00:00The cracks are a metaphor for vulnerable populations that are hidden in plain sight.
00:19I started putting red sand and sidewalk cracks in Miami and bringing the conversation into
00:25public dialogue with people who would stop on the street to ask me what I was doing and
00:29why, and they don't expect to hear that it's a project about modern-day slavery.
00:34The feedback from U.S. survivors was, thank you for creating something that doesn't exploit
00:39me or another survivor, and puts the attention on the vulnerabilities that led to my situation.
00:54There's illicit massage businesses all around Houston, and that's a front for a lot of sex
01:00trafficking, but it never occurred to me.
01:04In the United States, two-thirds of the kids sold for sex come out of foster care.
01:09Vulnerabilities that can lead to modern-day slavery are lack of access to education or
01:13health care, discrimination, gender, and poverty.
01:21Depending on your immigration status, if you don't have citizenship, you're much more
01:26vulnerable to being trafficked.
01:39So they say that it's something that's hidden in plain sight, and I wonder, well, what are
01:44the signs to look for, and what do you do if you see it?
01:48If you're in a nail salon and the camera is pointed at the workers, that might be a
01:54sign of human trafficking.
01:58If you see someone who is being bullied by another person or feels uneasy talking to
02:06you freely, that could be a sign of human trafficking.
02:10If you notice that someone can't leave their house alone or is nervous walking in their
02:16neighborhood, that might be a sign of human trafficking.
02:20Survivors have taken the project back to where they were trafficked and used it as healing
02:26for them and that site and their relationship to that, but it really means a lot.
02:31When a survivor calls me especially and tells me about what it meant for her to do the project
02:37and that the project's helped her actually connect different organizations in her community
02:45around this issue and helped her tell the story in a way that was more comfortable because
02:52it put the attention not on herself, but on what led to the enslavement.
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