A 21-year-old black woman, who was coerced and brainwashed into prostitution, was severely beaten by several of her female peers at the direction of a young black man. Sound awful?
One of Atlanta’s daily major periodical reports this story quite differently. The AJC article reads, “The 21-year-old prostitute who was severely beaten and caged was released from the hospital on Saturday …”
The manner in which the writer introduces the victim changes the perspective and leads one to believe that it’s somehow the woman’s fault that she’s been victimized, tortured and tormented. David Lee Walker, a 27-year-old, Atlanta-based “pimp,” ordered the four women, Keyanna Powell, Whitney Luckett, Amber Knight and Robertenette Gordon-Deaver, to beat the victim for more than a half an hour and to lock her in a 3-by-5 foot cage.
Lisa Williams, founder and executive director of Living Water for Girls, has heard stories like this all too often. Frighteningly, victims are as young as age 10. In 2007, Williams was spurred to start a nonprofit organization that nurtures girls ages 12-17 after reading an article in the AJC and its corresponding picture, which left her “outraged.”
“She [the victim] was sitting [wearing] a jumpsuit with shackles around her ankles. She was age 10 and being charged with prostitution. The john — such a kind name for the people who rape our daughters — pimp or trafficker wasn’t being charged. I had to do something,” says Williams.
The organization provides victims of commercial sexual exploitation residential therapeutic services, including individual and group counseling, home school instruction and vocational training, as well as music, art, gardening and equine therapy. “We have an issue and we can’t pretend this doesn’t happen. These are our daughters,” says Williams.
There are those who might argue that the 21-year-old victim is an adult and her case doesn’t compare to the trafficking of minors. The argument must also be made that the 10-year-olds who are introduced to this lifestyle as adolescents identify with it and are conditioned to suffer in silence. Labeling this young victim as a prostitute is dehumanizing and devaluing. We must still love and care for her, she belongs to us. At press time, the victim had been released from Grady Hospital and the five perpetrators remain in Fulton County Jail. –yvette caslin
Living Water for Girls is seeking donations and invites you to register and donate to their $10 for ’10 campaign at livingwaterforgirls.org.
Photo captions: (1) David Lee Walker; (2) Keyanna Powell (left) and Whitney Luckett (right); (3) Amber Knight (left) and Robertenette Gordon-Deaver (right).
