(This conversation was originally broadcast on April 26, 2022)

Good afternoon and welcome to an encore edition of Midday.

Tom's guest today is Dorothy Roberts, a professor of law and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of four books, including Killing the Black Body, about systemic abuse of African American women, and Fatal Invention, which explores the relationship between race, science and politics.

Her new book argues that the nation's foster care system, putatively designed to protect children, instead deprives Black parents of fundamental rights and leads to traumatic consequences for Black children. The child welfare system, she argues, is “more accurately described as the family policing system,” and she calls for it to be dismantled.

The book is called Torn Apart:  How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families—And How Abolition Can Build a Safer World.

Dorothy Roberts joined us on Zoom from Philadelphia.

Our conversation was pre-recorded, so we can’t take any new calls or online comments.