“Oprah said something that I’ve never forgotten, Lisa Ling told the crowd at the Touhill Performing Arts Center Thursday night. “She said ‘now that you know, you can’t pretend that you don’t’.”
Back then Winfrey was one of her “sheros,” now she’s her boss too.
And as host and executive producer of “Our America: Lisa Ling,” she enlightens OWN Network audiences to a barrage of experiences that are equal parts eye opening and heart wrenching.
Transgender, sex offenders, convicted felons, and commercial sex workers in the U.S. have been featured topics for her show in a format that’s part interview, part first-person documentary.
“We always go into every story treating everyone with whom we interact as a human being – someone who is born of a mother,” Ling told the crowd of mostly students. “I’m convinced that if you go into something with an offering of respect it will almost always be reciprocated.”
She’s used her nearly 20 years of experience as a broadcast journalist to be a voice to the voiceless and offer insight to offset stereotypes, discrimination and preconceived notions.
On this evening, she served as an unlikely unofficial ambassador for a certain element of the American population – the black males who have been chained to the penitentiary system.
“Every prison I’ve visited there is a disproportion of African Americans inside,” Ling said. “In fact, it’s estimated that one in twelve black men have seen the inside of a prison. And the reality is that Caucasian sellers and users of drugs are far higher than the African American sellers and users.”
She wanted to drive home the point to her predominately white audience that these men were more than just convicted felons – and forever branding them as such has contributed to the plight of the African American family structure.
“Now generations of African American men are growing up in prison because a lot of their children are growing up without fathers,” Ling said. “They fall victim to the streets and the cycle continues. And the thing that is challenging for me – and I spent time with a lot of these guys – is that some of them have such a burning desire to do the right thing and finally become a productive members of society.”
One of her more popular episodes featured former prisoners and their uphill battle to contribute to their community once they re-enter society.
“One man that I featured applied for 15 jobs a day,” Ling said. “He never had one call back. What would you do if you had door after door slammed in your face? When we ask on a job application ‘have you ever been convicted of a crime,’ these guys have to answer yes. Which poses another question – once someone serves their debt shouldn’t they have the opportunity to become productive members of society, or do we want to punish in perpetuity even though they’ve served their sentence.”
Ling’s passion echoed through the Touhill as she reminded the crowd as discussed another depressing matter that is close to her heart.
“Sex Trafficking is rampant is American girls,” Ling said. “Most of the young girls who are out there on the streets come from devastating home lives –they have never had a positive male influence in their lives to say I love you, I’ll take care of you. So the pimp says, ‘I love you. I want to buy you all of the things other little girls have.’ Then someone comes along and says’ I love you’ to someone who has never heard that from a male in their lives. And then he says, ‘now do something for me.’ And she’s going to do it.”
In an episode entitled “3 a.m. Girls” Ling walked the streets with young prostitutes and talked to them about their experiences as young teens being introduced to the sex industry by pimps.
“What shocks me is you would think they would make a ton of money, but every penny they make goes to their pimp,” Ling told the crowd. “If you don’t call that slavery in America I don’t know what is. It’s kind of interesting that we glorify pimp culture these days by saying “Pimp my Ride” and “What up Pimp” what if we change that up and say “what up slave owner?” It takes on a different tone, but that’s what they are. And when girls in other countries are brought in they are given services, but American girls are treated like criminals not the victims they actually are. There are thousands of American girls out there working while you are sleeping – right here in St. Louis too.”
She admitted to the audience that the residuals of her work have been a tough pill to swallow – and will continue to be in season three. But the intention of what she does is – in particular the power and action that comes with enlightening others – makes it worth it.
“I can’t experience these things and then turn around and pretend they don’t exist,” Ling said. “Sometimes they scar me and traumatize me, but sometimes they are moving.”
Ling was surprisingly candid with the audience as she discussed the toll her work has taken on her as she has gone everywhere from the trenches of Afghanistan to the streets of Washington D.C.
“As a result of doing this type of work for all of these years I’ve really struggled with faith. I’ve said on so many occasions ‘if there is a God, how could he allow this to happen’,” Ling said. “How can he allow these little girls to be treated as slaves in America? If there is a God, how could he let so many African American men be languishing behind bars with no one willing to hire them because they are afraid? If there is a god how can you let someone who’s a veteran come home with devastating levels of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and no one seems to care.”
She counted her husband as a source of her strength and closed her talk by reciting a poem he sent her as she was in the throes of struggling with her life’s work entitled “Why.”
“On the streets I saw a little girl cold and shivering with a thin dress and little hope of a decent meal. I became angry and I said to God, “why don’t you do something about this.
For a while he said nothing and then he replied quite suddenly “I certainly did do something about it, I made you.”
