened up, you know, allowing us to vote, allowing us to come in and drink from the same water fountains and use the same restrooms.
((CLYDE CLARK, CAPOEIRA PRACTITIONER))
It integrates music, movements, dance, arts, philosophy and history, all in one form, as well as the complexity and intelligence of it. I mean, you have to be very knowledgeable, savvy, remember a lot of things, apply strategies that wouldn’t normally apply and it, kind of, teaches a life philosophy. How to smile in the face of danger is how I put it.
((KHALID THOMPSON, CAPOEIRA PRACTITIONER))
There is something about the jovial nature, the slyness of it, the stories, the mystery, the mystic of it that just drew me in immediately and I feel like not only are you learning a lot about yourself, but you are learning a lot about a whole another world or alternative universe of feelings and emotions and perspectives that are deeply rooted in African mysticism and culture.
((JESSIE WINSTON, CAPOEIRA PRACTITIONER))
That’s what we do here. That’s what it’s about. You know, when I first started I could barely hold a berimbau. I could lift a 60-pound dumbbell, but I couldn’t hold a berimbau for two minutes, and I learned to fall in love with it. When I am not here, if I have two hours or four hours, I’m just playing. I get home from work, I grab my berimbau and I play because it’s therapy.
((DINAJ, CAPOEIRA PRACTITIONER))
The music is great. You can really feel it in your soul. And when you sing along, you feel like you are part of something greater, a part of something more, so, it’s not really uncommon for someone to start crying when they hear a song or to get goose bumps. The music is, you know, almost the best part.
((DALE MARCELLIN, CAPOEIRA TEACHER))
Capoeira is for everybody, but everybody is not for Capoeira. Capoeira pulls you into it. All I do is make a comfortable environment where people could come sing and have a good time and enjoy themselves and, like a snake, Capoeira will grab you.
((KHALID THOMPSON, CAPOEIRA PRACTITIONER))
The music is very hypnotic, powerful and it just automatically grabs you. The rhythms of the atabaques and the berimbaus, and the slowness and depth of the beat, it just resonates and moves something in your body.
((JESSIE WINSTON, CAPOEIRA PRACTITIONER))
Liberation. That’s really it, liberation and community. Right now, in this country, there’s chaos, there’s separation. People are realizing that things that we thought were in repair aren’t really in repair. We have a lot of work to do, but we are also realizing that we are disconnected, that black communities in this country are falling apart. There is no more Harlem. D.C. isn’t Chocolate City. Oakland isn’t Oakland. And we need help. We need to realize how we can reconnect, how we can build community, and Capoeira started with that. It started with people who are of disconnected origins, who are in a foreign land under foreign rule and needed something, needed an identity and something they could grasp on to and something to hand on to their children and family to make them stronger. That’s what I am looking for today.
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up….
((Banner))
Born to Drive
((SOT))
He wasn't allowed to race at certain speedways. He had death threats not to come to Atlanta. And Daddy said, “Look, if I leave in a pine box, that's what I got to do, but I'm going to race.”
BREAK TWO
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
BLOCK C
((Banner: StoryCorps))
((PKG)) STORY CORPS -- DRIVEN
((Banner: Driven))
((Banner: NASCAR driver Wendell Scott began his career in the South during the Jim Crow era. At StoryCorps, his son Frank and grandson Warrick remember Wendell’s racing days.
((FRANK SCOTT))
He started racing in 1952. And you know, it was like Picasso. Like a great artist doing his work. He was in that car. He was doing his work. But, you know, he couldn't get the support. Where other drivers that we were competing against had major sponsorships, he did everything that he did out of his own pocket. And as children we didn't have that leisure time, you know, we couldn't go to the playground. He said to us, “I need you at the garage.” I can remember him getting injured and he'd just take axle grease and put it in the cut and keep working. But he wasn't allowed to race at certain speedways. He had death threats not to come to Atlanta. And Daddy said, “Look, if I leave in a pine box, that's what I got to do, but I'm going to race.”
I can remember him racing in Jacksonville and he beat them all, but they wouldn't drop the checkered flag. And then when they did drop the checkered flag, they had my father in 3rd place. One of the main reasons that they gave was there was a white beauty queen and they always kissed the driver. He finally got the money, but, of course, the trophy was gone, the fans were gone, the beauty queens were gone.
((WARRICK SCOTT))
Did he ever consider not racing anymore?
((FRANK SCOTT))
Never. That was one of my daddy's sayings, “When it's too tough for everybody else, it's just right for me.”
I can remember one time when we were racing the Atlanta 500 and he was sick. He needed an operation. And I said, “Daddy, we don't have to race today.” He whispered to me and said, “Lift my legs up and put me in the car.” He drove 500 miles that day.
He always felt like someday he's going to get his big break. But for 20 years, nobody mentioned Wendell Scott. But he didn't let it drive him crazy. I think that's what made him so great. He chose to be a race car driver and he was going to race until he couldn't race no more.
Wendell Scott
August 29, 1921 – December 23, 1990
In 2015, Wendell Scott became the first African-American to be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
NEXT WEEK / GOOD BYE ((VO/NAT))
Conservation: Water
((SOT))
Conservation: Shells
((SOT))
Conservation: Burgers
((SOT))
CLOSING ((ANIM))
(Join) Facebook, (Follow) Twitter, (Watch) YouTube
BREAK THREE
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
SHOW ENDS
