Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine
Uché Blackstock
“Legacy is an illuminating and stirring journey of a book. ” —Ibram X. Kendi, #1 New York Times- bestselling author of How to Be an AntiracistThe rousing, captivating story of a Black physician, her career in medicine, and the deep inequities that still exist in the U. more
304 pages, Kindle Edition
First published Viking
4.48
Rating
371
Ratings
59
Reviews
Uché Blackstock
2 books 77 followers
Dr. Uché Blackstock is a physician and thought leader on bias and racism in healthcare.She appears on air regularly as an MSNBC medical contributor and is the founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity, as well as a former associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine and the former faculty director for recruitment, retention, and inclusion in the Office of Diversity Affairs at NYU School of Medicine.
Dr. Blackstock received both her undergraduate and medical degrees from Harvard University, making her and her twin sister, Oni, the first Black mother-daughter legacies from Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Blackstock currently lives in her hometown of Brooklyn, New York, with her two school-age children.
Community reviews
I liked the book and think its a good personal entry into racism in medicine. It is a surface memoir but really illustrates and overview into medical racism. more
A great blend of personal stories and research of healthcare inequalities. Idk if the parts of the author explaining her medical training will be too technical for layperson but I LOVED every moment of it. My only note is the audiobook she mispronounced JohnS Hopkins as John Hopkins 🤣🙈 not sure if the print version has a typo lol. more
I received a print copy of this book from the goodreads giveaways. Uche Blackstock is a physician who writes about the inequalites that black people face in medicine. Her Mother was a physician who tragically died when she was in her forties. Uche and her twin sisters both went to Harvard to become doctors. The author writes about the racism black people face in medicine. more
Great biography type opinion piece. Not my usually read but a good palette cleanser that talks about the racial divide in medicine and gives an anecdotal stories to give more depth. . more
I just happened upon this memoir a few days before its release and decided why not give it a try. The memoir part of the book was interesting, getting to know Dr. Blackstock’s personal background and family history, the legacy of her mother which inspires her and the kinds of challenges she faced as a Black woman physician, both while in university and when working. I also liked how she correlates her personal experiences with racism to the history of medicine itself in this country; the dark relationships between medical breakthroughs and unethical experimentation on enslaved people and later other Black folks; and how this internalized racism in the teaching of medicine results in physicians with bias, negative outcomes for Black patients, and mistrust between the communities. This is a well written and easy to read book, especially if one wants to learn about the basics of the topic of racism and medicine. more
A really important and challenging book. I had heard about this book from NPR and immediately knew this was going on my to-be read list. It’s easy to become complacent, but the truth is there is urgent action needed to be taken as healthcare workers to combat systemic racism. Dr. Blackstock has worked tirelessly to make her community better and her story should be read by those outside of healthcare as well. more
This book is necessary reading material for all Americans. Thank you Dr. Uché Blackstock for shedding light on something that has been happening for so long in this country. This book gave voice to why I still insist on seeing Black female physicians even though they are so difficult to find even in a city as diverse as Brooklyn. This book provided a concise map directly back to our Black ancestors who we have to thank for current advances in medicine ranging from vaccines to doulas who have a track record of keeping Black birthing people alive when our hospitals cannot. more
I was filled with so many emotions while reading this book. As someone who work in the Pharmaceutical industry and who has had to advocate for myself during medical incidents this book was on the top of my TBR list for 2024. Hearing the stories first had from the eyes of a physician, mother, patient, and daughter was beyond touching. This book touched my heart as we hear first hand stories of medical disparities from a doctor. I loved this book so much and would definitely recommend this read. more
This is a 4. 5 only because some of the sentences felt clunky and hard to read. But the messages are critical - the medical field needs to change to better care for people of color. There is a lot of work to do and I love that Dr. Blackstock is helping to change it. more
this was eye-opening, heartfelt, unapologetically truthful, and made me think more about the way i react to certain news articles and arguments. more
Wow. Eye-opening look at how racism impacts medicine across all fronts: patient experience, outcomes, and for physicians themselves. The sincere, plaintive writing reads like sitting down to coffee with my mentor, and inspired me to go out and do the work. The only authority I have to write a review for this book is as a woman in medicine; I cannot begin to know the experiences of Dr. Blackstock or the black community intimately, and can only attempt to learn…her book was a great start. more
In honor of Black History Month celebrate and amplify Black voices and accomplishments. As an addition to that, if you work in healthcare, especially the Emergency Department, please (but if able) and then read this book. Dr. Blackstock is an Emergency Medicine physician who expertly shares not only her experience but the evidence for the impacts of racism in healthcare. This includes how medicine is taught, how patients are managed, and how outcomes are affected. more
me tooDr b needs to do more researchThe ob complications she refers to can happen to any womanI am a white college educated health care professional who also had a forceps delivery but unlike the doctor I did not get an epidural despite asking many times over my 24 hour labor. I had 2 health insurance plans so surely it would have been covered. I had a 4th degree laceration and required over 300 sutures to repair it. I was given no special discharge instructions and one week post partum I experienced stool coming thru my vagina. I had a fistula, a complication common in sub Saharan Africa but not Evanston, Illinois. more
Adding this to the list of “must read health equity books. ” Poignant, personal, and provocative. It read like a more intimate, modern version of “Medical Apartheid. ” I cried some necessary crocodile tears in public throughout the books. Well done. more
LEGACY draws the reader in to help us understand the facts, stories and connections behind the relentless cries for equity efforts in healthcare and medicine. Moving, informative and genuinely interesting, this book inspires the reader to ask themself countless times how they can help. Thankfully, the author includes the chapter The Way Forward: Actions Speak Louder than Words, which gives specific advice for various groups of people. I, for one, am grateful for such guidance, and plan to put it to good use. “Your children must learn that racism isn’t the problem of Black people to solve. more
