Sorry, You Cannot Be a Victim in a Black Feminine Body
Examining Intersectionality through the case of Cyntoia Brown-Long
The Black feminine body has been a sacred temple repeatedly exploited and attacked by society. Kimberle Crenshaw’s “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color” introduced a groundbreaking theoretical framework that has been used by many and advanced political and social movements around the world. Crenshaw divides her work into three sections: structural intersectionality, political intersectionality, and representational intersectionality.
Crenshaw describes these points as “structural intersectionality, the ways in which the location of women of color at the intersection of race and gender makes our actual experience of violence and reform different than that of white women. Political intersectionality, how politics often helped to marginalized the issue of violence against women of color. And representational intersectionality, or the cultural construction of women of color”.
All three forms of these approaches are apparent in the case of Cyntoia Brown-Long. Brown-Long is an author, speaker, and advocate for criminal justice reform and victims of sex trafficking. Born to a mother battling addiction and ultimately being adopted, Cyntoia Brown-Long had a difficult childhood marked by physical and emotional trauma. At 16 years old, she became a victim of sex trafficking and was later arrested for killing a man who solicited her for sex. She was tried as an adult despite her age and was sentenced to life in prison without parole for 51 years. After 10 years in prison, Brown-Long appealed for clemency. Her appeal triggered an outpouring of support and sparked a national debate about child trafficking and the juvenile justice system. Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam commuted Brown-Long’s original sentence to 15 years, and she was released from prison in August 2019.
A thorough examination of Brown-Long’s life illustrates that what happened to her was not by chance but rather a result of the construction of American institutions. For young children and women like Brown-Long, they remain unprotected and vulnerable, serving as the disadvantaged people sacrificed to establish privilege for our certain social identities.
Structural intersectionality
Structural Intersectionality describes the structures and colonial machines and technology in society that perpetuates inequality and privileges certain groups while restricting the rights and privileges for others. It highlights that connecting network of the systems of oppressions and how the systems impact one another. Kimberle Crenshaw’s example of this is the intersection of race, class, and gender that has denied many poor, Black women to protection against domestic abusers. Under this theory, one disadvantage or disability is compounded by another disadvantage or disability. Still, what is considered as ‘disadvantages’ or ‘disabilities’ is created and determined by the societal structure.
Cyntoia Brown-Long found herself in a disadvantaged position long before she was convicted or murder and robbery. As a Black person, there are many societal structures working against her. As a Black feminine body, there were even more barriers. And as a Black feminine body with a lack of financial resources and necessities, the odds were truly stacked against her. The intersection between class, gender, and race have subjected Brown-Long to state violence. From the time her alcoholic mother gave birth to her, the American structures and institutions have worked to deny Cyntoia because of the value the structure has place on her three identities.
Political Intersectionality
Political Intersectionality refers to the laws and policies that govern society. It is most applicable through examining the government’s governing (or lack thereof) role in society, the impact of laws, public policy, etc. Political intersectionality can also exist within schools, the workplace, or stores, etc. Political intersectionality highlights how laws and policies favor dominate cultural perspectives and creates a sense of otherness and inequality in society.
Cyntoia Brown-Long was only 16 years old when a jury convicted of first-degree murder and robbery and sentenced to life. As a survivor of human trafficking, Brown-Long was failed by the judicial process that did not recognize the political intersectionality of the American justice system. She was failed by the Tennessee and U.S. laws that allowed Cyntoia Brown-Long to be convicted as an adult. Because of the adultification of Blackness, these laws often are enforced with Black and Brown children at disproportional rates.
Representation Intersectionality
Representational intersectionality is the representation of groups in popular culture and the advantages and disadvantages associated with them. While white women are often portrayed as pure, fragile, good mothers, submissive, wealthy, Black women are represented more narrowly and negatively. Black women are often seen as hypersexual, poor, dominate, strong, masculine, etc. Representational intersectionality examines these perpetuated stereotypes and how they empower or disempower groups of people. This depiction of the Black feminine body, often seen through television shows and movies, is called the Jezebel. The Jezebel stereotype has origins in slavery and still, like every racist thing in America, persists today.
Cyntoia Brown-Long was failed by the tainted jury that criminalized her, after deliberating for only six hours, rather than seeing her as one that needed protection. The jury has inherited the popularized Jezebel stereotype of Black women and their ruling is a manifestation of the stereotypes of Black feminine bodies. Often Black female children are adultified and hyper-sexualized. For this reason, the jury was not able to see Brown-Long as a child being exploited, but rather an adult, who engaged in consensual sex that ended with her killing a ‘client’.
Since this incident, Cyntoia wrote a memoir of her journey, entitled Free Cyntoia: My Search for Redemption in the American Prison System. She also currently works with advocates for juvenile sentencing reform through the Foundation for Justice, Freedom and Mercy.
