By Nicole Casperson
A modern-day form of slavery that forces victims into sex is a horrible reality for millions of people all over the world.
Lubbock is no exception. From 2013 through 2015, 63 arrests were made for forced prostitution in Lubbock alone, according to the Lubbock Police Department.
Chong Kim in the 1990s. Picture provided by Kim.
Chong Kim, 41, is a sex trafficking advocate and activist, who describes herself as a former victim. Although the veracity of her story has been challenged, it is the basis for the film “Eden” and contains many elements confirmed by sex trafficking research.
The story—which Kim retold during a recent interview in Grapevine, Texas—begins when she went to a country music dance hall called City Limit in Dallas. She recalled that she did not feel like the prettiest girl, so when a handsome, blue-eyed man approached her, she was surprised and excited.
“When I met Keith, he looked like a pop star,” Kim said. “He asked me so many questions and he loved hearing me talk about myself.”
Kim said she did not realize this was a huge red flag. She thought she had met the perfect guy.
“Perpetrators will only talk about you, they won’t talk about themselves,” Kim said. “The less you know about them, the less you can tell the police.”
It is not uncommon in the sex trafficking industry for victims to identify pimps as their “boyfriends,” according to the Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center.
Texas Tech human development and family studies graduate student Miriam Lieway said she did extensive research on this issue and learned the tactics traffickers use on their victims.
City Limits, the bar where Kim met her perpetrator. Picture provided by Kim.
“They will build this relationship so that this person thinks, ‘this is my boyfriend, and this person really loved me’,” Lieway said.
However, this is far from the truth. Lieway said traffickers will beat, rape and drug their victims to make it difficult for them to escape.
Jaime Wheeler, a counselor and sex trafficking victim advocate for Lubbock’s Rape Crisis Center, Voice of Hope, said most victims are not abducted off the street; they are manipulated into the industry.
“Traffickers are very good at preying on vulnerabilities,” Wheeler said.
Within a short period of time, the victim is often encouraged to take a short trip with the “boyfriend” for what seems like a reasonable cause. This is what Kim said happened to her.
“Two weeks later, he said he wanted to take me to Florida,” Kim said.
Instead, she said, Keith took her to Enid, Oklahoma, where the abuse began. By this stage, the victim may be in no position to refuse the “boyfriend’s” commands because she is frightened and in an unfamiliar city.
“He got out of the car and walked to the passenger side,” Kim said. “He opened the door and started choking my neck.”
The house which was forced by her perpetrator and chained to the door for weeks. Photo provided by Kim.
Kim’s perpetrator then forced her into a house with boarded windows, she said.
“When he took me into the house, he slammed me against the wall and handcuffed me to the door,” Kim said.
She first attempted to escape the house by running into a shopping mall and screaming for help. No one came to her aid, she said.
“I looked like a homeless person,” Kim said. “I was covered in urine and feces from being locked in this house for several weeks.”
Kim said the people in the shopping mall looked at her as though she was crazy. Then, Keith finally caught up with her.
“He grabbed me and took me out, like the trash,” Kim said, “and everyone applauded him.”
After several failed attempts to escape the boarded house, Kim met a woman named Kat, who told her she would help her. Little did she know that this woman was a “madam,” which is a term for an older woman who manages a brothel, an escort service or a prostitution establishment.
“I had no idea what a ‘madam’ was, and she looked like a soccer mom,” Kim said. “She told me she was going to help me. I trusted her. The next thing I knew she was the one who got me trafficked.”
After meeting the madam, Kim said, she was transported to a prison-like warehouse in Las Vegas, Nevada. One empty bucket was provided to use instead of a bathroom, she said, while the other contained water and a floating bowl.
“Sometimes, feces would fall into the water bucket, but when you are that thirsty, there is nothing you can do about it,” Kim said.
After a year in the warehouse, Kim realized there was only one way to escape the day-to-day abuse. By 1996, to survive in the trade, Kim had to “fake” her way out. She decided to work her way up the industry and became a madam.
“When your buyers were corrupted officials, I had no other choice but to change the game,” Kim said.
After becoming a madam, Kim had the ultimate motivation to escape this industry: she was pregnant.
Picture provided by Kim.
One night, Kim pretended to work the streets as a prostitute, she said. She met a man, lured him into an alley, took a shoe off and beat him over the head.
“I pushed him out of the car and made sure he wasn’t dead,” she said.
In the stolen car, she said, she headed for Abilene, Texas. Later, she gave birth to a daughter and put her up for adoption.
“She is 18 years old now and goes to Baylor University,” Kim said.
After giving her daughter up for a better home, Kim said that she left the maternity home with no support and no identity.
“I used to sleep in gas station bathrooms,” Kim said, “and I would still have nightmares about the trafficking.”
People ask her all the time how she became happy again. Her response is, “why not?”
“The longer you live your life in negativity, the longer you give your oppressors power,” Kim said.
After being a sex slave, Kim realized that cultural dynamics and a lack of understanding contributed to the unpunished spread of sex trafficking.
As an advocate, activist, public speaker and educator, Kim travels the country talking about sex trafficking. She was featured in the photographic exhibition “My Sister’s Voice,” appeared on CNN and graced the front cover of KorAm Magazine.
In 2013, the internationally acclaimed film “Eden” starring actress Jamie Chung was released, based on Kim’s life as a sex slave. Kim co-wrote the film.
Chong Kim: “My philosophy on life is not about how many rights or wrongs we’ve done, but what we’ve learned, what we’ve accomplished, what we’ve changed, what we have given back.”
Kim said the best revenge is to create something people would never expect. That’s success, she said.
“They took my life, and I want[ed] it back,” Kim said.
To learn more about sex trafficking happening in the, U.S. click here.
According to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center.
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