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Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine
�Legacy is an illuminating and stirring journey of a book.� —Ibram X. Kendi, #1 New York Times- bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist
The rousing, captivating story of a Black physician, her career in medicine, and the deep inequities that still exist in the U.S. healthcare system
Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, it never occurred to Uché Blackstock and her twin sister, Oni, that they would be anything but physicians. In the 1980s, their mother headed an organization of Black women physicians, and for years the girls watched these fiercely intelligent women in white coats tend to their patients and neighbors, host community health fairs, cure ills, and save lives.
What Dr. Uché Blackstock did not understand as a child—or learn about at Harvard Medical School, where she and her sister had followed in their mother’s footsteps, making them the first Black mother-daughter legacies from the school—were the profound and long-standing systemic inequities that mean just 2 percent of all U.S. physicians today are Black women; the racist practices and policies that ensure Black Americans have far worse health outcomes than any other group in the country; and the flawed system that endangers the well-being of communities like theirs. As an ER physician, and later as a professor in academic medicine, Dr. Blackstock became profoundly aware of the systemic barriers that Black patients and physicians continue to face.
Legacy is a journey through the critical intersection of racism and healthcare. At once a searing indictment of our healthcare system, a generational family memoir, and a call to action, Legacy is Dr. Blackstock’s odyssey from child to medical student to practicing physician—to finally seizing her own power as a health equity advocate against the backdrop of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement.
The rousing, captivating story of a Black physician, her career in medicine, and the deep inequities that still exist in the U.S. healthcare system
Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, it never occurred to Uché Blackstock and her twin sister, Oni, that they would be anything but physicians. In the 1980s, their mother headed an organization of Black women physicians, and for years the girls watched these fiercely intelligent women in white coats tend to their patients and neighbors, host community health fairs, cure ills, and save lives.
What Dr. Uché Blackstock did not understand as a child—or learn about at Harvard Medical School, where she and her sister had followed in their mother’s footsteps, making them the first Black mother-daughter legacies from the school—were the profound and long-standing systemic inequities that mean just 2 percent of all U.S. physicians today are Black women; the racist practices and policies that ensure Black Americans have far worse health outcomes than any other group in the country; and the flawed system that endangers the well-being of communities like theirs. As an ER physician, and later as a professor in academic medicine, Dr. Blackstock became profoundly aware of the systemic barriers that Black patients and physicians continue to face.
Legacy is a journey through the critical intersection of racism and healthcare. At once a searing indictment of our healthcare system, a generational family memoir, and a call to action, Legacy is Dr. Blackstock’s odyssey from child to medical student to practicing physician—to finally seizing her own power as a health equity advocate against the backdrop of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 23, 2024
658 people are currently reading
23.6k people want to read
About the author
Uché Blackstock
1book151followersDr. 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 563 reviews
January 12, 2024
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.
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May 21, 2024
Fuck systemic racism and white supremacy for keeping Black people out of medicine and positions in higher education.
January 31, 2024
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
My only note is the audiobook she mispronounced JohnS Hopkins as John Hopkins 🤣🙈 not sure if the print version has a typo lol
March 17, 2024
During my anesthesia training, we were lectured that our black patients had “thicker skin� so we were to use more pressure when starting IVs and other invasive procedures. We were lectured that black patients had “higher pain tolerance� and that requests for pain medications were usually “drug-seeking behaviors�.
This was all presented as scientific fact.
It’s horrifying that in 40 years, these outdated and dangerous perceptions haven’t changed and in many ways, have gotten worse. As medicine becomes more corporatized, the focus on profit endangers us all, but the racist assumptions underlying corporate culture make healthcare even more fraught for the black community.
I knew about Tuskegee and Henrietta Lacks, Dr Blackstock tells more horrifying stories. Sadly, the people who most need to read this book probably won’t.
This was all presented as scientific fact.
It’s horrifying that in 40 years, these outdated and dangerous perceptions haven’t changed and in many ways, have gotten worse. As medicine becomes more corporatized, the focus on profit endangers us all, but the racist assumptions underlying corporate culture make healthcare even more fraught for the black community.
I knew about Tuskegee and Henrietta Lacks, Dr Blackstock tells more horrifying stories. Sadly, the people who most need to read this book probably won’t.
