From Domination to Creation: Minh's Story.

I know that Im supposed to be writing about Coming to America Chapter 5, but I found a great opportunity in writing a reflection about Minh Dang and her story she told here on Thursday the 22nd.

I am extremely happy that I attended her lecture and learned so much about the life she has lived as well as the others in her position as well. I arrived at 6:00pm and we were expected to start at 6:30pm. I walked into the ballroom and it was absolutely packed with students, faculty and community members that all eagerly awaited her arrival. Because Minh ended up being late, only a few students left. It was their loss anyways. Minh finally arrived around 6:50pm and apologized for her tardiness, explaining that she was coming from Berkeley in rush hour.

With a short, quick and energetic introduction of herself, we watched the late night MNBC special on her called Sex Slaves: Minh's Story. And it really was everything about her that we needed to know about her life in sex slavery. I took a lot of notes and I, as well as many people, found themselves shaking their heads in disbelief or even shedding a tear or two.

Some of the things that I was saddened and even disturbed to learn about are ( and these are direct quotes from the special):

• Minh says the sexual and physical abuse starred early in the home where she alleges her father raped her from the age of 3.
• Both my parents sat me down at the age of 8 and made me write a contract and sign it saying that I would -- I would promise them 30% of my income to them for the rest of my life and that I would buy them a house, I'd become a doctor.My interpretation of it is they couldn't wait until I was going to become a doctor.That was going to take too long so they needed to do something else to earn money and income.
• I was going to school, being raped at night at home, being beaten.So by 8, I knew that it was going to be a pretty bad life.
• Minh said she worked hard to appear normal.While most sixth graders focused on sleepovers and socializing, minh drove herself to academic and athletic perfection, but still she says her parents were not satisfied.
• Whether it was a local auto body shop or one of the cafes that fronts for brothels, she says from age 11 to 17, her father sold her to various men and pocketed the cash.I remember the first day i was there, sitting there with this older man and they were drinking and I just sat there.And I went to the bathroom and when I came back, I was pulled into the back room by an older man and raped.And that's how it kind of began.

Her story was told and we learned a lot about her mother, her father and her general experience. She was a straight A student by day and by night was forced into sex slavery by her parents and constantly abused and raped at home. She went to UC Berkley for her undergrad and when she was a sophomore finally told her parents to never contact her again and sought out counseling and a support group.

After watching the special about her, she got up to speak and outlined basic statistics about sex slavery, like how it happens all over the United States and in the backyards of our cities. Statistics were thrown out about sex slavery as a whole, but the most fascinating thing I heard her say was towards the end her presentation.

Minh said that 80% of her life she's been enslaved and 20% she's been free. And I remember her saying something like, when she's double her age now, she would have still spent half her life enslaved. And that its a shame she will never have lived a life completely, 100% free of slavery.

The way she presents herself and her story, is so impressive. I never would have guessed, and no one guessed when she was in school, that she had been abused, raped and sold by her parents. Her story was really touching and amazing. When people first think of slavery, I would bet that no one really thinks about the slavery that is happening RIGHT NOW. People think that slavery is wrong and that it used to happen a long time ago, but so many forget that it happens every day in Asia, Latin America, the United States and more.

I found this website that is totally awesome and it shows people their "slavery footprint". Kind of like finding out ones carbon footprint, but this shows " How many slaves work for you". Its scary to see how people unknowingly participate in unfair working conditions or slavery of some sort in this modern world. But as we talked about in class, we live in a capitalist society that thrives on the cheapest labor we can get in order to make the most profit we can have. ( That was a little ramble/tangent)

However, Minh makes this point by telling us to reflect on why things are so cheap here and we think we're getting a good deal, but it falls apart the next day because it was shoddily made. Chances are, that product took anthers blood, sweat and tears to make.

I truly enjoyed this speaker and it was fun to find out that she spoke at a Bonner Conference a couple years ago and knows Eli Latimerlo. Im glad I went and I would be happy to have her again at this school so more people could hear her story and understand the bravery she had, the torture she endured and how to share what we know with others in order to help stop this atrocity.