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Black, Vulnerable and Trafficked – Who’s Buying Black Girls?

Although California Senate Bill 357 was intended to alleviate arrests of willing sex workers under anti-loitering laws, it opened a Pandora’s box loophole that hinders the ability of law enforcement to halt human trafficking, especially of young Black and Brown girls. This segment explores who is ‘buying’ people for sex exploitation.

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With the passing of SB 357, cars line up as buyers become emboldened now that the threat of prosecution has all but disappeared. A police officer can no longer intervene in what appears to be a transaction, he must now hear the transaction before taking action.
With the passing of SB 357, cars line up as buyers become emboldened now that the threat of prosecution has all but disappeared. A police officer can no longer intervene in what appears to be a transaction, he must now hear the transaction before taking action.

By Tanya Dennis and Vanessa Russell

Although California Senate Bill 357 was intended to alleviate arrests of willing sex workers under anti-loitering laws, it opened a Pandora’s box loophole that hinders the ability of law enforcement to halt human trafficking, especially of young Black and Brown girls. This segment explores who is ‘buying’ people for sex exploitation.

The overlying unintended effect of SB 357 is that it gives priority to the needs of the person ‘buying’ sex over the predicament of those forced into the sex trade through human trafficking.

In Part 1, the Post shared that 40% of the victims of human trafficking in our nation are Black women and girls.

This statistic is alarming especially when we look at who is ‘buying’ them.  A 2006 online research project by Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) revealed the following ‘buyer’ demographics: 99% of the buyers are men; 86% are 26 and older; 42% earned more than $50,000 a year; 29% graduated from college; 69% are employed and 49% are married.

The public wonders if ‘buyers’ are consciously purchasing Black girls and women or if they are merely purchasing whoever is available.  Top search results on sites like Pornhub, reveal that demand for Black bodies is intentional.  Black girls are in the top three search results for Pornhub and other exploitative sites.

In 2020, Pornhub was investigated for showing 118 videos of confirmed cases of child abuse and human trafficking and hosting videos titled “Black Slave” and “Black Slave Pleasures White Master.”  In one case, a set of videos with this theme was watched 527,000 times and received 70% ‘thumbs up’ from the viewers.  These racist themes confirm that the purchase of Black girls for the purpose enslavement is part of the ‘buyer’s’ fantasy.

Several different approaches have been attempted to deter sex buying.  In the mid-1970s, the Oakland Police Department engaged in reverse stings, placing an undercover female officer on a street corner to catch buyers in the act.

Convicts had their vehicles seized and paid fees of up to 20% of the cost of the vehicle as well as towing and storage fees.  “Between 1997 and 1999 the Oakland City Attorney seized and impounded over 350 vehicles.”

A federal court later ruled that seizure ordinances violated state laws.  One interesting point from this program that holds true today is that 60% of those who were caught buying sex were not from Oakland.

Other Oakland approaches to deterring sex buying included getting buyers fired from their jobs and placing buyers on neighborhood ‘stay-away’ lists.  The EPIK Project, which is devoted to disrupting the demand for sex trafficking and increase the capacity of law enforcement, attempted to solve sex buying by creating a decoy trafficking site which was accessed up to 40,000 times a month and using it to engage with buyers and have men speak with them about their behaviors.

In 2014, Oakland attempted to address demand by launching a Buyer Shaming website. Then in 2016, the Alameda County CEASE (Cities Empowered Against Sexual Exploitation) Network and the City of Oakland launched a coalition and a tool titled ReportJohn.org, which was based on the “Dear John” initiative by Oakland non-profit East Bay Asian Youth Center (EBAYC) that sent a letters to the registered owner of every car that neighbors reported as trolling for sex.

Melissa Farley, a Bay Area trafficking expert and researcher, studied a group of sex buyers in Boston. She found that individuals who purchased sex feared female rejection and endorsed rape myths, such as the belief that “prostitution reduces the likelihood of rape.”

These men revealed their violent tendencies toward women, sharing that they would “force a woman to have sex or rape them if they could get away with it, and engaged in sexually aggressive behavior with very little empathy for the exploited, believing that “prostituted women are intrinsically different from other women.”

