Under the Skin by Linda Villarosa

UNDER THE SKIN by Linda Villarosa documents “The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation.” Villarosa is a journalism professor at the City University of New York and she has done an excellent job illustrating, as her publicist says, how Black people “live sicker and die quicker” compared to their white counterparts.  Villarosa begins by arguing that “poverty is not the sole factor in who gets sick and who doesn’t … Even when income, education, and access to health care are matched, African Americans remain disadvantaged and racial disparities in health cut lives short.” Subsequent chapters focus on both physical and emotional impacts as well as offering suggested solutions. This important, moving work contains copious notes (more than ten percent of the entire text) and a helpful index with numerous sub-points under topics like maternal mortality and mental illness. UNDER THE SKIN received starred reviews from Booklist, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly. We will be adding it to the list of recommended reading for student researchers; in the past, those interested in discrimination in health care have read Seeing Patients by White, Black Man in a White Coat by Tweedy and/or Just Health by Matthew. Those interested in inequities in health care for women have read works like Doing Harm by Dusenbery and/or Sex Matters by McGregor.