I’m in the middle of reading the book: “Girls Like Us: Fighting for a World Where Girls Are Not for Sale, an Activist Finds Her Calling and Heals Herself” by Rachel Lloyd.  As soon I started reading the book, I knew I wanted to write about it.  I’m not finished with the book, but for some reason I have an extreme urgency to write about it today.  Today, the national “observed” holiday in honor of the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., I sit in awe of what Dr. King stood for and did for our country.

Except today I am saddened.  You see this book is not on a topic that any of us probably want to talk about over dinner, on a plane, or over the phone with a good friend.  It is not a happy book. Except the thing is, you have to read it.  It’s about the sexual exploitation of our children right here in America.  Not some other country far, far away, but here in your backyard.

The section I was just reading was talking about how sexual exploitation often happens in poverty stricken communities, sometimes where drugs are involved and often to those in group homes or in the system.  It happens when at some point in a girl’s life someone stops caring, stops loving, or someone stops being responsible for the child.  The reason this is hitting me so strongly today is because the author just discussed how much this effects children of color.  She discusses how a large percentage of sexual exploited children are children of color and that many in our society look the other way.  The “many” being judges, jurors, law enforcement officers, lawyers, etc.  The author also sites statistics of how the news media willingly shows situations nationally about white, middle class girls that have been sexually exploited, but leaves out the coverage of children of color.  You can find an example that the author shares in this New York Times article.  Why is this?

We can no longer look the other way.

So in honor of Dr. King’s birthday, put this book on your reading list.  Please, please read this book.  I am about halfway through and so far it is not at all graphic, so the part that is difficult to read has more to do with how this is happening in my city and your city.  The hard part is that it is happening at all.