by Damon Tweedy
First published 2015
Damon Tweedy enters medical school expecting his working-class, segregated background to fade into irrelevance. He discovers instead that race becomes central to his medical education and career. A scholarship recipient meant to boost black enrollment, Tweedy faces a professor who openly questions his place in medical school. Lectures repeatedly emphasize that diseases are "more common in blacks than in whites." As Tweedy progresses from student to practicing physician, he witnesses how race shapes his interactions with patients. Their stories reveal the social, cultural, and economic roots of health disparities in black communities. The issues become personal when Tweedy receives his own diagnosis of a chronic condition that disproportionately affects black people. Through his experiences as both doctor and patient, Tweedy examines the obstacles facing black physicians and the health burdens carried by black patients, searching for paths toward better treatment and more compassionate medical care.
Genres: biography, medical, african-american, non-fiction, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: personal-journey, social-commentary
Period: 21st-Century
294 pages · Hardcover · Picador
Content warnings: racism