Killing the Black Body — Important

Dorothy Roberts’ KILLING THE BLACK BODY: Race Reproduction and the Meaning of Liberty is a deep, challenging, excellent book, particularly for white men (and secondarily for white women). For me it taps into the denial which I go into (thankfully less and less frequently over time) as a privileged white man, where racism, sexism and homo/lesbian/trans phobias don’t penetrate me deeply and I relax, seemingly oblivious to what others face in their daily lives.

But the movement to expand women’s reproductive options was marked by racism from its very inception in the early part of this century (note: 20th century). The spread of contraception to American women hinged partly on its appeal to eugenicists bent on curtailing the birthrates of the “unfit” including Negroes. For several decades, peaking in the 1970’s, government-sponsored family planning programs not only encouraged Black women to use birth control but coerced them into being sterilized. (p.56)

Roberts is deliberately “attacking” in her words. She also provides both documentation, and clear examples for her perceptive views.

In the caption beneath the photograph the woman explained that she voted for Duke because Blacks “just have those babies and go on welfare.” This woman was willing to decimate programs that benefited her in order to ensure that Black people could not…