Intimate Justice

The Black Female Body and the Body Politic

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science, Politics, Civil Rights, Social Science, Cultural Studies, African-American Studies
Cover of the book Intimate Justice by Shatema Threadcraft, Oxford University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Shatema Threadcraft ISBN: 9780190632076
Publisher: Oxford University Press Publication: October 3, 2016
Imprint: Oxford University Press Language: English
Author: Shatema Threadcraft
ISBN: 9780190632076
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication: October 3, 2016
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Language: English

In 1973, the year the women's movement won an important symbolic victory with Roe v. Wade, reports surfaced that twelve-year-old Minnie Lee Relf and her fourteen-year-old sister Mary Alice, the daughters of black Alabama farm hands, had been sterilized without their or their parents' knowledge or consent. Just as women's ability to control reproduction moved to the forefront of the feminist movement, the Relf sisters' plight stood as a reminder of the ways in which the movement's accomplishments had diverged sharply along racial lines. Thousands of forced sterilizations were performed on black women during this period, convincing activists in the Black Power, civil rights and women's movements that they needed to address, pointedly, the racial injustices surrounding equal access to reproductive labor and intimate life in America. As horrific as the Relf tragedy was, it fit easily within a set of critical events within black women's sexual and reproductive history in America, which black feminists argue began with coerced reproduction and enforced child neglect in the period of enslavement. While reproductive rights activists and organizations, historians and legal scholars have all begun to grapple with this history and its meaning, political theorists have yet to do so. Intimate Justice charts the long and still incomplete path to black female intimate freedom and equality--a path marked by infanticides, sexual terrorism, race riots, coerced sterilizations and racially biased child removal policies. In order to challenge prevailing understandings of freedom and equality, Shatema Threadcraft considers the troubled status of black female intimate life during four moments: antebellum slavery, Reconstruction, the nadir, and the civil rights and women's movement eras. Taking up important and often overlooked aspects of the necessary conditions for justice, Threadcraft's book is a compelling challenge to the meaning of equality in American race and gender relations.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In 1973, the year the women's movement won an important symbolic victory with Roe v. Wade, reports surfaced that twelve-year-old Minnie Lee Relf and her fourteen-year-old sister Mary Alice, the daughters of black Alabama farm hands, had been sterilized without their or their parents' knowledge or consent. Just as women's ability to control reproduction moved to the forefront of the feminist movement, the Relf sisters' plight stood as a reminder of the ways in which the movement's accomplishments had diverged sharply along racial lines. Thousands of forced sterilizations were performed on black women during this period, convincing activists in the Black Power, civil rights and women's movements that they needed to address, pointedly, the racial injustices surrounding equal access to reproductive labor and intimate life in America. As horrific as the Relf tragedy was, it fit easily within a set of critical events within black women's sexual and reproductive history in America, which black feminists argue began with coerced reproduction and enforced child neglect in the period of enslavement. While reproductive rights activists and organizations, historians and legal scholars have all begun to grapple with this history and its meaning, political theorists have yet to do so. Intimate Justice charts the long and still incomplete path to black female intimate freedom and equality--a path marked by infanticides, sexual terrorism, race riots, coerced sterilizations and racially biased child removal policies. In order to challenge prevailing understandings of freedom and equality, Shatema Threadcraft considers the troubled status of black female intimate life during four moments: antebellum slavery, Reconstruction, the nadir, and the civil rights and women's movement eras. Taking up important and often overlooked aspects of the necessary conditions for justice, Threadcraft's book is a compelling challenge to the meaning of equality in American race and gender relations.

More books from Oxford University Press

Cover of the book The Forgotten Presidents by Shatema Threadcraft
Cover of the book Antisocial Media by Shatema Threadcraft
Cover of the book The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri : Volume 3: Paradiso by Shatema Threadcraft
Cover of the book The Islamic Lineage of American Literary Culture by Shatema Threadcraft
Cover of the book The Language of Law School by Shatema Threadcraft
Cover of the book Music for Life by Shatema Threadcraft
Cover of the book Subjects and Sovereign by Shatema Threadcraft
Cover of the book In Pursuit of Equity by Shatema Threadcraft
Cover of the book Conversations on Russia by Shatema Threadcraft
Cover of the book Pride and Joy:A Guide to Understanding Your Child's Emotions and Solving Family Problems by Shatema Threadcraft
Cover of the book Sharing Democracy by Shatema Threadcraft
Cover of the book Praxial Music Education by Shatema Threadcraft
Cover of the book The Predictable Surprise by Shatema Threadcraft
Cover of the book After the Cradle Falls by Shatema Threadcraft
Cover of the book The Psychology and Management of Project Teams by Shatema Threadcraft
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy