due to their race, class, and gender certain groups of women, such as those of Indigenous backgrounds are treated unequally, and subject to marginalization and criminalization. Intersectionality explains how issues relating to race, class, and gender, such as capitalism, racism, colonialism, patriarchy, and gender inequality force women into the street sex trade in order to survive, and how social organizations provide useful resources despite the portrayal of these women as undeserving. Drawing on interviews conducted with Sage House and Transitional Educational Resources for Women (TERF) and several secondary sources, an intersectionality approach will be used to illustrate that the difficulties women in the street sex trade face are a result …show more content…
Fueled by racist attitudes, residential schools displaced Indigenous familial connections and spiritual ceremonies that connected the Indigenous population to their land, and were instead forced into an environment that not only sexually, physically, and emotionally abused and exploited these children, but also banned all expressions of Indigenous culture (Brown et al., 2014, p.9). As mentioned by Seshia (2005, p.20), the residential school system has had an intergenerational effect on Indigenous populations, in which the emotional and psychological scars, issues of trust, and substance use and abuse to cope with their violent history has been passed down to younger generations of Indigenous girls and women, which increases both their vulnerability of being forced into the street sex trade and the difficulties they face in the street sex trade. For example, Seshia (2005, p.20) argues that systemic racist ideologies referring to Indigenous girls and women in the street sex trade as “fuckin’ Indians”, “dirty Indians”, and “squaws” reinforces colonial attitudes of these women as barbaric, inferior, and uncivilized, which justifies and rationalizes the sexual, emotional, and physical violence these women face. In addition, systemic racism increases the prevalence of murder, suicide attempts, drug dependency and problems of mental health amongst Indigenous girls and women, and categories of deserving and undeserving, which is the case in the government’s inability to investigate countless cases of missing and murdered Indigenous girls and women (Shesia, 2005, p.21). Mirna (2015) addresses this problem directly by mentioning