The stereotype has been influenced by the movie Taken, which brought awareness to the issue of sex trafficking but also left people thinking that trafficking is white women bring kidnapped and sold to the highest bidder.
In 2016, Dr. Earl Lewis convened a meeting on slavery among 40 principle collaborators—scholars, organizations, and instiutions—at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Out of this meeting came the "Slavery and Its Aftermath" initiative at the Center for Social Solutions. This project aims to tackle America’s original sin—slavery.