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The Cyntoia Browns under SESTA/FOSTA: Exploration of Sex Trafficking “Protections” as Applied to Black and Brown Girls
Cyntoia Brown was just 16 years old when she was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Johnny Mitchell, a 42 year old white man. Mitchell had solicited her for sex. Brown was an adoptee who had run away from her parents and had begun being trafficked by her abusive 24 year old boyfriend, a Black man named Garion McGlothen, also known as “Kut Throat”. McGlothen was murdered just a year later as the result of gang violence by Quartez Hines.
On the day of the murder, Kut Throat allegedly beat Brown then demanded that she go out and “make him some money”. She solicited herself at a Sonic restaurant and was picked up by Johnny Mitchell. He took her to his home. According to Brown, Mitchell showed her his collection of guns and she began to fear for her life and shot Mitchell in self defense. He died. Brown took his wallet and keys, drove his car to a Walmart, and ran. The age of consent in Tennessee is 18. Brown was 16 and objectively looked her age or younger.
Instead of being seen as a victim of sex trafficking that needed help, Brown was viewed as a savage murderer of an innocent man and was sentenced to life in prison for her crimes. They also completely discarded the role that Cyntoia being disabled (she has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome) played in the murder. It was successfully argued that Cyntoia went to the home of the defendant with the express purpose of robbing him.
Minorities Are Never Allowed to Be Victims
In documentaries centered around the issue, there is usually a stark comparison with the ways that they frame black and brown victims and white victims. A popular documentary on the topic, The Long Night, a popular 2014 film illustrates this point perfectly, as frames its main characters (Lisa and Natalie) as a poor delicate girl led astray and a hopeless addict with no hope for addiction. Images of Natalie are much more humanized than the images of Lisa and while Natalie invokes empathy from the viewer, Lisa invokes feelings of pity with a tinge of disgust. Natalie, of course, is white and Lisa is not. The film also portrays cops as the heroes of trafficked girls.
