Activism

Jeannie Mai Fights Against Human Trafficking

Mai first learned about human trafficking eight years ago when she visited a close family friend in Vietnam who was sold into prostitution by her uncle to work at a brothel. Mai took care of her, helped her pay off the debt, and connected her with housing and resources provided by a group that aids human trafficking survivors.

Published

4 years ago

March 25, 2021

Mia Lane

Jeannie Mai speaking, via zoom, at the 2021 Annual San Francisco Collaborative Against Human Trafficking’s Teen Power Summit Award Ceremony which took place on Feb. 24, 2021.

Jeannie Mai, 42, an Emmy award-winning host, is also an international activist working against human trafficking in the United States and Vietnam.

She was born in 1979 and was raised in San Jose, CA. Her mother, Olivia, is Vietnamese, and her father, James, is Chinese-Vietnamese.

Mai is a style expert and producer, have co-hosted the syndicated talk show “The Real,” and is a sideline correspondent for ABC’s extreme mini-golf competition series “Holey Moley.” Mai recently competed on Season 29 of the hit series “Dancing with the Stars.”

Mai was abused as a child and was traumatized. She went through therapy to heal from her trauma when she was 22.

Mai began signing up on different mission trips through Asia to learn more about human traffickings, such as living for six months in a shelter that protected women in Taiwan. She also lived, with two undercover girls, inside a brothel for about two months to learn about prostitution.

“It just stopped me dead in my tracks because I had no idea something like this could even exist, and when I probed more into it, I found so many more heart-wrenching facts happening all around the world,” Mai told NBC News.

A few years later, Mai produced “Stopping Traffic: The Movement to End Sex Trafficking,” a documentary that investigates the international crisis of human sex trafficking, especially in Vietnam, from a deeply personal point of view in 2017. Mai decided to work to end human trafficking, speaking about it on TV and hosting events supporting anti-human trafficking organizations.

Mai is an ambassador for the Milpitas-based Pacific Links Foundation, an organization committed to rescuing women and children from sex trafficking and slavery in Vietnam, providing employment and vocational opportunities; and for empowers them by improving their life skills, raising their self-awareness.

Mai also worked for Step Up, which propels girls from under-resourced communities to fulfill their career potential. She has served as a missionary and ambassador for organizations such as Nightlight International, Not for Sale, and Heartbeat Vietnam.

In 2016, Mai was honored as a 2016 Women of Empowerment by Ciroc, Variety, and Women’s Wear Daily.

To learn more about Mai’s story, go to one of her YouTube videos “My Fight Against Human Trafficking.”

Mia Lane

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Activism

Remembering George Floyd

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing.

Published

6 days ago

June 2, 2025

Oakland Post

Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

By April Ryan
BlackPressUSA Newswire

“The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse. It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.

The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in policing act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”

In 2025, Police-involved civilian deaths are up by “about 100 to about 11 hundred,” according to Ellison. Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African-American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing. During those minutes on the ground, Floyd cried out for his late mother several times. Police subdued Floyd for an alleged counterfeit $20 bill.