Exposure: Racialized Birth Trauma and Epigenetic Inheritance

ABSTRACT How can trauma, specifically, racialized birth trauma, be passed on or reproduced across generations? This essay explores the intersections of trauma research, including forms of birth trauma and racism, alongside the research on epigenetic inheritance, to understand the reproduction of racialized birth trauma. Drawing on preliminary research conducted with scientists and a close reading of Davis's concept of anti‐bodies, I argue that it is important to bring biological and cultural specificity to the mechanisms that transmit trauma across generations. Doing so challenges overdetermined interpretations of epigenetic inheritance and the inevitability of reproducing trauma.