One buyer comment perfectly and horrifically summarizes buyer sentiment toward the women and girls he purchased.  He said the transaction is like disposing of a coffee cup after you’ve finished drinking it, “When you’re done, you throw it out.”

Buyer diversion programs — like those provided to domestic violence perpetrators bring survivors in to tell their story in hopes of creating a more human narrative in the minds of buyers — have been successfully rolled out in Fresno and Orange County resulting in very low recidivism rates.

When the group of buyers from the Boston study were asked what would change their behavior, a few said a fee and a few days in jail would be enough of a deterrent. One hundred percent said that a 30-day jail stay would deter their buying behavior completely.

Tanya Dennis, is CEO Adamika Village and serves on the Board of Oakland Frontline Healers (OFH). Vanessa Russell, the author of “Love Never Fails Us,” is the COO of the Violence Prevention Coalition and a member of OFH

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Oakland Post: Week of October 30 – November 5, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of October 30 – November 5, 2024

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“Two things can be true at once.” An Afro-Latina Voter Weighs in on Identity and Politics

“As a Puerto Rican I do not feel spoken to in discussions about Latino voters… which is ironic because we are one of the few Latino communities who are also simultaneously American,” Ortiz-Cedeño says. Puerto Ricans born in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, have American citizenship by birth but they do not have the right to vote for president if they live on the island. “I think that we miss out on a really interesting opportunity to have a nuanced conversation by ignoring this huge Latino population that is indigenously American.”

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Keyanna Ortiz-Cedeño at her graduation from UC Berkeley after receiving her master’s degree in City Regional Planning. Alongside her, are her parents holding a Puerto Rican flag. Courtesy photo.
Keyanna Ortiz-Cedeño at her graduation from UC Berkeley after receiving her master’s degree in City Regional Planning. Alongside her, are her parents holding a Puerto Rican flag. Courtesy photo.

By Magaly Muñoz

On a sunny afternoon at Los Cilantros Restaurant in Berkeley, California, Keyanna Ortiz-Cedeño, a 27-year-old Afro-Latina with tight curly hair and deep brown skin, stares down at her carne asada tacos, “I’ve definitely eaten more tortillas than plantains over the course of my life,” says Cedeño, who spent her childhood in South Texas, among predominantly Mexican-American Latinos. As she eats, she reflects on the views that American politicians have of Latino voters.

“As a Puerto Rican I do not feel spoken to in discussions about Latino voters… which is ironic because we are one of the few Latino communities who are also simultaneously American,” Ortiz-Cedeño says. Puerto Ricans born in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, have American citizenship by birth but they do not have the right to vote for president if they live on the island. “I think that we miss out on a really interesting opportunity to have a nuanced conversation by ignoring this huge Latino population that is indigenously American.”

Ortiz-Cedeño, an urban planner who is focused on disaster resilience, homelessness and economic prosperity for people of color, says that political conversations around Latinos tend to shift towards immigration, “I think this ties back into the ways that our perception of ‘Latino’ tends to be Mexican and Central American because so much of our conversation about Latinos is deeply rooted in what’s happening on the border,” she says. “I don’t think that the Afro-Latino vote is frequently considered when we’re talking about the Latino vote in the United States.”

Primarily surrounded by Mexican-Americans while growing up in South Texas, Keyanna participated in many Chicano cultured events, such as being a dama in several quinceñeras. Courtesy photo.

Primarily surrounded by Mexican-Americans while growing up in South Texas, Keyanna participated in many Chicano cultured events, such as being a dama in several quinceñeras. Courtesy photo.

As Ortiz-Cedeño sifts through childhood photos of her as a happy teen dancing with the Mexican ballet folklorico group in high school and as a dama in quinceñeras, she reflects on growing up in South Texas, an area with a large population of white and Mexican-Americans. The Black population was small, and within it, the Afro-Latino population was practically nonexistent.

“It was interesting to try to have conversations with other Latinos in the community because I think that there was a combination of both willful ignorance and a sort of ill intent and effort to try and deny my experience as a Latino,” she says. “There are a lot of folks in Latin America who experience a lot of cognitive dissonance when they think about the existence of Black Latinos in Latin America.

