Social Justice, Matt Damon and the Hollywood Fantasy of Prostitution

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Am I the only one who remembers what Hollywood did to Tom Clancy’s The Sum of All Fears? Clancy wrote a 1991 Cold War thriller that portrayed a terrorist collaboration between an East German nuclear physicist and Palestinian radicals. However, by the time it emerged as a movie in 2002, the cinematic arbiters of political correctness had changed the bad guys into “a South African arms dealer” and “a secretive far-right cabal seeking to impose a white supremacist world order, led by Austrian billionaire and neo-Nazi Richard Dressler” whose plan is “to transform Europe into a united fascist superstate.” Yeah, because there’s no way anyone would buy tickets to a movie in which Palestinian radicals engaged in a terrorist plot. Too much like real life.

That P.C. Hollywood reversal came to mind when I read this at AOSHQ:

In a new Project Greenlight, Damon argued with a black woman about the need of a Director of Color (is that a thing?) for their movie, based upon the fact that in one scene a black prostitute is slapped by a white pimp. Given that single incident, she called for a black director, or a team of a female director and black one, to make sure the nameless prostitute was invested with dignity and something something Oprah Winfrey’s book club.
Well, Matt Damon, who is a goonish, thuggish leftist when it comes to imposing SJW crap on other people, actually began lecturing her that she was wrong.
This is, as you know, a crime; a white person can never contradict a black person in Obama’s America.

You can read the whole thing. Damon was forced to apologize, and this is just another controversy over “representation” (which is to say, tokenism and quotas) in Hollywood, but perhaps I’m not the only one who noticed this:

“. . . a black prostitute is slapped by a white pimp . . .”

Uhhh, how do I say this? Without sounding like a racist, I mean.

Maybe I’m not an expert on the demographics of the prostitution industry, but do a lot of black prostitutes have white pimps?

3 plead guilty in New Orleans to running
violent interstate prostitution ring
Three Memphis, Tennessee, men accused of enslaving and beating prostitutes in New Orleans pleaded guilty to federal charges [April 20], bringing to five the number of pimps convicted here in an interstate sex trafficking ring.
Christopher “Gutter” Williams, Duane “P-Nut” Phillips and Anthony “Animal” Ellis admitted to conspiring to commit sex trafficking. . . .
The self-styled pimps routinely beat their prostitutes and joked about it, prosecutors said.
They required the women to adhere to a strict code of behavior and took drastic measures to keep them from escaping. In at least one instance, Phillips required one of his women to get a tattoo that identified her as belonging to him.
“The women that he prostituted were not allowed to speak to or look at any other pimps,” court documents say. “On multiple occasions, Phillips ordered one of the women whom he had forced and coerced to prostitute to physically assault other women who had broken his rules.”
Williams demanded that his prostitutes refer to him as “Daddy” and show him respect at all times. He required them to earn at least $500 on a typical weekday and $800 on the weekend, taking all of their earnings.
Court documents say he sought to impregnate the women “because he thought that it would be harder for the women to leave him if they had a child with him.”
The documents say he would punch and kick women who disobeyed him, generally striking them on parts of their body that would not be visible in public. Once, however, he broke a woman’s nose. . . .
During a trip to Houston, Ellis ordered a prostitute who he said had disrespected him in front of other pimps to stand in the corner of a room, depriving her of food for eight or nine hours.
The men watched one another’s backs, bailing each other out of jail and keeping an eye on prostitutes belonging to a fellow pimp if he faced an extended period of incarceration. . . .
Ellis is the nephew of Granville Robinson, another alleged pimp charged in the case. Court documents say Robinson once struck a prostitute with a glass coffee pot and severely beat another woman with a piece of wood.
Two other Memphis men — Zacchaeus Taylor, described in court records as Phillips’ protégé, and LaQuentin “Nino” Brown — previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.

Now, I was not able to find mug shots of all these pimps, but click here to see a photo of LaQuentin “Nino” Brown, and it seems safe to assume that his associates in this Memphis/New Orleans pimping operation were of a similar ethnic persuasion. Consider this recent news article:

A Memphis man convicted last month of attempting to kill a Gentilly man, and who was also accused of pimping teenaged girls for sex in New Orleans, has been sentenced to 100 years in prison under Louisiana’s habitual offender law.
Timothy T. Jones, 25, received the punishment Friday (Sept. 4) from Criminal District Court Judge Karen Herman. She said Jones showed depraved indifference when he left the victim partially paralyzed following the Feb. 17, 2014, shooting. . . .
A New Orleans jury Aug. 26 found Jones guilty of attempted second-degree murder and three counts of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. He also awaits trial in U.S. District Court in New Orleans, where he’s accused of trafficking juvenile girls for prostitution.
He was convicted in state court of trying to kill a man in February 2014, shooting him twice in his home in the 2500 block of Gladiolus Street. That man, who refused to testify against Jones during last month’s trial, was an alleged pimp as well, authorities said.
Police and federal marshals arrested Jones on Feb. 11, 2014, in a hotel room in the 300 block of St. Joseph Street in the Warehouse District. Authorities went there seeking Christopher Williams, another alleged pimp.
During his arrest, police found a pistol and an AK-47 rifle in a room tied to Jones, whose previous robbery conviction in Tennessee meant he was barred from having guns. Police booked him with the gun offenses.
Days later, after posting bond, Jones shot the Gentilly man.

