Let's talk "Killing the Black Body"
an overview of Killing the Black Body x Dorothy Roberts and why we need a deeper dive
Despite what the knock-off Chester Cheeto may have you believe, systemic racism is real. It exists. And no matter how many datasets he directs people to erase, the fact remains: Black women are dying at disproportionate rates. And this shit ain’t new, as a matter of fact it is a symptom of what, you guessed it, racism. Many folks will try to gaslight people into believing that these disproportionate numbers are an individualistic problem to solve and not one that is a systemic one. What do I mean by that? Folks will blame your race instead of racism when you’re dying at higher rates than your white counterparts.
As a Black woman, I have found myself in toooo many emergency rooms and doctors’ offices trying to convince the practitioners to believe me, to hear me. To see me in pain and not think I’m making it up. Yes, in 2016 a study was conducted that discovered that the majority of incoming medical school students honestly believed that Black patients had a higher pain tolerance. It is now 2025, and that means that those students are now doctors out in the world treating patients with this mindset.
Where did that thought even come from? To get to that answer, we have to take it allllll the way back—which we will do further in the official reading notes and guides.
Dorothy Roberts is that girl. A legal scholar who has spent decades researching the intersections of the law, race/racism, healthcare, and the Black family. So, when I say she’s that girl…she is.
Killing The Black Body: Race reproduction, and the meaning of liberty is the perfect place to start in our learning journey. It is a great overview of so many things that happened that we are still experiencing the ramifications of today!
Roberts drops us into the middle of slavery because we must situate ourselves with the fact that Black women’s bodies were not just made to do physical labor in the fields; however, they were forced to do labor—they were forced to breed with other enslaved Black men. Yes, sometimes even locked in a cabin by these enslavers and wouldn’t be let out until they mated. Yes, they forced enslaved peoples into sexual acts all in the name of breeding more bodies so they could work their land faster.
She then decides that she wants to continue shaking the table and starts talking about the disturbing history of birth control. One second white folks wanted little black babies everywhere so they could have them grow up and work their fields and then the next second white folks said “oh shit, there getting to be too many of you *insert that word with a hard r here*” Which meant, something had to be done. What was that something? An eugenics movement disguised as not an eugenics movement. Forced sterilization and even court mandated birth control (that we later found out was irreversible).
Oh, you thought we were done? Sike!
Black women were being punished for reproducing. Remember, the white folks still upset cause there’s “too many of us.” Black women who refused an abortion when they were struggling with addiction would be threatened with prison time. (is it too early to have that abortion conversation? Okay, i’ll circle back later 😂).
After each chapter, I remember being shook while simultaneously not being shocked. I hope you subscribe so we can discuss this book chapter by chapter. I’ll be creating reading questions and reading notes for each chapter and will open up the community so we can chat about it with each other.
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