Ortiz-Cedeño comments on the long history of anti-Blackness in Latin America. “Throughout Latin America, we have a really insidious history with erasing Blackness and I think that that has been carried into the Latino American culture and experience,” she says. “People will tell you, race doesn’t exist in Latin America, like we’re all Dominicans, we’re all Puerto Ricans, we’re all Cubans, we’re all Mexicans. If you were to go to the spaces with where people are from and look at who is experiencing the most acute violence, the most acute poverty, the most acute political oppression and marginalization, those people are usually darker. And that’s not by accident, it’s by design.”

Because of the lack of diversity in her Gulf Coast town, as a teenager, despite being the only Spanish-speaker at her job in Walmart, Latinos refused to ask for her help in Spanish.

“Even if monolingual [Spanish-speaking] people would have to speak with me, then they were trying to speak English, even though they could not speak English, versus engaging with me as a Latina,” she says.

“I think that the perception of Latinos in the United States is of a light brown person with long, wavy or straight hair. The perfect amount of curves and the perfect combination of Indigenous and white genes. And very rarely will people also consider that maybe they also have a sprinkle of Blackness in them as well,” she says. “Over 90% of the slave trade went to the Caribbean and Latin America.”

Keyanna as a toddler, holding a whiteboard up with her last name, Ortiz-Cedeño, on it. Courtesy photo.

Keyanna as a toddler, holding a whiteboard up with her last name, Ortiz-Cedeño, on it. Courtesy photo.

Ortiz-Cedeño remembers when a Cuban family moved in next door to her in Texas. The teen daughter had blue-eyes, blonde hair and only spoke Spanish, which caused neighboring Latinos to take pause because she didn’t fit the Latino “look” they were used to.

“People didn’t have an option to try and negate her [Latino] identity because they had to acknowledge her for everything that she was,” Ortiz-Cedeño says.

Later on, the girl’s cousins, a Black, Spanish-speaking Cuban family, came into town and again locals were forced to reckon with the fact that not all Latinos fit a certain criteria.

“I think it forced everybody to have to confront a reality that they knew in the back of their mind but didn’t want to acknowledge at the forefront,” Ortiz-Cedeño says.

Having gone through these experiences as an Afro-Latina, Ortiz-Cedeño says it’s easy for her to understand Kamala Harris’ mixed Indian and Jamaican heritage, “It comes really naturally to accept that she is both Indian and Black. Two things can exist at the same time,” she says. “I had a long term partner for about seven years who was South Indian, from the same state as Kamala Harris, so if we had had a kid, they would look like [Harris],” Ortiz-Cedeño jokingly shares.

She says she can relate to having to walk the road of people only wanting to see Harris as a Black American. The talking point about [Harris] not being Indian or not being Black, just deciding to be Black, is really disingenuous and cheap,” she says.

Ortiz-Cedeño believes that the Harris campaign has not capitalized on the vice president’s mixed identity, which could be vital in bringing together different communities to understand each other on a new level and allow for improvements on America’s racial dynamics.

Keyanna co-managed a recovery center with her mother after Hurricane Harvey. They packed essentials, such as diapers, food, and water for families in need. Courtesy photo.

Keyanna co-managed a recovery center with her mother after Hurricane Harvey. They packed essentials, such as diapers, food, and water for families in need. Courtesy photo.

As she rushes into a Berkeley Urban Planning Commission meeting straight out of Ashby BART station, Ortiz-Cedeño explains her love for talking about all things infrastructure, homelessness, and healthcare access. The topics can be dry for many, she admits, but in the end, she gets to address long-standing systemic issues that often hinder opportunities for growth for people of color.

Having lived through the effects of Hurricane Katrina as a child, with the flooding and mass migration of Louisiana residents into Texas, Ortiz-Cedeño was radicalized into issues of displacement, emergency mitigation, and housing at nine years old.

“I remember my principal had to carry her students on her shoulders and swim us home because so many parents were trying to drive in and get their kids from school [due to] the flooding that was pushing their cars away,” she recalls.