So while the feds were looking for the pimp Christopher “Gutter” Williams in this motel, they just accidentally found another pimp, Timothy Jones. After he posted bond, Jones then shot another pimp.

A similar ethnic persuasion, you see. The same demographic as Alvin Houston, 27, and Shawna Calhoun, 24, who were charged with pimping a 13-year-old runaway in Maine. The same demographic as South Carolina interstate sex trafficker “Pimpstick Quezzy.”

Far be it from me to generalize unfairly from such examples, and I really don’t want to contribute to any prejudicial stereotypes, but it does seem to me that we may discern a pattern here. And the pattern we may discern doesn’t fit the cinematic scenario that provoked a high-profile argument between Matt Damon and Effie Brown.

That is to say, white pimps slapping black prostitutes is probably about as rare in 21st-century America as South African arms dealers and billionaire neo-Nazis plotting to transform Europe into a fascist superstate. In other words, it’s the kind of inverted through-the-looking-glass social-justice fantasy Hollywood loves.

Ask yourself a few questions: If feminists want to save young girls from the violent misogyny of sex traffickers, why do we never read any columns from Amanda Marcotte or Jessica Valenti about LaQuentin “Nino” Brown, Timothy “King Lucci” Jones, or “George “Pimpstick Quezzy” McLeod? Is there a truce between feminists and pimps? Is this about “intersectionality”? Do feminists only care about crimes against women when they involve white frat boys at elite universities?

“Haven Monahan” could not be reached for comment.





 

51 comments

  1. “…to transform Europe into a united fascist superstate.”

    I guess the argument could be made that this ended up being somewhat prescient.

  2. You have to remember how it is on the left.

    In order to fix the horrors and hells of human trafficking, you just need to stop calling prostitutes “prostitutes” and start calling them “sex workers.”

    It’s just like the way they healed the crippled by calling them “handicapped,” and then healed the handicapped by calling them “physically challenged.”

  4. First off, I wouldn’t have apologized if I were Matt Damon. Instead I’d have offered to rehearse that scene with Ms. Brown so she could demonstrate Oprah approved Dignity™ for everyone there to learn from.

    Second, leftism means always having to say you’re sorry. Screw that.

  5. Our esteemed host asked:

    Uhhh, how do I say this? Without sounding like a racist, I mean.

    Maybe I’m not an expert on the demographics of the prostitution industry, but do a lot of black prostitutes have white pimps?

    Possibly more than you think. If we assume that pimps are running more than one girl, you’re going to see an interracial mix of girls working for one pimp in plenty of cases.

    Sounds like a good subject for an investigation by the CDC.

  6. Maybe.

    But on the other topic, I don’t care if I sound racist. I would ask that somebody please show me some proof of a white guy calling himself “Gutter” or “Pimpstick”, and I don’t mean only after 10 beers, but all the time. Or a white guy named LaQuentin. If somebody can show me a white guy actually named that, I’ll LaPologize and out myself as a raciss ho.

  8. On the other hand, leftists were once “pinkos” and that was healed by calling them “red diaper babies”. And that was healed by becoming “progressive”. It seems to have worked in this case, judging from all the moronic college students we see taking selfies with Bernie Sanders.

    Then again, on the third hand, many self-described “conservatives” love Trump.

    How so many people are fooled by rhetoric, I don’t understand. But I say to them, stop flapping your darn fool pie hole and let’s see some action, loser, before we get stuck with another eight years of fundamental (emphasis on “mental”) change.

  9. One thing to remember about performing arts: It’s wish fulfillment. When making a movie of Captain America, it begins with the fantasy of being tough and heroic. You can’t stand up to actual criminals in the real world, so you play it out on the screen.

    When making “important” and topical plays and movies, it’s really nothing more than a fantasy argument. The writer has been in arguments with right-wingers and they never went the way the leftist wanted it to. So they write the argument they wish it had gone; like those imaginary arguments we all win when we’re talking to ourselves in the shower.

    There’s also the element that if they can have enough of these fantasy arguments played out, then the audience will believe it.

  10. Mmhmm. So unless Sergei is Ukrainian for LaQuentin, my point is proved. : ) I know a good, God-fearing young man at my church named Sergei (who I’d like to fix my daughter up with), and I don’t think the moniker “Pimpstick” ever came up in relation to him.

