Obstetric Racism as Necropolitical Disinvestment of Care How Uneven Reproduction in the Netherlands Is Effectuated through Linguistic Racism, Exoticization, and Stereotypes

In this chapter, we theorize how Dána-Ain Davis’s “uneven reproduction” and “obstetric racism” are effectuated in the Netherlands through linguistic racism, othering, and racial stereotypes. We conceptualize uneven reproduction as consisting of a bio- and necropolitics that optimizes certain life through investments and negates “other” life through disinvestments in reproductive care. Based on interviews with mothers, doulas, midwives, and midwives in training, we study how uneven reproduction plays out in daily practices of obstetric racism within the obstetric institution. In daily practice, we differentiate between a logic of investment and disinvestment which takes place through linguistic racism, othering, and exoticization, and the racial stereotype of Black women being “natural” birthers, while other marginalized racialized women are seen as “bad” birthers.