August 29, 2024
This is a book written by a badass Black female physician, whose twin sister is a badass Black female physician, whose mother was also a badass Black female physician. All three of them graduated from Harvard Medical School (HMS). This is just part of the legacy about which she writes.
Unfortunately, an additional aspect of that legacy is “� the myriad ways that the structural violence of racism affects Black peoples lives.� To this day, Black women have significantly worse outcomes in pregnancy and the inequities across our medical system are repulsive. The impact that systemic racism has on Black people and other POC in our communities is well documented in the literature and she shares some of that in this book.
As a fellow female physician (I was one year ahead of Dr. Blackstock in medical school), it was impossible to read this book without comparing her experiences to my own. She went to HMS, I went to the University of WA School of Medicine (UWSOM) in Seattle. She did her residency in Brooklyn, I did mine in Northern CA. She went into ER, I went into Pediatrics. We’re both female physicians. She’s Black, I’m white. And I’m shocked that HMS didn’t teach about Tuskegee. We absolutely learned about it at UWSOM. I also didn’t have the experience she did when it came to caring for sickle cell patients. I was never encouraged to doubt the legitimacy of their suffering; I was never taught to question their diagnosis, their pain, or to assume they might be drug seeking. But I’m a pediatrician; it’s a different world than the adult ER.
It must be exhausting to be constantly judged, doubted, found lacking, from the moment a patient sees the color of your skin. In some fields of medicine (most notably the surgical ones), this happens to white women to some extent as well. In pediatrics, I have been lucky enough to have never experienced this.
I have never had an opportunity to compare, side by side, a private hospital with a public one. Reading about her experiences in two NYC ERs was difficult.
It was frustrating to read about the minimal support she was given to make substantive changes at NYU. I hope this book has brought them shame, and I hope they channel that into making positive changes moving forward. Of course the problem of the racial divide in medicine and medical education is bigger than just this one institution.
Life is already exhausting; making the choice to make the world a better place makes it exponentially more so. The work Dr. Blackstock has done and continues to do is inspiring.
“Every individual should feel like the work of dismantling racism is their responsibility.�
Unfortunately, an additional aspect of that legacy is “� the myriad ways that the structural violence of racism affects Black peoples lives.� To this day, Black women have significantly worse outcomes in pregnancy and the inequities across our medical system are repulsive. The impact that systemic racism has on Black people and other POC in our communities is well documented in the literature and she shares some of that in this book.
As a fellow female physician (I was one year ahead of Dr. Blackstock in medical school), it was impossible to read this book without comparing her experiences to my own. She went to HMS, I went to the University of WA School of Medicine (UWSOM) in Seattle. She did her residency in Brooklyn, I did mine in Northern CA. She went into ER, I went into Pediatrics. We’re both female physicians. She’s Black, I’m white. And I’m shocked that HMS didn’t teach about Tuskegee. We absolutely learned about it at UWSOM. I also didn’t have the experience she did when it came to caring for sickle cell patients. I was never encouraged to doubt the legitimacy of their suffering; I was never taught to question their diagnosis, their pain, or to assume they might be drug seeking. But I’m a pediatrician; it’s a different world than the adult ER.
It must be exhausting to be constantly judged, doubted, found lacking, from the moment a patient sees the color of your skin. In some fields of medicine (most notably the surgical ones), this happens to white women to some extent as well. In pediatrics, I have been lucky enough to have never experienced this.
I have never had an opportunity to compare, side by side, a private hospital with a public one. Reading about her experiences in two NYC ERs was difficult.
It was frustrating to read about the minimal support she was given to make substantive changes at NYU. I hope this book has brought them shame, and I hope they channel that into making positive changes moving forward. Of course the problem of the racial divide in medicine and medical education is bigger than just this one institution.
Life is already exhausting; making the choice to make the world a better place makes it exponentially more so. The work Dr. Blackstock has done and continues to do is inspiring.
“Every individual should feel like the work of dismantling racism is their responsibility.�
March 7, 2025
Recommend for Women’s History Month
This was an Excellent Book. I found Uche Blackstock to be so intelligent and caring, yet she still struggles with being a black physician in America. She works in her underserved community, and the services African Americans receive is just sub-par. She discusses her struggle while at NYU as a Faculty Advisor and also working as a Physician. The needs of POC are just not taken on or are discounted. It was especially glaring when Covid happened, but it is also happening on all levels of healthcare. Her mother was a physician and both her sister and her went to Harvard Medical School, yet are questioned about their ability to add to the healthcare discussion at work. They feel they do not belong, yet of course they do. This is literally a life saving need to address. We need more Women of Color encouraged to become physicians and than supported once they chose to do so.
