"Killing the Black Body" Author Talks about New Work

Dorothy Roberts was one of the trailblazing researchers who called for more inclusive feminism

Dorothy Roberts is one of the most distinguished and famous intersectional feminists in the world. She established herself with the seminal work Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty. 

Now, she’s back with another work Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families–And How Abolition Can Build a Safer World. In the text, she argues that the current welfare system and the criminalization of motherhood have disproportionately affected women of color and unnecessarily ripped families apart. 

One of the central premises is that black mothers are stereotyped as unfit for motherhood, while white mothers are perceived as more responsible. Roberts calls for an end to depriving mothers of their children because of drug charges. 

Roberts spoke to Repro Rights Now about her work and the importance of developing a more intersectional approach to feminism. 

“All of those forms of oppressive state intervention, criminalization of pregnant people and parenting should be abolished,” Roberts said. “And again, I tie them together, I tie together laws that compel birth, as well as laws that separate children from their families. 

“So that’s one aspect of it. But the other side of it that's just as important is providing the resources that people need to meet their human needs to care for children. And to be able to thrive in our society.” 

Previous newsletters of mine have celebrated the achievements of pioneering intersectional feminists like Loretta Ross, Dazon Dixon Diallo and Byllye Avery. The movement’s origins can be found in the resistance against and retelling of sterilization abuse against Black women historically. 

That history has deeply affected the narrative and direction of feminism lately. Much of it comes from the difficult conversations black men and women have with each other. Some black men during the 1960s–particularly among the Black Panthers–were cynical when it came to birth control and abortion because there was significant evidence that white leaders wanted to limit population growth among black people during the period when eugenics prevailed over most of the country. 

Black women during that time and since then have been challenged in trying to acknowledge that history while also arguing that we shouldn’t limit women today in making choices about their own destinies because of it. 

Roberts spoke about Margaret Sanger. My own research led me to believe that she was guilty of ableism, but the evidence pertaining to racism wasn’t nearly as strong. And the working relationships that she had with many black leaders also made me think that she was fairly progressive on issues of race within the context of her time. 

Roberts wants to present a more nuanced view of Margaret Sanger, as she told me in the interview I had with her. Roberts said she had multiple motives and rationalizations for why birth control should be expanded to the black community. However, she used eugenicist arguments to justify many of her efforts. 

“We have to keep both aspects in mind,” Roberts said. 

Both were true. But she thinks it’s dangerous to infer other things from it. 

“I think it's wrong to conclude that expanding access to birth control in black communities was eugenicist and a form of genocide against black people,” Roberts said. “That's wrong to conclude that.”