77 pages 2 hours read

Dorothy Roberts

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

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1997

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Important Quotes

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“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.”


(Introduction, Page 11)

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.

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


(Introduction, Page 14)

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.

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“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.”


(Introduction, Page 14)

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.

Related Titles

By Dorothy Roberts

Study Guide

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Fatal Invention

Dorothy Roberts

Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-First Century

Dorothy Roberts