Dr. Morrissey and Karen Kimball's Latest Publication | Communication Studies
April 21, 2016

Dr. Morrissey and Karen Kimball's Latest Publication

Dr. Megan Morrissey and Karen Kimball (M.A., 2008) are excited to see their essay #SpoiledMilk: Blacktavists, Visibility, and the Exploitation of the Black Breast published online by Women's Studies in Communication this month. This essay will appear as part of a special issue on mothering rhetorics that the journal will put out in print later this year. In this essay, Megan and Karen explore how Medolac Laboratories, a company in Oregon that processes human milk, announced an initiative to purchase pumped breast milk from African-American mothers in Detroit, MI. Angry about Medolac's predatory initiative to target this population, a community of Black female breastfeeding activists, or Blacktavists, swiftly took to blogs, Twitter, and Facebook to express their concerns. Megan and Karen argue that Blacktavists (working on, against, and through the Black breastfeeding body) constructed a persuasive narrative about Medolac's campaign that made visible the historical legacy of Black labor for white interests, the economic value of that labor, and whiteness as a racial category. If you would like a copy, please contact Dr. Morrissey at megan.morrissey@unt.edu.