Linda Villarosa

Well-researched, first person, and passionate account of the matrix we cant see that belittles, discounts, and disregards people of color. The root of the inequitable outcomes is not race, it is most assuredly racism. Each one of us can remember a stunning blow to our ego, a loss of credibility, being emotionally body-checked by a bully or otherwise dominant authority figure. It is disheartening and utterly tragic that a whole class of people experience this every day in every setting where they are entitled to seek relief and advocacy. And for this, we will all fail. We leave too much on the table. Among those we’ve disenfranchised as a matter of business or birthright is certainly one (or two or three or more) who could save us all. This white-ish sense of entitlement is the means by which we have hoisted our whole civilization by its own petard. And it need not be so.

Great book. Beyond Tuskegee there was sterilization. In recent history. There is death resulting from doctors misdiagnoses, withholding equal care with no grasp of the social causes of health outcomes. There is indifference to the weight of social stressors on mental health. There is willful acceptance of unfairness not just to people of color but much or most of rural America. When these two groups unite around common values, of which there are many, there would be true equity.… (mere)