African-American women is the United States live about 5 years less than Caucasian Women. It’s 74.5 years vs 79.7 years, and I imagine in certain areas that are more impoverished and more lack health insurance the rates are worse. For Black Men the Rates are even worse with a 7 year age difference. That is just disturbing and wrong.
This book really was a powerful listen for me and made me think a lot about the issues this woman raises. It is very profound and important.
This was an Excellent Book. I found Uche Blackstock to be so intelligent and caring, yet she still struggles with being a black physician in America. She works in her underserved community, and the services African Americans receive is just sub-par. She discusses her struggle while at NYU as a Faculty Advisor and also working as a Physician. The needs of POC are just not taken on or are discounted. It was especially glaring when Covid happened, but it is also happening on all levels of healthcare. Her mother was a physician and both her sister and her went to Harvard Medical School, yet are questioned about their ability to add to the healthcare discussion at work. They feel they do not belong, yet of course they do. This is literally a life saving need to address. We need more Women of Color encouraged to become physicians and than supported once they chose to do so.
African-American women is the United States live about 5 years less than Caucasian Women. It’s 74.5 years vs 79.7 years, and I imagine in certain areas that are more impoverished and more lack health insurance the rates are worse. For Black Men the Rates are even worse with a 7 year age difference. That is just disturbing and wrong.
This book really was a powerful listen for me and made me think a lot about the issues this woman raises. It is very profound and important.
March 19, 2024
*I love a medical memoir (looking at you WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR and THE BEAUTY IN BREAKING.) However, I do come into this book with some more biases reading it now than I may have a few years ago. As I have been going on my own journey looking for health answers, I have been repeatedly ignored, gaslit, talked down to and quite honestly just given horrible care from many in the traditional medicine and healthcare world. That being said, I have also had the privilege of working in this field and gotten to work alongside some of the most kindhearted, loving and smart humans I know and watching them interact with patients was a true joy. So many emotions, feelings and thoughts as I entered into this book�
*Uché Blackstock was a joy to read from. I loved looking at the world of medicine through the eyes of a Black woman and the role race has and does play in this world. As much of her career has been in the ED, she has stories to tell! But those personal antidotes balance well with her research and history.
*There is a fair amount of this book that centered around C*vid which wasn’t my fave. But I loved how she talked about her own experience being a patient and having her children and how much she advocated having a midwife and/or a Doula. I may not agree with everything in traditional medicine, but you can tell Uché cares about her patients and truly wants to help. Overall, really enjoyed this book and hearing Uché’s story!
*Uché Blackstock was a joy to read from. I loved looking at the world of medicine through the eyes of a Black woman and the role race has and does play in this world. As much of her career has been in the ED, she has stories to tell! But those personal antidotes balance well with her research and history.
*There is a fair amount of this book that centered around C*vid which wasn’t my fave. But I loved how she talked about her own experience being a patient and having her children and how much she advocated having a midwife and/or a Doula. I may not agree with everything in traditional medicine, but you can tell Uché cares about her patients and truly wants to help. Overall, really enjoyed this book and hearing Uché’s story!
February 6, 2024
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. I can’t say I got to know a lot of stuff I didn’t already know, but as a beginners book on the theme, this will work in a very accessible manner. And I really appreciate the advocacy work the author is doing through her organization, Advancing Health Equity - it’s much needed in a country that outspends all developed countries in healthcare but with much lesser positive outcomes.
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. I can’t say I got to know a lot of stuff I didn’t already know, but as a beginners book on the theme, this will work in a very accessible manner. And I really appreciate the advocacy work the author is doing through her organization, Advancing Health Equity - it’s much needed in a country that outspends all developed countries in healthcare but with much lesser positive outcomes.
January 14, 2025
The last few years I've read several books about the intersection of racism and medicine, but this is the only one (thus far) that is primarily from a doctor's memoir perspective.
I listened to the audiobook for this, which was read by the author, and I really appreciated the way that she approached the topic with clarity, honesty, and nuance. Books like this, well-written, honest memoirs, especially those read by the author, are quickly becoming a favorite style for me, even though the subject matter in this one was often quite depressing.