Her family relocated to Houston soon after Katrina, only to be met with a deadly Hurricane Rita. They wound up in a mega-shelter, where Ortiz-Cedeño says she heard survivors stories of the unstable conditions in New Orleans and beyond, which got her wondering about urban planning, a term she wasn’t familiar with at the time.

“I think that when you put people in the context of the things that were happening in this country around [these hurricanes], a lot of us started to really think seriously about who gets to make decisions about the urban environment,” she adds.

Watching the heavy displacement of disaster survivors, hearing stories of her Navy veteran father’s chronic homelessness, and her own mother’s work and activism with homeless communities in the non–profit sector put her on the path to progressive politics and solutions, she says. After attending college on the East Coast- where she says she was finally recognized as a Puerto Rican- and working in housing, economic development, and public policy, she returned to California to earn a Master’s in City Regional Planning from UC Berkeley.

Young Keyanna volunteering at a beach clean up. Activism and giving back to her community has always been a key part of her upbringing. Courtesy photo.

Young Keyanna volunteering at a beach clean up. Activism and giving back to her community has always been a key part of her upbringing. Courtesy photo.

Her vast interest in the urban success of underserved communities even took her abroad to Israel and Palestine when she was an undergraduate college student. “I’ve seen the border with Gaza, I’ve had homestays with farmers in the West Bank,” she says. “For me personally, Palestine is an issue that is really close to the heart.”

“I have a very intimate understanding of the conflict and I’m very disturbed by the way in which the [Democratic] party has not been willing to engage in what I would perceive to be a thoughtful enough conversation about the conflict,” Ortiz-Cedeño says. “The issue of Palestine is going to be one of those that is a make or break issue for her. It has not been one that has been taken seriously enough by the party.”

Ortiz-Cedeño is not under the illusion that one candidate will address every policy issue she wants to see tackled by the president. But she believes it’s better than what former President Donald Trump has to offer.

“Trump has made it very clear what his intentions are with Palestine, and what his relationship is with [Benjamin] Netanyahu,” Ortiz-Cedeño says. “I understand the political strategy that many people are trying to engage in by withholding their vote, but I would also encourage them to re-engage in the political process.”

Casting her vote for Harris is a decision grounded in calculation rather than outright support. “I think I can vote in this election in order to have harm reduction… because I have deep care and concern for other communities that are going to be impacted by a Trump presidency,” Ortiz-Cedeño says.

She also hopes that American politicians will consider the nuance and perspective that Afro-Latinos bring to the table when it comes to politics, policy, and race in America, “When we don’t think expansively about who is Latino in the United States, the breadth of Latino experiences in the United States, we miss an opportunity to capture how diverse Latinos interests are politically.”

This story was reported in collaboration with PBS VOCES: Latino Vote 2024.

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Alameda County

Access Better Health with Medically Tailored Meals – Transforming Health Through Nutrition for Medi-Cal Patients

Launched in 2018, the Medically Tailored Meals pilot program was designed to help Medi-Cal patients with congestive heart failure by reducing hospital readmissions and emergency department visits by providing tailored meals meeting specific dietary needs. The program’s success in improving health outcomes and reducing costly emergency room visits encouraged the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to expand the Medically Tailored Meals program to all 58 counties through Medi-Cal transformation and a new set of services called Community Supports.

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Launched in 2018, the Medically Tailored Meals pilot program was designed to help Medi-Cal patients with congestive heart failure by reducing hospital readmissions and emergency department visits by providing tailored meals meeting specific dietary needs.

The program’s success in improving health outcomes and reducing costly emergency room visits encouraged the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to expand the Medically Tailored Meals program to all 58 counties through Medi-Cal transformation and a new set of services called Community Supports.

Medically Tailored Meals are one of 14 new services offered through Medi-Cal that provide members with access to new and improved services to get well-rounded care that goes beyond the doctor’s office or hospital.

