Scientific conclusions about Black inferiority were consumed to justify enslaved commerce.

Evidence

Baartman’s fate was particularly horrific in the early 1810s, and Cuvier’s conclusions about Black bodies were consumed with little hesitation by those seeking evidence of Black inferiority to justify their commerce on both sides of the Atlantic, a commerce taking root in the wombs of Black women. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 371

Categorization

• XREF: Directly instantiates Kendi’s core inversion — the racist commerce existed first, and Cuvier’s science was consumed to justify it. This is the book’s central thesis in miniature, useful for placing against the reader’s test case of ideas-before-policy.