Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty

“The feminist focus on gender and identification of male domination as the source of reproductive repression often overlooks the importance of racism in shaping our understanding of reproductive liberty and the degree of ‘choice’ that women really have.”

Roberts starts her book by critiquing second-wave, middle-class white feminists who have frequently overlooked how race and class have affected conversations about reproductive liberty, particularly access to birth control and abortion.

“American culture is replete with derogatory icons of Black women—Jezebel, Mammy, Tragic Mulatto, Aunt Jemima, Sapphire, Matriarch, and Welfare Queens.”

Roberts describes the stereotypes of Black women that have persisted in the US since the antebellum era. They typically depict Black women as sexually licentious, indolent, and selfless to the point of codependency.

“Whites invented the hereditary trait of race and endowed it with the concept of racial superiority and inferiority to resolve the contradiction between slavery and liberty.”

Roberts emphasizes that race is a social construct with no grounding in science. It justifies enslavement and creates permanent and incontrovertible means to retain a self-replenishing pool of free labor.