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The work Black prostitute women face dealing with racism, including from clients Speech
by a Black woman in the International Prostitutes Collective at the Forum
"Sex Work, Sexual Violence and Sexual Choices”, on the 20th
anniversary of the English Collective of Prostitutes, London, 29 June
1995. There's
discrimination against ail prostitute women, but Black prostitute women
face an additional racism. Its often hidden, and increases your workload.
Dealing with it is a big part of sex work. Much of "sex work"
has little to do with sex: for example, all the planning and calculations
involved in getting jobs, dealing with bias and stereotypes, protecting
yourself, your family, etc. Whether or not we do paid sex work, Black
women are generally seen as 'hot sexual creatures", available for all
kinds of services, including sex. This is a legacy of slavery where we had
to be "available".
Another part of this legacy is our communities being labeled as
sources of crime and vice.
But we do sex work not as a vice or because we love sex, but as a
way of refusing poverty, including the low-waged, dirty jobs usually
available to Black women. Over generations, families have been sustained,
children educated, and professional careers made possible by this money. We
are fighting against discrimination as sex workers. We're not ashamed of
the work we do, its work like any other, and in many ways you hate it, but
the job is mystified because it's associated with sex and because our
illegal status prevents us from coming out and speaking against the lies
told about ourselves and our work, and because of the threat of being
treated as a social outcast in our families and communities, and being
targeted for harassment and violence, arrest, fines, imprisonment, etc. Many
Black girls and women get offers of sex work, although we may not take
them up.
Growing up I remember being kerb-crawled by white men, of being
made offers of topless dancing and of being photographed for a nude
magazine. When I was older, a white flat-mate sold sex to raise her fare to
be with her sister who was expecting a baby. She told everyone in the flat
- some were against it. As a "nice coloured girl", from a
Christian family I thought she was brave to do it but that 1 never could.
This moralism is just one way of keeping us in line, disciplining
each other and separating us into "nice" and "bad"
girls. Many women consider prostitution, especially at times of financial
crisis in our families and communities -- and the poorer we are the more
often we consider it. The questions are: will I get paid and what power
will I have if I don't? Will my family/friends know about it, and if they
do what will the consequences be? Will I get raped or worse? Threats
of rape or other violence are always in your mind and a lot of the work is
planning security and protection. Ifs a common experience for women, and
many wouldn't report a rape to the police, but you especially can't call
on them if you are a Black prostitute woman. We aim to change that as the
anti-rape and the movement for prostitute women's rights get stronger.
The police could arrest you, take away your kids, use it as a pretext to
harass your family and community, and to get you deported if you are an
immigrant. Because
of racism in the sex industry, as in any other industry, Black women are
least likely to work in agencies, parlours or higher-paying jobs. Those
who do get in may look like models, or be younger, or have to spend more
money on themselves to get clients, or pay a higher cut of their income to
the madam - and are usually expected to work harder and take on more
difficult clients. People running agencies and parlours may steer clients
to white women, assuming men prefer them, which is not always so. And
clients may decide not to go with Black women because they are afraid of
what their friends or other girls will think. You may have to put up with
racist remarks from other women and clients just to keep your job,
pretending they don't bother you. Because
we are generally at the bottom of society, Black women are more likely to
work on the streets, the poorer end of the sex industry. The pay is less,
but you need less money to start work, you are your own boss and clients
are generally quicker and less into fantasy which is an enormous amount of
work. But attacks and not getting paid are more frequent; there is more
contact with the police, more harassment, and more possibility of arrest,
fines, and of being publicly identified as a hooker, with all the stigma
attached to that. Even
working the streets, the level of pay you receive may have to do with how
dark-skinned or light-skinned you are, and what hair texture you have.
