Oscars Award Pittiful Pimps

PIMPING
Hollywood Glitter vs. The Harsh Reality
Selected Lyrics from March 5th 2006 Academy Award Winning Original Song
"It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" from the 2005 film "Hustle and Flow"
vs.
Comments of Survivors and Experts in Regards to the
Criminal Exploitation of Person a.k.a. Trafficking in Persons

"You know it's hard out here for a pimp
When he tryin to get his money for the rent
For the Cadillacs and gas money spent
Because a whole lot of bitches talking s--t"
— chorus, "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp"

Comments of Survivors and Experts
On an average night, they have sex with 10-15 people and have to meet a quota which is usually $500-1,000 a night. The young girls and women never keep their money. The pimp was making … between her and other women … about $642,000 a year tax free. — Tina Frundt, testimony before Congress, April 29, 2005

"Man these girls think we prove thangs, leave a big head
They come hopin every night, they don't end up bein dead "
— verse 2, "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp"

Comments of Survivors and Experts
And then of course, after we crossed the line, our worlds changed forever. ALL of us had friends who didn't make it out alive. — Survivor Services, Education and Empowerment Network (SSEEN) letter to Congress, August 1, 2005

“ In my eyes I done seen some crazy thangs in the streets
Gotta couple hoes workin on the changes for me"
— verse 1, "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp"

Comments of Survivors and Experts
In the Hispanic brothels, girls—and by that I mean children—are expected to "service" a different man every fifteen minutes, from 30 to as many as 55 "customers" per day. After a few weeks of this unimaginable regime, the human brain begins to permanently dissociate from reality as a sheer survival mechanism. The scarring is such that only a small proportion of these victims are ever able to return to a semblance of a normal life. — Bradley Myles, National Program Coordinator, Polaris Project, a D.C.-based anti-trafficking NGO

"Wait I got a snow bunny, and a black girl too
You pay the right price and they'll both do you"
— verse 2, "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp"

Comments of Survivors and Experts
"[P]imps and madams [sold] us to johns who intended violent acts as long as the purchasers paid extra. After all, we were only viewed as commodities and worst of all, we believed it." — SSEEN letter to Congress, August 1, 2005

"It's blood sweat and tears when it come down to this s--t
I'm trying to get rich 'fore I leave up out this bitch"
— verse 1, "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp"

Comments of Survivors and Experts
Eighty percent of the women were sexually assaulted by pimps via sadistic sex; 71% of pimps use drugs to control the women; and 34% of the women received death threats from pimps personally or to their family. — Raymond, Hughes, Gomez, "Sex Trafficking In the United States, Coalition Against Trafficking of Women Study," March 2001

Comments of Survivors and Experts
Sixty-eight percent of girls entered prostitution before age sixteen. —Silbert and Pines "Entrance into Prostitution," Youth and Society 1982 (San Fransisco)

Comments of Survivors and Experts
Forty-six percent of women in prostitution attempted suicide. — Parriot, "Health of Twin Cities Women in Prostitution," May 1994

Comments of Survivors and Experts
The mortality rate of women in prostitution, adjusted for age and race, is more than 200 times greater than the population at large. — Potterat , Brewer "Mortality in a Long-term Open Cohort of Prostituted Women," Am J Epidemiology, 2004. (Colorado)

"That's the way the game goes, gotta keep it strictly pimpin
Gotta have my hustle tight, makin change off these women, yeah"
— verse 2, "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp"

"You know what? I think it just got a little easier out here for a pimp."
— Jon Stewart, Host of Academy Awards, March 5, 2006

Comments of Survivors and Experts
The war against pimps and trafficking mafias brings us face to face with the slavery issue of our time. Both internationally and within the United States great progress has been made during the past few years thanks to the leadership of feminist and church leaders, the President, Congress, and inner city leaders who have witnessed the tragic influence of pimp culture on the values of all of their young people. In a few short years, we will no more glorify pimps than we do Simon Legree. — Ambassador John Miller, Director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, United States Department of State