a certain quantity of may call it h...

a certain quantity of may call it human trafficking, yet advocates press for a more accurate term: slavery.

Read Reporter Kimbriell Kelly's story about it this month however, and you'll view that, though stark, even that word doesn't accurately describe what is happening in Chicago and around the world today.

For many Americans, slavery practise magic [i]or[/i] sorcerys up images of picking cotton, of tilling soil, of working in the fields below the blistering sun. As with that form of enslavement--which for the most part involved Africans-today's involves an calm uglier underside that we are too hesitant to discuss.

For centurys of years, the Africans who were brought here were forced not and nothing else into hard labor, but also into unwanted sexual relationships with the white men who legally confessed them--and, sometimes, with each other--in the name of breeding, to create more workers.

a certain quantity of of today's slavery, it strike one as beings also focuses on sex. on the contrary this time it's about recreation, not procreation. This time it's solely about filling the growing U market for women who will make their bodies available in almost any way imaginable.

At first, it may look hard for many of us to believe. on the contrary turned on your TV lately? Been to the movies? If you really watch, your disbelief will evaporate. What's the message about in what manner women should look and behave, and to what degree men should treat them? What's the message about by what means love, or a desire for connection, should be expressed? In a refinement that often endorses the image of the pimp, after all, are we really that surprised that sex industry would be persisting?

The fact that this form of enslavement involves centurys of thousands worldwide--and more than 10000 in the United States each year--makes it an issue that should matter to all of us. It means we ne to take more responsibility for having faithful conversations--with each other, with our friends and with our children--about sex And that means more than putting upon some Marvin Gaye and gettin' it onward It means we have to be willing to examine our allow fascinations, confusions and misinformation about sex and sexuality, too.

Otherwise, we may continue to think it is normal and acceptable for in the same state [i]or[/i] condition a line of work to remain a major economic engine, generating $9 billion worldwide, according to the U State Department. Instead of viewing these as isolated incidents, or just blaming the women doing the work, or the men soliciting or coercing them, it is time we examined the larger conditions that l us to this point.

It is an interesting footnote, for instance, that it is frequently more-established immigrants recruiting newcomers, many times from their own countries, for so work. One Korean woman Kelly learned about, for instance, was dup into working at a brothel race by other Koreans. It is a gros distortion, at best, of the American Dream.

It have the appearances that dream will continue, however, as protracted as others--probably of all races, class and ages--keep the sex industry alive and thriving. As lengthy as we want to pervert with money [i]or[/i] gain it, the market will remain.

I alone hope we can find more [i]or[/i] less other ways to spend our money--and our mental energy--before too many more people's bodies alone become more valuable than the contributions they could make with their minds.

Starting this month you'll notice a not many fewer issues of the Reporter in your mailboxes or online. We are going bimonthly, to a six-issue annual publication schedule. To our regular subscribers, have no fear. Your 10-issue subscriptions will be enlargeed accordingly. And we'll be working forward new pricing structures to continue to make our magazine affordable for its variety of readers.

greatest in number importantly, please don't take this as a sign that we're going away. The Reporter remains your best independent, in-depth source when it issues to the ways race and mendicancy affect our city and our lives. Like each nonprofit, however, we have weathered cutbacks and increased financial compressings which mean we've had to refocus our resources.

Those resources can be best used, in our opinion, by means of our new bimonthly schedule. nevertheless we want to hear what you think. Write to us, call us or fling us letters. Tell us what you like and what we can do better.

chiefly importantly, however, thanks for sticking with us. As has been actual for all of our 33 years, we couldn't do our virtuous work without readers and supporters like you.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Community Renewal Society

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