The Racist Origins of the Law at the Center of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ Prosecution

Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested on Monday and charged with racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. Each is a serious federal crime, and the powerful hip-hop mogul is facing very serious prison time if convicted. (Combs has denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty.) Notably, the third count in Combs’ indictment comes from a federal law dating back to 1910. It’s known today as the Mann Act. Federal prosecutors don’t often use the law’s other name, and for good reason. The Mann Act is also known as the “White Slave Traffic Act.”

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{snip} Originally motivated by xenophobia, racism and politicians looking for ways to punish consensual “immoral” sex, the law remains a federal tool used to prosecute Combs and many others, including rapper R. Kelly.

While the text of the White Slave Traffic Act doesn’t exclusively protect white women, the statute was “born out of a hysteria” in the early 1900s “that ‘white slavers’ were preying upon young women — coercing them into prostitution through threats, intimidation, and force.” Writing in the Columbia Human Rights Law Review, sex worker activist Lorelei Lee argues the “prototypical ‘white slave’ of early 1900s discourse was a young white girl from a rural area who was lured into prostitution after moving to an urban center and thus being separated from the supervision of her family.”

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The text of the law as originally passed in 1910 criminalized knowingly transporting a woman in interstate commerce “for the purpose of prostitution,” but also for the purpose of “debauchery, or any other immoral purpose.” As one can imagine, a lot more purposes were considered “immoral” in 1910, and potentially included — according to the Supreme Court in 1917 — an “interstate trip for the purpose of a sexual affair between two consenting adults.”

Several scandalous prosecutions followed. Arguably the most infamous was the prosecution of the first African American heavyweight boxing champion, Jack Johnson. The federal government prosecuted Johnson under the White Slave Traffic Act for transporting a white woman named Belle Schreiber across state lines. {snip}

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{snip} In its modern incarnation, it applies only when the transportation of the person was for illegal sexual activity — in Combs’ case, prostitution.

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