You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking Podcast. This is episode #324: Role Models and Mentors, with Rachel Thomas. Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking Podcast here at Vanguard University’s Global Center for Women and Justice in Orange County, California. My name is Dr. Sandie Morgan and this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. I’m so happy to welcome back our good friend, Rachel Thomas.

Hi Dr. Morgan, thank you so much for having me back. This is an honor and a pleasure, always.

I just love having conversations with you, Rachel, I learn so much. You’re an amazing survivor, advocate, and educator. You’re serving your second term on the White House Advisory Council, you co-founded Sowers Education Group, you speak all over the country, and in fact, I’m really excited that you’re going to be our Amplify 2024 Keynote, to support the work of the Global Center. We’re really excited. You’ve been a frequent flyer on the Ending Human Trafficking Podcast. I’d like to recommend that people go back and listen to episode #196: Ending The Game, probably one of the best discussions on psychological coercion, and your episode #272 with The Cool Aunt Series. I’m happy to have you back, Rachel.

Thank you, honored to be back, and glad that you’re still doing this important podcast. This is such a great resource and service to the community.

I just love it. I got an invitation in the mail yesterday, an email, to go on a talk show in Dublin, Ireland.

Wow.

I just love how international our community is, and people care. Hopefully because of that, other people will get a chance to listen to our conversation today. We’re going to talk about the theme of Models, Role Models and Mentors for Black Youth. When I think about role models, when I was a young person, I wanted to be like my teacher, I wanted to be a professor. One of the people I wanted to be like, I had eye problems from the time I was very small I started wearing glasses, they looked like little baby lenses, so my optometrist, I was like, I want to grow up and be an optometrist. What were some of your role models?

Oh, good question. My role models, I did have several teachers that I adored. My parents really were some of my main role models. I have family members, I’m from a family of entrepreneurs, so older cousins. I had some career role models, basically teachers, I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. Then some some other types of role models for how to walk, how to dress, how to carry myself, how to show up in a room, and that was a lot from my mom and aunts, and family members.

I think today’s youth have a lot of different kinds of role models, especially in that social space about how to dress and all of that. And from you, I’ve been learning that the role models in our hip hop culture, in rap culture, are really pretty different. So can you talk to us about some of the impact of role models on black youth?

Sure. This is something I’ve always been aware of having taught high school, but now that my organization has a contract to work with foster youth directly, we’re two years in and we just got renewed for another two years so that’s a blessing.

Yay!

Yeah. We are tasked with reaching 50,000 California foster youth with the message of Human Trafficking Prevention, but we also are afforded the great, honestly it’s an honor and a privilege, to do mentorship. It’s not like a one time, teach them something and go, we are able to have ongoing relationships with these youth. I am intimately aware of a good handful of our foster youth and who really they are looking up to, who they are patterning their lifestyle and their goals after, and when it comes to our black youth. And I know this conversation is about black youth because I’m black and we do work with a lot of black youth, but really, hip hop is the most pervasive teenage youth genre, so it definitely goes beyond just black youth. It’s really all youth, different socioeconomic status, different regions, that’s just the number one genre of music that you’d like. I think when we’re talking about with black youth, it’s even more impactful, especially with our foster youth, because they may not have other role models that are playing a leading role. It’s the hip hop artists, it’s the rap artists, it’s the ones who have millions of followers and millions of dollars and fans, and all of the accolades and things that they would love to have. That’s who’s really leading them.

You gave me a homework assignment before this episode, and I have a list of just female rappers, not even the whole. I went and looked at this, and it gave me a little more context for when I’m talking to students, when I’m talking to young people in some of our drop in centers that are more vulnerable and may have already been trafficked. They dress like what they see. What ways do these artists who are very successful, they are entrepreneurs, inspire or influence what our youth want to be, their aspirations?

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