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readandchill23's review
5.0
When I was a teenager, I went to the doctor's for an annual checkout at Kaiser. I don't remember if the doctor I saw was my primary pediatrician or just some random bloke who was available. And I don't know where my mom was during the entire appointment, but I'm sure she was somewhere outside of the exam room. Anyway, I remember he asked about family medical history and being the selectively attentive teenager that I was, I knew all the health conditions that my parents and grandparents had. The doctor's response? Laughter, a smirk and the following: "Wow, with that history, you'll probably be dead before 40."
Those words (and another indecent incident involving a doctor prior to this) continue to burn in my subconscious decades later. This book is a well-researched, unapologetic piece of work highlighting the macro-level, structural racism in healthcare and public health while providing first hand accounts of disparities in black and brown communities. Villarosa does an outstanding job in conveying her research to the masses. The true highlights were all of the stories she provided; the faces of her research. It was a necessary reminder that black people are not just mere stats and tragedies.
Those words (and another indecent incident involving a doctor prior to this) continue to burn in my subconscious decades later. This book is a well-researched, unapologetic piece of work highlighting the macro-level, structural racism in healthcare and public health while providing first hand accounts of disparities in black and brown communities. Villarosa does an outstanding job in conveying her research to the masses. The true highlights were all of the stories she provided; the faces of her research. It was a necessary reminder that black people are not just mere stats and tragedies.
sparnes's review
informative
medium-paced
3.5
This is an important topic and it is necessary that a book(s) be written about. However unless you never follow the news or get all your news from Fox, there is not much in the book that will be new to you. A good deal of the book was about maternal and infant health, which of course is very important, but not much about heart disease, which is the leading cause of death for blacks.