As the Super Bowl approaches, so does the advertisement warning about the increase of sex trafficking. Billboards, commercials and advocacy groups scatter across Minneapolis informing the public of the possible dangers the extravagant event may bring to their city. Subsequently, so arises reports questioning if the human trafficking influx during the Super Bowl is blown out of proportion -- an understandable and important inquiry.

It is critical to know the truth about the possible dangers that threaten your city and community. Many high officials have been reported to debunk the hype of human trafficking extreme association with the Super Bowl. A study done at the University of Minnesota concluded that the “Super Bowls do generate an increase (in sex and sex trafficking), but not to the degree that is often publicized in the media and other reports.”

These findings are an incredible relief! … Yet, the way the media covers this information shelters the fundamental aspect of the problem -- that human trafficking doesexist. That women, children, and men are forced to have sex or perform sexual acts without their consent. Their freedom is stripped away because a stranger believes they have a right to someone else’s body simply because they had the money to pay for it.

The discourse surrounding sex trafficking during the Super Bowl focuses such great attention on reassuring the public that it doesn’t considerably increase that it returns sex trafficking to a normalized occurrence. The fact remains that sex trafficking is still an issue and that even though it may not peak during the Super Bowl, does not decrease the very essence that human beings are presently being bought and sold as sex slaves.

By downplaying this unfathomable violation, human trafficking is becoming normalized. We sigh relief when data shows that it does not reach the assumed capacity, yet we accept its day-to-day presence. Almost like it’s a static truth that will inevitably continue. But why do we accept it as an unchangeable reality?

Yes, our world is not perfect, nor realistically will it ever be. Yet, by ignoring the devastations that manifest in our world, we, in essence, allow it. Maybe not directly, but in a manner if we do not question it, then are we justifying it?

A controversial question that I would be not innocent in myself.

Regardless of your beliefs, a study’s findings or intelligent leader’s facts, sex trafficking is apart of our life, but this does not mean it should be.