Sex Trafficking Is the New Crack Law Of Racial Disparity
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PORTLAND, Ore. & LOS ANGELES & SEATTLE & NEW YORK - Washingtoner -- We've all seen the fictional Walt Disney movie "Pretty Woman" starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. It was presented as a romantic story involving a prostitute, her profession, and her client. But under today's rhetoric, Gere's character would be considered a sex trafficker, and Roberts' role as Viviane, a Hollywood sex worker would no doubt be called a victim of sex trafficking.

The federal government is improperly using sex trafficking laws to convict black men in record numbers which have not been seen since the height of the "War on Drugs" and the crack cocaine epidemic of the eighties and nineties. Especially black men tied to rap music and white women. In a lot of these cases, Jim Crow era tactics of the "White Damsel in Distress" narrative is being used to destroy the lives of many African American men.

Attorney Kathleen G. Williamson (Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson) and Professor Anthony Marcus (Anthropology Department, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York) have done extensive research on this issue. They wrote, "[In] nearly fifth years since incarceration rates started their remarkable rise in the United States, there have been numerous discussions of racially selective arrest, prosecution and sentencing of blacks who constitute 37% of drug arrest, 42% of death row prisoners, and 40% percent of the incarcerated. However, there has been little concern about the recent finding by researchers at the National Institute of Justice that 62% of national sex trafficking prosecutions are black."

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"The White Damsel in Distress" propaganda is being used across the county in sex trafficking convictions. In fact, many times women are apprehended in these cases only for law enforcement to find out [she's] really a madam or independent sex worker herself. In those instances, the sex worker or madam is then impelled toward cooperating in exchange for housing and monetary incentives. In turn this gives law enforcement leeway to obtain arrest warrants against the pimps, boyfriends, or Johns of the women. Of course, not all accusations against black men by white females are lies. Yet the national data collected thus far in sex trafficking cases prove unmerited leniency for [female] madams and sex workers, while unproportionate convictions for black pimps and boyfriends of those same sex workers, skyrocket.

A review of these cases shows many white females had a recorded history of escorting and strip dancing for their own benefit before they ever met their alleged pimps. Some women claim they've been raped and abused in the past and that's why they chose to have a pimp who can better protect them and their interest. However, this evidence undermines the credibility, believability and reliability of sex trafficking narratives so the information is never disclosed or allowed at trial.

In the case of United States v. Taquarius Ford, his co-defendant Konia Prinster, was an adult film star and explicit nude model before they ever met. Court documents proved she was a Ukrainian migrant working in the U.S., and she stated on the record how she was in love with Ford. Nevertheless, she too was turned into a victim and testified against him to keep her family from being deported.

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So, what exactly is "sex trafficking?" It's sure not what's actually being portrayed to the public. Noah Berlatsky, a contributing writer at the Atlantic conducted research and investigation on the issue and wrote, "[sex] trafficking does not mean modern-day slavery." While he quotes researcher Tara Burns as saying, "The public seems to believe that sex trafficking means forced prostitution, but when you sit down and read charging documents for sex trafficking... that is very rarely the case."

Unfortunately, the black men that are being locked up in droves and record numbers are not trans-national smugglers. They are not locking women in basements and stripping them of their possessions and passports. They are not smuggling them across the border nor selling them into terrorist organizations. They are merely domestic panderers and low-level pimps. Some of whom were romantically involved with the sex worker. This issue is teetering on a crash recourse of mass incarceration as the likes of clients, John's, and pimps spend decades in prison and the women go free. This is not equal justice under the law, and hopefully unlike the crack epidemic, it won't take decades to find a solution.

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