Black Anti-Bodies and the Trauma of Obstetric Racism

This article introduces the concept of Black Anti-Bodies, a framework highlighting the intersection of racism, gender, and medical violence against Black women and birthing people in the United States. Black Anti-Bodies is a diagnostic that refers to the paradoxical treatment of Black women's reproducing bodies as exploited within the American healthcare system and broader society. Black Anti-Bodies are both essential and disposable, relied upon to stabilize the economy and political system, yet subjected to routine medical violence rooted in racist beliefs. Through the narratives of Bisola and a Kreyòl woman whose story first appeared in a news article, we examine the ways medical professionals and the medical complex torment and harm Black bodies. Drawing on Hortense Spillers's concept of flesh and Emily Martin's exploration of flexibility, we show how Black bodies are constructed as "pathological" and subjected to dangerous medical practices. Ultimately, this article aims to critically analyze intersecting dynamics of reproduction, race, gender, and power within medicine

Black market · Black women · Harm · Health care · Narrative · Racism · Homelessness and Social Issues · Race, History, and American Society

• Re-worlding reproduction as a call to action

  Open Access•A Whittaker, Nolwazi Mkhwanazi et al.•Culture Health & Sexuality•2026

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