A Critical Race Feminist Perspective on Prostitution & Sex Trafficking in America

This Article is one of the first to apply critical race feminism (CRF) to explore prostitution and sex trafficking in the United States. Several scholars have applied critical race feminism to explore several forms of sexual exploitation, including sexual harassment, domestic violence, and rape, but have yet to extend this discourse into the debate on prostitution and sex trafficking. Legal scholars have addressed prostitution and sex trafficking as gender oppression, while others have acknowledged the role of race in prostitution and trafficking in America. But few have considered prostitution from a critical race perspective, i.e., one that considers how race and gender intersect with other systems of oppression together to marginalize people of color in America. This Article applies critical race feminist theory to argue that racism intersects with other forms of structural oppression to obscure choice for people of color in America's prostitution industry. America's commercial .sex industry perpetuates structural race, gender, and class-based inequalities. Racism and structural oppression trap a disproportionate number of women of color and girls of color into prostitution. Racism coerces women of color to engage in prostitution and obscures their consent. A critical race feminist lens informs our understanding of how traditional feminist discourse about prostitution has not fully considered the role of race, structural racism, and intersectional oppression in both the scholarly and policy discourse on prostitution. In contrast to dominant feminist narratives about prostitution, a critical race feminist perspective calls upon scholars and policymakers to focus on the role f Cheryl Nelson Butler, Assistant Professor of Law, SMU Dedman School of Law; J.D., New York University School of Law, B.A., Harvard University. This article benefitted from comments received during presentations at the Yale Law School Critical Race Theory Conference (2014); the Mid-Atlantic People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference (MAPOC) at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law (2013); the Seventh Annual Lutie Lytle Black Women's Legal Scholarship Conference (2013) at the University of Nevada Las Vegas School of Law; and the 2013 SMU School of Law Junior Faculty Forum at SMU Dedman School of Law (2013). 1 would also like to thank Professor Kimberly D. Bailey and my SMU colleagues, Professors Anthony J. Colangelo and Jessica Dixon Weaver, for comments on earlier drafts. I would also like to especially thank the Editors of the Yale Journal of Law & Feminism for their excellent editorial assistance and support. This article was made possible through funding from the Beverly & David Leonard Faculty Research Award. Copyright C 2015 by the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism Yale Journal of Law and Feminism of racism and structural state sanctioned factors that push marginalized people of color into prostitution. INTRODUCTION ....... 97 I. TOWARD A CRITICAL RACE FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE ........ 103 A. The Goals of Critical Race Feminism ...... 103 B. The Critical Race Feminist Toolbox 106 II. LIBERAL FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES & RACE 110 A. Liberal Feminism 110 B. Liberal Feminism, Prostitution & Women of Color 113 III. ABOLITIONISM, DOMINANCE FEMINISM & RACE 118 A. Abolitionist Feminism & Dominance Feminism.... ......... 118 B. Exploring Connections Between CRT, Abolitionism & Dominance Feminism 120 IV. BUILDING A STRUCTURE: A HISTORY & CULTURE OF RACIALIZED SEXUAL EXPLOITATION 124 A. Culture of Racialized Sexual Stereotyping & Exploitation 125 B. Coerced Choices: Colonization & Government Sanctioned Exploitation 127 C. Spirit Injury 129 D. Racialized Sexual Stereotypes Fuel the Modern Commercial Sex Industry 130 VI. INTERSECTIONALITY, STRUCTURAL RACISM & AMERICA'S COMMERCIAL SEX INDUSTRY 132 A. Disproportionality 133 B. Poverty ........ 134 C. Denial of Educational & Employment Opportunities 135 D. Health & Health Care 137 CONCLUSION 138 96 [Vol. 27:1 2015] A Critical Race Feminist Perspective on Prostitution & Sex Trafficking in America The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on a distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom'