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Traumatic Repercussions: Black Women and Obstetric Racism
Dána-ain Davis- Professor of Urban Studies, Queens College, City University of New York; Director of The Center for the Study of Women and Society
Statistical data tells the sordid story of Black women’s reproductive experiences in the United States: they are 51% more likely to give birth prematurely than other women, are 3 to 4 times more likely t0 die from a pregnancy-related cause, and 31 percent more likely to experience Cesarean-sections. The grip of adverse birth outcomes’ numerical gaze is daunting. At the same time, Black women are treated with disdain by the medical community—they are often neglected, dismissed, and coerced—experiencing what I call, obstetric racism. Data does not adequately capture the fallout from obstetric racism, nor does data historicize the problem. In a move to be disciplinarily disobedient, this presentation offers an illustrated history of some of the people, ideas, practices, and representational repertoires that place reproducing Black bodies in peril. The presentation seeks to offer an explanation of how the medical industrial complex has come to view Black women as they do and as such, perpetrates obstetric racism.