A review by howard
Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty by Dorothy Roberts

4.0

This book gave me an entirely new perspective on the fight for reproductive justice and what that can look like for Black people who are marginalized by society. So much of the reproductive justice movement (in the 90s when this was written, AND now in the 2010s/20s) focuses on the right to terminate a pregnancy. I had never considered the other side of the equation, the right to procreate when there are social forces (such as poverty and addiction) that might prevent or discourage the decision to have a child. So much of the information I learned in the book about the way Black people have been treated in this country made my blood boil. I got a little lost in some of the legal discussions, and I can't say I agree with every point argued by the author. But this reading experience was very valuable to me and it will inform the way I think and speak about this topic going forward.