| This episode of Law and Order SVU begins with Vicki Harris, a 14 year old walking out of the airport in New York City. As she is walking along the streets of New York City, a homeless African American male harasses her for money. Another African American male, named Tre Davis notices Vicki being harassed by the homeless man and pretends that her knows her to get her out of the situation. Vulnerable and young, Vicki befriends Tre who is actually a pimp who then uses Vicki as a prostitute to get money. Vicki trusts Tre because she believes he loves her. When Tre becomes possessive and forceful, she calls her dad scared but will not tell him her whereabouts or about her being forced into prostitution. Her father, Captain Harris, contacts detective Amaro because he knows Amaro’s wife from being deployed in the military with her and the team tries to locate Vicki by calling her. The team eventually captures her pimp Tre, and arrests Vicki because she is unwilling to go to the station and be questioned by the team because she loves Tre. The team busts Tre and begins searching for all of the men that paid to acquire Vicki’s services. They arrest all of them including former football super star, Jake Stanton. Detective Benson feels conflicted about arresting Jake Stanton because she discovers that he is suffering from dementia and can hardly remember what he is talking about. That is when she decides to give Jake’s case to Bayard Ellis, a top civil rights attorney. Bayard is able to prove to the jury that Jake Stanton is suffering from dementia and that he is unable to make correct decisions, including hiring a prostitute. Jake Stanton is ruled not guilty and following the court session he gets confused and can’t remember anything, which leads him to commit suicide directly outside of the courthouse. This episode has a larger representation of African Americans than other episodes of Law and Order SVU and a diverse range of portrayal of African Americans. Bayard Ellis is a character that we’ve seen before as he represents social justice for African Americans. Another African American that was portrayed in the episode was Tre, the pimp who kidnapped Vicki for prostitution. On the one hand we (the viewers) have an African American character portraying a heroic warrior for social justice and on the other hand we have a villain who kidnaps young white women and profits from illegal prostitution. These variations of character range widely but one thing to resonate with is Tre and his white prostitute Vicki. African American men are portrayed in Hollywood shows and in the white mind as violent and abusive, certainly the way Tre was in this episode. As I have blogged before about the African American man committing crimes against a young white woman, seems extremely criminal and therefore gives a certain black image in the white mind. This image becomes the only frame we see, especially if Law and Order SVU wants us to see that. We don’t notice this type of violence and abuse that Vicki experienced with Tre when it comes to African American women. Tre used control over Vicki by physically beating her, a phenomenon that is present in the African American community but is erased from plain sight. According to Women of Color Network, statistics show that “African American females experience intimate partner violence at a rate 35% higher than that of white females.” From this episode of Law and Order SVU we don’t even think about the violence against African American women because we are distracted by the black image in the white mind that frames the narrative of the black man assaulting the white women. Many people are exposed to the entertainment that Hollywood produces and unfortunately they often misrepresent the truth in justice, especially law and Order SVU. Source: Women of Color Network Facts and Stats: Domestic Violence in Communities of Color --June 2006 |