Required reading for anyone interested in making our country more equitable and just. Dr. Blackstock’s book is a powerfully written exploration of our racist history and systems, a window into her experience of inequitable care as a Black doctor and patient and a warm tribute to her incredible mother, who broke barriers as a Harvard-educated physician caring for her community. more
Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine is a searing indictment of our healthcare system, a generational family memoir, and an urgent call to action. In it, the author shares stories of her upbringing, her mother’s influence, and her experiences as a Black woman navigating the medical field. She delves into the topics of culturally responsive care, racial health disparities, and the impact of historical decisions on the representation of Black physicians. Her advocacy shines through as she offers actionable steps for improving healthcare equity. This book reads like a love letter to the author’s mother and the legacy her mother left on her daughters, who are both physicians. more
Legacy is a powerful look at racism within the medical community. Uché Blackstock thoughtfully weaves personal stories from her time as a physician in the emergency department in New York with explanations of how certain aspects of our medical system is inherently racist. As a white woman in her 30s, I have never (and will never) experience racism in a medical setting. But I feel it's imperative that I learn about it to be able to recognize my privilege and to help be a part of the solution rather than continuing the problem. I believe systemic racism exists, but had you asked me to explain how it affected the medical system, I don't think I would have been able to say much on the topic other than knowing Black women had a higher maternal mortality rate. more
This was a really powerful book, yet another excellent book by a Black physician trying to confront all the ways Black Americans are discriminated against and ignored in health care. Blackstock's mother was a Black female physician, a true pioneer, and Blackstock and her twin sister also become doctors. The author's medical career, however, is hampered both by actual discrimination against herself, the under-resourcing of health care institutions serving lower income and Black, ethnic and immigrant communities, and the terrible disparities in health outcomes for Black Americans, leading her to begin, during Covid, to focus instead on educating institutions and the public about those disparities. I enjoyed this one very much; it's a valuable contribution to our understanding of the spiraling disaster in communities. Recommended. more
So so so so so important. I’m learning more everyday and amso grateful for Dr. Blackstock’s perspective. SDOH are everything + everywhere. “Today, studies show that your zip code is a much bigger determinant of health outcomes than your DNA. more
I've been following Dr. Uché Blackstock on Instagram throughout the pandemic, so was looking forward to reading this book. It's sort of a cross between a memoir and a non-fiction book looking at the history and present of how racism, and particularly anti-Blackness, plays out in the medical field. Sometimes the balance of these two slides further towards one side or the other, but overall the mix makes the book really readable. I wish this would be taught to medical and public health students--so much of it really lays bare the ways that medicine structurally devalues and attempts to dehumanize Black people, and making the professionals in the field grapple with that early in their training seems incredibly necessary. more
A necessary read for all healthcare professionals and policy makers. An amazing first hand account from a Black physician on racism she not only endured but experienced from medical school and into leadership positions at one of the highest ranked medical institutions in the US. If you didn’t already know, this blatantly calls out how the US, being one of the richest countries, has a very problematic and racist healthcare system. Grateful Dr. Blackstock shared a little bit of her own personal life and her mother’s journey as a Black physician as well. more
Q's bubble of thoughts:This book was a gift from a friend and I've got to say, this was pretty inspiring. My mom always wanted me to be a doctor and the thought of being in the prestige of medicine intrigued me, until I realized I'm scared of blood. At first I thought this was going to be some sort of memoir, but Uché's book details a legacy of inequality and discrimination in medicine. My career is in broadcast journalism so this felt like a really good interview, a sit down to discuss policy-making and systemic-racism in healthcare. A lot of the things I would not think about because being in California, specifically the Bay Area, an Asian man in healthcare would be expected and not treated with subtle biases. more
My first five stars of the year. I always tend to think I'm not interested enough in non-fiction and that that's the reason I struggle to read it. But the I stumble upon a book like this one and I realise that it isn't that I don't like non-fic but simply that they're often not written well-enough. This was so well written. One part was more memoir like and the second felt more essay-ish. more
Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in MedicineNorth Andover - Stevens Memorial LibraryXX(1574648. 5) 1574648-5001 Being acquired by the libraryBook Andover - Memorial Hall LibraryXX(1574648. 2) 1574648-2001 Being acquired by the libraryBook Dracut - Moses Greeley Parker Memorial LibraryXX(1574648. 1) 1574648-1001 Being acquired by the libraryBook Hamilton-Wenham Public LibraryXX(1574648. 4) 1574648-4001 Being acquired by the libraryBook Lowell - Pollard Memorial LibraryXX(1574648. more
Infuriating. No matter how informed you consider yourself on systemic racism and health inequities, you will learn from this book. No matter how angry you are, you will get angrier. It will take ever-increasing awareness and effort for these problems to start being addressed. Effort from you and me and everyone we know. more
An insightful and thorough look at systemic racism in American healthcare told through the lense of Dr. Blackstock’s own experiences. This memoir not only discusses the history of racism of medicine but shares current day stories and reflects on next steps in a call-to-action. I think it’s important for every person, especially those in healthcare, to reflect on their own biases and be more culturally and racially competent in our everyday practices. Reading this book can act as a step forward in better understanding why and how we should dismantle systemic racism. more
Listened to the audiobook. This is a must listen or read. The book is the perfect blend of personal account and educational presentation. Few books can be so thought-provoking and emotionally charged at the same time. Also, it was heartwarming to hear her account of her love for her mother and her sister and the respect they had for each other. more