Black women with hair closer to that of white women usually get better
pay, although of course you have those clients looking for "real
Black women", "real darkies", and they sometimes pay extra
for sex with a Black woman who is dark, with an afro or very woolly hair. I
once applied to an agency; the interviewer implied he expected oral sex as
part of the interview, confirming what other Black women had told me about
agencies. Marilyn Monroe said she made it in Hollywood on her knees this
is often the story for Black prostitute women in the sex industry. Some
of the work we do includes:
The
skills involved in sex work are familiar to most women; dolling yourself
up when you don’t feel like it, remembering to take the dinner off the
stove and put the dog out; reassuring your partner if they know what you
do; arranging transport and security; getting your contraceptives
together. Then arriving looking cool and calm, being charming, remembering
the client's name, your work name and who you're supposed to be; hiding
fear, sussing out whether this is the client who's going to turn on you;
watching the clock without the client noticing; thinking of all this while
having sex; convincing the client you're "in the moment" when
you're miles away calculating what you'll do with the money. If you have
kids, doing that extra caring work before you leave and when you get back,
while hiding from them what you do, and if they find out, dealing with
that, too. There's
also the work of: altering your accent, trying to sound more English
especially since the racism of the AIDS scare - some clients are put off
if they think you're from Africa or another Third World country. Sussing
out the client on the phone - is he Black or white? African or Asian? Arab
or European? How much will he pay? How far away is the job? Is it a hoax
call? All
clients are racist in different ways: most of my clients are white because
in Britain most men are white. Sometimes you can sell yourself as
"exotic". I've heard of an Afro woman who works in a sari and
makes good money. Many white men say they have never been with a Black
woman - so it's a turn-on for some of them. Black men who can afford it
are often reluctant to have a Black woman because they think you might
know them from some other area of their life, or they think that going
with you is a come-down. Sometimes Black clients are turned down by white
prostitute women for the same reason. Afro and Asian men generally prefer
to go with women from higher sectors - white and preferably blond. Some
men ask: "Are you English?", which is a code for "Are you
white?" Generally Asian men are the most sussed about age, race and
background, and can tell things from your voice that white men never pick
up. Generally I don't tell clients I'm Black, and sometimes when I arrive
I get turned away. Then I have to fight for my cancellation fee, or
persuade them to have just a massage which is lower pay. Clients expect to
pay Black women less. Some freak when they see you're Black, get angry, or
sulk, or cancel the dinner or "special service" they had in
mind. Some are delighted because they see Black people as servants, and
expect more work and extra services for less. Some clients are scared of
Black people which can be useful - when you tell them your driver is
waiting, and that if there's a problem he will sort it out, they envisage
the stereotypical "Black pimp" and usually pay up quickly. I
visited a Belgian banker who'd been machete'd in the Congo rebellion. I
was his worst nightmare, yet he let me in his (totally white-furnished)
house. Everything 1 touched he wiped. k was deeply satisfying getting
details of the rebellion, freaking him out, and getting paid for it. On
other occasions, it's a struggle to stop rough handling and clients who
think they've bought you or that they can say or ask anything they like.
There are really odious clients - rough, unwashed, with weird sexual
tastes - who white women refuse to visit. These will often call Black
women because you may be less in a position to refuse them. On
health: Some "professional" health workers are brutal to Black
women, even when they don't know you're a hooker. Some look down on you or
are outraged if you ask for extra or better quality contraceptives,
particularly when the service is free. Special clinics tend to treat you
better because prostitute women have fought for respectful treatment and a
range of services which have benefited people generally. When i started
working, i was worried about sexually transmitted infections, but the
biggest and recurring battle I have experienced is against yeast
infections, partly caused by toxic chemicals in contraceptives, combined
with the pressure of being on call, not being able to eat or sleep normal
hours. Sex work can be a further attack on Black women's immune systems,
which are already weakened by overwork, stress, poverty, waste dumping in
our communities, etc. Security:
Traveling at night you worry the police could stop you or that you'll be
harassed by men. Hotels are the worst. Security guards may stop you going
in so you need extra time to get exact directions from the client about
how to get to his room. Then you run the gauntlet from foyer to lift.
Sometimes security will stop you as you leave, knowing few Black women can
afford such hotels. To them a Black face is either a hooker or a thief. These
experiences are not unique to Black women on the game - many women know
about having to be sexy to keep a husband/boyfriend, and/or to get money
for the children, to get or keep a job; or of leaving because your boss
asks for sexual favours, or because of sexual harassment or an attack. One
reason for the famous Grunwick strike led by Asian women in London during
the late 70s, was that bosses were demanding sexual services from some
women employees. Women who work as nurses and cleaners also do a lot of
sex work, forced by circumstances or by poverty. For example, an older
client told me his carer, a religious Black woman in her 50s, gives him
hand relief in the bath. 1 hope she gets paid for it. Whatever
racism we face in Britain, Europe or the US, we know that Third World
countries women in the sex industry are working even harder, for even less
money, in worse conditions and with less power to refuse. It's important
to get all this work recognised as part of the double and triple day that
women everywhere do. We begin by cutting through the myths, to say that
sex work is work like all the rest, and to put this work on international
agendas, to press for it to be recognised, valued, counted, as a way of
holding those in authority responsible for all the violence we face, and
for the poverty, overwork, lack of money and choices that make
prostitution one of the few options for millions of Black women and women
of colour everywhere. The
International Prostitutes Collective works with prostitute women and men
in a number of 'countries, South and North, and is part of the
International Wages for Housework Campaign. English
Collective of Prostitutes Crossroads Women's Centre PO Box 287 London NW6
5QU Tel
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