By Kaitlyn Giovinazzo
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
Shamere McKenzie was on cloud nine when she met her boyfriend in the early 2000s, but before long she found herself being beaten, raped and fearing for her life.
McKenzie said the 18-month cycle of abuse began when her boyfriend persuaded her to be an exotic dancer so she could earn the money she needed go back to school. Soon enough she was forced into prostitution and threatened with violence had she not complied.
“I just want everybody to know that I am a human being,” said McKenzie, the CEO of a local anti-human trafficking organization. “Because when you are being exploited, you are no longer seen as a human being. These victims are no longer seen as human beings. That part of them is totally disregarded.”
McKenzie shared her story Tuesday evening to students at Towson University as a warning that anyone could find themselves forced into a life of exploitation.
The event took place in the Towson student union and was co-sponsored by the Psychology Department and several other related organizations on campus. An estimated 100 people attended the event.
According to The International Labor Organization, there are currently almost 20.9 million victims of human trafficking around the world, contributing to the $150 billion industry worldwide.
During the speech, McKenzie said she ran track in high school. A woman of Jamaican descent, she was inspired to be the next Marion Jones, a famous Jamaican track athlete. She ran everything from the 100-meter to cross-country and is still ranked No. 7 in the 2000-meter steeplechase in New York City after 19 years.
The wide-ranging athlete hit a harsh setback when she pulled her hamstring in her second year of competing for St. John’s University in Queens, New York, forcing her to lose her scholarship and resort to student loans.
One day, while returning from work, she was approached by a man who practically swept her off her feet. He said she could stay at his basement apartment for free so she could save money on rent, McKenzie said.
Shortly after moving in, McKenzie said her boyfriend suggested she become an exotic dancer so that she could make more money than working a regular job. She was hesitant at first but agreed because she was under the impression he would protect her.
That’s when things took a turn for the worst.
“One night we were at this house,” McKenzie said. “It was $10 for a lap dance, but nobody wanted to dance. One guy was bold enough to ask me how much it was for oral sex, but I did not know it was that type of party so I cursed the guy out. Suddenly, the man who was supposed to ‘protect’ me said, ‘You’re gonna do what that guy said do.’”
McKenzie said she refused, but her boyfriend put his hands around her throat and said, “Do you really think you can make it out of here alive?”
“The fighter spirit inside of me died that day,” McKenzie said. “I learned rule No. 1 –never fight a pimp… He started punching me back. He had Timberland construction boots. He started kicking me with his boots. He choked me to the point of unconsciousness where to this day I still have a popped blood vessel in my right eye.”
McKenzie, who said she would be beaten so severely she couldn’t remember what had happened, said she was afraid to go to the police because she thought she might get in trouble for being a prostitute.
“That cycle of abuse continued for 18 months,” McKenzie said. “I describe [it] as severe torture in every sense of the word. Torture.”
A scary aspect behind being a victim, McKenzie said, is that human-traffickers usually know information about their victims, including where their parents and other loved ones live. If the victim does not cooperate, those people can be in danger, she said.
“We hear stories that trafficking victims are from broken homes or that they’re addicts,” McKenzie said. “But anyone could be a victim of trafficking. A trafficker could walk into a room, look at everyone in the room and within two minutes know exactly who their next victim will be.”
Kailah Carden, a sexual violence prevention educator at Towson University, said it was important to bring McKenzie to campus so students become aware of the reality behind sexual exploitation.
“On college campuses sometimes when we talk about sexual assault we really focus specifically just on college students and just on what’s happening on our campus,” Carden said. “I really wanted to have this opportunity to open this up and let us think about what else is happening in our communities, outside of our campus, across the country and globally related to sexual violence. Baltimore is a hub of sex trafficking. So we just wanted to make connections between what we talk about on campus and what’s going on in a larger community.”
Becca Robbins, Towson’s lead sexual assault peer educator, helps organize events, including McKenzie’s appearance on campus. She also works with individual groups that vary between educating classes through lectures, planning events regarding trauma and other battles, and working with related organizations to help tackle the issue of assault.
“I think this is just important to talk about,” Robbins said. “This topic alone can be intimidating and kind of dark, but it’s something students need to be aware of because unfortunately it is happening on college campuses so we want to make sure all Towson students are educated and that they know where to go God forbid they go through some type of sexual violence.”
Alexis Terry, a member of the Delta Phi Epsilon sorority at Towson, said she attended the event because she was eager to hear and learn more about a topic she feels is not discussed enough.
“I think people definitely need to be more informed,” Terry said. “It might make everybody uncomfortable to talk about, but you don’t know who went through this or who could go through this. If you want to bring kids into this world, it’s selfish of us not to fix the problems now for later in the future.”
McKenzie was fortunate to escape with the help of a neighbor after telling him she was being abused by her boyfriend. The police were called and her misery was finally over, she said.
McKenzie is currently the CEO of the Sun Gate Foundation, an organization that provides educational opportunities for survivors of human trafficking. She also is the anti-trafficking program director for the Salvation Army of Central Maryland, where she wrote the program and oversees emergency shelter for adult trafficking survivors.
McKenzie is an international speaker and activist in the fight against human trafficking, bringing about social and political change in America and around the world.
McKenzie said her story is her secret. She chose to leave out a majority of what she had gone through because she said she prefers to keep it to herself.
However, she said she refuses to be called a victim because she is no longer enslaved and has been broken free from the chains of her past.