Killing the Black Body - Intro and Chapter 1 PDF

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Summary

From the course, taught by Meg O'Sullivan. Discusses the book that she assigned for the course, Killing the Black Body. This document also discusses key issues in Reproductive Heath and Legislation that are constantly discussed in the class. Topics in this document include, and are not limited to: ...

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● In 1989 - South Carolina initiated policies that led to the arrests of women whose prenatal tests revealed they were doing crack. - mothers in poor neighborhoods were tracked down by the police - officers invaded maternity wards to haul away mothers, just hours after giving birth - women were forced to spend part of their pregnancies in a jail cell - kept in shackles during delivery ● Amidst political rhetoric and political policies that degrade Black women’s reproductive decisions - poor black mothers are blamed for social issues because they ‘transmit defective genes, do drugs, and encourage poor behavior in their children’. - There have been suggestions to coerce long-acting conception to poor black women - The Bell Curve- a book that claims that social disparities stem from high fertility rates amongst genetically less intelligent groups - like African Americans ● State Legislators are considering measures that will prevent women on welfare from having babies. - these measures range from denying benefits to children born to mothers on welfare and mandatory insertion of long lasting contraceptives into women in order to receive welfare benefits. ● Books on racial justice fail to discuss reproductive rights. Books on reproductive freedom fail to discuss the influence of race. - Government regulation of Black women’s childbearing and the impact of repression are rarely discussed and impact the way Americans think about reproductive justice Last chapter reminds me of a speech by Frederick Douglas titled, “The Hypocrisy of American Slavery”....