Medically Tailored Meals: Overview

Malnutrition and poor nutrition can lead to severe health outcomes, especially among Medi-Cal patients with chronic health conditions. Medically Tailored Meals aim to improve health outcomes, reduce hospital readmissions, and enhance patient satisfaction by providing essential nutrition.

Key Features:

  1. Post-Discharge Delivery: Meals are delivered to patients’ homes immediately following discharge from a hospital or nursing home.
  2. Customized Nutrition: Meals are tailored to meet the dietary needs of those with chronic diseases, designed by registered dietitians (RD) or certified nutrition professionals based on evidence-based guidelines.
  3. Comprehensive Services: Includes medically tailored groceries, healthy food vouchers, and food pharmacies.
  4. Educational Support: Behavioral, cooking, and nutrition education is included when paired with direct food assistance.

Key Benefits:

  • Address Food Insecurity: Mitigates poor health outcomes linked to food insecurity.

 

  • Support Complex Care Needs: Tailored to individuals with chronic conditions.

 

  • Improve Health Outcomes: Studies show improvements in diabetes control, fall prevention, and medication adherence.

 

Patient Testimonial:

“My diabetes has gotten better with the meals. I’ve kept my weight down, and I feel much better now than I have in a long time. I’m one of the people this program is meant for.” — Brett

Eligibility:

  • Eligible Populations: Eligible Medi-Cal members include those with chronic conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, congestive heart failure, stroke, chronic lung disorders, HIV, cancer, gestational diabetes, and chronic mental or behavioral health disorders. Also, those being discharged from a hospital or skilled nursing facility or at high risk of hospitalization or nursing facility placement are also eligible.

 

  • Service Limitations: Up to two meals per day for up to 12 weeks, extendable if medically necessary. Meals eligible for reimbursement by alternate programs are not covered.

 

Cost Savings and Improved Health Outcomes:

  • Health Outcomes: Research indicates a 22% to 58% decrease in emergency department visits and a 27% to 63% decrease in inpatient admissions among Medically Tailored Meals recipients, translating to significant health care cost savings.

 

Project Open Hand: A Success Story

Project Open Hand has been a leader in providing Medically Tailored Meals, significantly impacting the lives of Bay Area Medi-Cal patients with chronic illnesses. Since its inception, Project Open Hand has delivered nutritious meals to individuals with diabetes, HIV, and other serious health conditions, demonstrating remarkable health improvements and cost savings.

 

Key Achievements:

  • Improved Health Outcomes: Project Open Hand’s research found a 50% increase in medication adherence among recipients of Medically Tailored Meals.

 

  • Reduced Hospitalizations: Their program showed a 63% reduction in hospitalizations for patients with diabetes and HIV.

 

  • Enhanced Quality of Life: Patients reported better health and increased energy levels.

 

Project Open Hand ensures that each meal is prepared using fresh, wholesome ingredients tailored to meet the specific dietary needs of its clients. By partnering with Medi-Cal managed care plans, Project Open Hand continues to provide life-saving nutrition to those who need it most.

Join Us in Our Mission

You can experience the profound impact of Medically Tailored Meals by joining the Medi-Cal Community Supports services initiative. Your involvement can make a difference in promoting your health through nutrition.

Learn More

For more information about Medically Tailored Meals and how to get involved, call the state’s Medi-Cal Health Care options at 800-430-4263 or contact your local managed care plan.

In Alameda County, Medi-Cal recipients can contact:

*   Alameda Alliance for Health: 510-747-4567

*   Kaiser Permanente: 855-839-7613

In Contra Costa County, Medi-Cal recipients can contact:
*   Contra Costa Health Plan: 877-661-6230

*   Kaiser Permanente: 855-839-7613

In Marin County, Medi-Cal recipients can contact:
*   Partnership Health Plan of California: 800-863-4155

*   Kaiser Permanente: 855-839-7613

In Solano County, Medi-Cal recipients can contact:
*   Partnership Health Plan of California: 800-863-4155

*   Kaiser Permanente: 855-839-7613
Your health and well-being are your health care provider’s top priority. Medically Tailored Meals are designed to enhance quality of life by advancing health care through the power of nutrition. Experience the benefits today, and take the first step toward a healthier you.

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