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Dorothy Roberts: Killing the Black Body

Killing the Black Body was written by Dorothy Roberts after she read about the articles that came out in the 1980s about black women being arrested for using drugs during their pregnancy. Roberts saw this as “the prosecutions punishing black women for having babies”. This led Roberts to doing research on the history of punitive policies directed towards African American women. She became interested in writing about the regulations of childbearing for black women. Dorothy says,” I want this book to convince readers that reproduction is an important topic and that it is especially important to Black people.”

Dorothy discusses the issues of reproduction when it comes to the Black woman. She talks about slavery and how it has affected Black women mentally and physically over time. Dorothy addresses the experience of motherhood for Black women. She addresses the struggles that these women have faced since the beginning of slavery. Black women were used during slavery to produce babies that would be the property of the slave masters at conception. The worth of these women were determined by fertility. The more children they could produce for their masters, determined how high their auction prices would be. She talks about the treatment of slaves by their slave owners. She talks about the ways that the White slave owners would treat their slaves that were Black women. Not only were they enslaved, but their bodies were enslaved. They had no control over their reproductive systems even though it was their body.

Infertile slaves were not valuable to their slaveholders Women who were not fertile were sold off or even worse things were done to them. The slave were very angry that the slaves could not produce, so they would inflict “cruel physical and psychological” punishment on those female slaves. They felt that infertile female slaves was a “loss on their investment”. On the other hand fertile slaves were very valuable to her master. They were often sold to another owner. The only way a woman could avoid being separated from her family was if she started having children early on and very often.

In “Killing the Black Body, there is a report presented to the General Anti-Slavery Convention held in London in 1840. The report stated, “Where fruitfulness is the greatest of virtues, barreness will be regarded as worse than a misfortune, as a crime and the subjects of it will be exposed form of privation and affliction. Thus deficiency wholly beyond the slave’s power becomes the occasion of inconceivable suffering.”

In one of Dorothy's lectures, she talks about Black women's wombs being seen as a threat to society. This is why she believes that people try to do things to prevent them from producing offspring such as sterilization and contraceptives.

Female slaves were raped by their slave masters. The female slaves could legal be “stripped, beaten, mutilated, bred, and compelled to toil alongside men.” There were laws in states like Louisiana and Virginia, but they did not protect the Black women from being raped by their white slave owners. “The crime of rape does not apply to African slaves.” Raping Black women did not exist as crime. Even when they were rape it was not seen as a crime because somehow it ended being something that they “deserved” and has been viewed as acceptable, when it would be terrible crime if it was done to a White woman.

Dorothy also addresses the narratives that were given to Black women by their slave owners such as the names “Jezebel” and “Mammy”. Dorothy talks about the views of Black women and how they have never been viewed as the ideal women “From the moment they set foot in this country as slaves, Black women have fallen outside the American ideal of womanhood.” and viewed differently than women of other races.

As a result of Black women being subjected to sexual abuse, they were given either of the two names to put a label on them. According to “Killing the Black Body”, the meaning behind the name “Jezebel” was the Black woman that seemed “willing” to engage in sexual intercourse. Jezebel originated from the character of the biblical wife of King Ahab. According to “Killing the Black Body”, Jezebel was a “purely lasvicious creature: not only was she governed by her erotic desires, but her sexual led men to wanton passion.” The type of woman that would be called this was one who was “easy” and never had to be forced into sexual acts because she was “always ready”. On the contrast, there was the women they would consider “Mammy”. She was the Black female house servant who cared for her master’s children. She was seen as the type of woman that would nurture and take care of the children. This name became popular during the Jim Crow Era. This character was a part of the cult during this era. She was a symbol of the “good Black woman” According to the narrative given to this type of woman, she was viewed as the perfect slave and woman,

Dorothy addresses the degradation of Black women and the origination of all of the negative stigmas associated with them. "In Killing the Black Body”, Roberts says that “Racist thinking dictates that Black bodies, intellect, character, and culture are all inherently vulgar.”

Race- Based Medicine

Race- based medicine is” a system by which research is done by primarily using race as an essential, biological variable, translates into clinical practice, and leads to inequitable care.” According to Robert’s TED Talk about the Importance Race Based Medicine, she talks about how race “runs deep in throughout all of medical practices. It plays a part of diagnosis, treatment, prescriptions etc.

Doctors are supposed to treat patients with evidence based African Americans are said to have more muscle mass than other race. Doctors are using race to determine a general trait or diagnosis.

She says race is a bad proxy because race cannot determine the health issues based on race. It blinds doctors to illnesses  Race can’t substitute as a good way to distinguish

Black and Latino people are twice as likely to receive the pain medicine that Whites because of idea of that they can handle more pain.

Roberts talks about Samuel Daniel Cartwright a physician during civil, who believe that slavery was a beneficial thing for the black people. He created drapetomania.

Race specific medicines is the practice of medicine and treatment specifically to their race. Dorothy Roberts talks about how this is not a fair way to treat people because everybody has different medical needs regardless of their race. She addresses that there is a history of Black people being perceived to be able to handle more pain than other race. There was a notion that white a black people have lung differences. Slave owners wanted to prove that slaves had weaker lungs that their white save owners. Therefore, the physicians on the plantation used the spirometer. It has been used to examine lung functions. To operate the device the race among other information has to be entered which makes this a race specific treatment in medicine.

According to Dorothy Roberts, “race is not a good proxy” for medicine. She said that they should focus on resources and the actual disease itself. There are still so many racial issues and all people do not get fair treatment. She also talks about lack of access to medical care for minorities and not having access to treatment. Roberts also discusses the stress of discrimination for Black and Latino people.