  11. I thought Darwei was an Iranian? The lost Israeli bomb was sent to Iran by Hezbolla who got it from the PA I thought? Been a long time since I read it through.

  12. In order to fix the horrors and hells of human trafficking, you just need to stop calling prostitutes “prostitutes” and start calling them “sex workers.”

    Because as Miriam Weeks, aka Belle Knox, “rough sex is actually empowering”.
    Think Hillary will tap into this demographic potential with another snappy campaign ad?

  13. “…selfies with Bernie Sanders”.

    I always wanted to get a selfie with G. Gordon Liddy.

    What’s happened to our country?

  14. Wait a tick! You aren’t making some oblique reference to Chris Evans, are you? Because I just know that he must be tough and heroic in real life, too! I ask for him every year for Christmas, and nothing yet, but I’m certain that one of these years I’ll have the bestest Christmas ever!

  16. He’s probably a good bloke. Most white pimps may be named Sergei, but not all Sergeis are white pimps.

    Sergei Prokofiev contributed nicely to culture.

  18. Usually the guy actually playing Captain America isn’t a wimp. The geeks who make the film have to go hire someone who can actually look the part.

  22. You mean like Rosie O’Donnell as Betty Rubble or Brando in The Teahouse of the August Moon? 😀

    Or wait, also Kevin Costner in Robin Hood? Or Hayden Christensen in the prequels?

  24. Oh okay, that figures.
    Something else occurred to me but I quickly denounced myself and went to read some Ta’ Neshi Coates in order to get a grip on my privilege.

  26. I have to disagree. I wouldn’t call Damon an identity politics pushing SJW, or even a class warrior. No doubt his politics are to the left, but they always seemed to contain a more “Old Left” sensibility that is about the rights of workers, anti-militarism, civil rights, and of course attacks on the abuses in the corporate-capitalist system. I think invoking a word like “merit”, when confronted with a need to push “diversity”, proved this. You’re of course welcome to disagree.

  27. Well, except that the EU is a globalist socialist super-bureaucracy. Europeans might actually be better off with national socialism, since what they have is doing such a crappy job of protecting the interests of the natives and defending the borders of the union.

    Yes, that’s right. I just said that the EU is worse than Nazis (for the Europeans that it’s supposed to represent). Either they replace it with something that is better than Nazis, or they will get Nazis.

  29. “… you just need to stop calling prostitutes “prostitutes” and start calling them “social providers.”

    With apologies to Battlestar Galactica

  30. You’re not the only one. I stopped paying attention to Hollywood’s version of Tom Clancy’s books at that point and just stuck to the books – and didn’t bother watching The Sum of All Fears, either.

  32. Screw diversity, it is a meaningless concept. I never hear these same morons saying “Oh, so I’m supposed to believe all the best basketball players just HAPPEN to be black,” or something similar about boxing or rap. I never hear anyone whining about diversifying those things. There’s a reason for that: this is a con game run by anti-white racists.

    That fool of a woman shows she doesn’t have the brains to be a director by the simple fact of her lack of awareness of what happens when you publicly embarrass people like that. In front of the camera it will be all smiles and apologies, behind the camera this woman is toast. Same for me. This Effie can go eff herself. I will never watch anything she makes. When you pie-chart art you destroy the viability to make art. We’ve seen that happen in science fiction literature. When the great ones died off, fewer and fewer writers came in to take their place. Now there’s pretty much no one. That was not inevitable, but a deliberate culling process due to racism and feminism.

  33. Am I the only one who remembers what Hollywood did to Tom Clancy’s The Sum of All Fears?

    I saw it in the pictures. The Evil European Nazi masterplan was:

    1) Get Russia and the US to nuke each other
    2) ???
    3) Profit

    It stretched credulity, even by Hollywood blockbuster action movie standards, given where Europe is and what would happen to Europe in a thermonuclear exchange between the Russkies and the Yankees: Goodnight, Vienna.

    Compared with “The Sum of All Fears”, Steven Seagal’s movies look like documentaries.

  36. I remember Chris Evans saying in an interview that off-camera, he really was more like Johnny Storm than Steve Rogers.

  39. That must have been the problem in our family — we never referred to my mother as “handicapped”, much less as “physically challenged”.

  41. I enjoyed Team America but at the time thought they had maybe gone a little over the top on Matt Damon. Now I realize that they had him pegged.

  44. Yes. Thank you.
    It didn’t look right when I typed it – I had a malfunctioning brain housing unit last night.

  45. I’m a fair fellow so I try but its just so much manufactured angst.
    Honestly, I can never get past the second or third paragraph of any Coates piece before giving up on it and thanking God for my own serenity.

  48. Only in America can the best rapper be a white suburban guy (Eminem) while the best golfer is a black dude (Tiger Woods). Not true any more, but still funny.

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