Still, I really liked Dr. Blackstock's perspective and voice, and how clearly she struggled with trying to provide the best care and advocacy for her Black patients, while also attempting to reform the system, or at least a small piece of it. I learned a lot about hospital bureaucracy and how that protects and shelters racist policies and practices and practitioners... I wish I could say that was surprising - but many systems are built to look just like that. It's designed this way, it's not a flaw.
Anyway, I do highly recommend this, and the other books I mentioned. I'll list them below, should you choose to read them:
)
I listened to the audiobook for this, which was read by the author, and I really appreciated the way that she approached the topic with clarity, honesty, and nuance. Books like this, well-written, honest memoirs, especially those read by the author, are quickly becoming a favorite style for me, even though the subject matter in this one was often quite depressing.
Still, I really liked Dr. Blackstock's perspective and voice, and how clearly she struggled with trying to provide the best care and advocacy for her Black patients, while also attempting to reform the system, or at least a small piece of it. I learned a lot about hospital bureaucracy and how that protects and shelters racist policies and practices and practitioners... I wish I could say that was surprising - but many systems are built to look just like that. It's designed this way, it's not a flaw.
Anyway, I do highly recommend this, and the other books I mentioned. I'll list them below, should you choose to read them:
)
November 12, 2023
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. She writes in this book about how black people die more than white people for many reasons. From lack of insurance or poor health insurance. Black people are not taken seriously when they go to a doctor so symptoms are ignored. Black women have a higher chance of dying in childbirth. During the Covid more black people died than other races.
the author also devotes a chapter to the many innocent black people who have died at the hands of police officers or other people who kill them just for walking in a neighborhood.
the author Uche Blackstone urges others to pay attention and support black lives matter. an interesting book that is well written by Uche Blackstone.
The author writes about the racism black people face in medicine. She writes in this book about how black people die more than white people for many reasons. From lack of insurance or poor health insurance. Black people are not taken seriously when they go to a doctor so symptoms are ignored. Black women have a higher chance of dying in childbirth. During the Covid more black people died than other races.
the author also devotes a chapter to the many innocent black people who have died at the hands of police officers or other people who kill them just for walking in a neighborhood.
the author Uche Blackstone urges others to pay attention and support black lives matter. an interesting book that is well written by Uche Blackstone.
January 28, 2024
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. This book thoughtfully explains how racism prematurely ages Black people and the fight against it has been unfairly placed on the shoulders of the very people it sickens. I am in awe still of this book and its author and Dr. Uché’s mother � her legacy is all up in through this book ❤️🙏🏾
January 27, 2024
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.
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.
March 22, 2024
For anyone in the medical field, this is a MUST read. I work in a high risk OB office and this book will change the way I practice. I work with amazing doctors who are very aware of bias and strive everyday to challenge their own perspectives. 2.8% of physicians are Black women. This is why Black women and Black babies face extremely high mortality rates for a developed nation.
Dr Blackstone and her sister became doctors after their mom modeled it for them. They graduated from Harvard med school and worked in Brooklyn hospitals just like her. She passed from a blood cancer at 47 and I resonated deeply with them following in her footsteps and wanted to retain her legacy as that mirrors my own story.
I learned that Raleigh, NC had a medical school in the south that trained Black medical students during Reconstruction that was shut down along with several others. If they weren’t shut down, they would have trained over 35,000 Black physicians.
Dr Blackstone lays out the systemic racism in med schools, hospitals, and society at large that keeps more Black people in poverty and less healthy than their white counterparts. There is severe distrust in Black communities due to the blatant racism and malpractice historically. COVID caused disproportionate deaths in Black and Latinx communities and vaccine hesitancy followed. Here are some impactful quotes:
“Her life couldn't have been more different than theirs. While she wanted to believe that she deserved to be there, she wasn't always certain. Her own claim to fame was that her mother had received her LPN degree after raising six children, attending school full-time, working full-time, taking care of the family, and getting off welfare. Our mother was very proud of her mother's achievements, but they weren't a Nobel Prize in Medicine.�
“Today, studies show that your zip code is a much bigger determinant of health outcomes than your DNA. Your zip code determines where you go to school, and your access to decent food, health care, and secure, affordable housing. It affects the kind of jobs and transportation that are available to you, all of which are major determinants in health outcomes.�
“In fact, the pulmonary function test dates back to the 1850s when a plantation physician from Louisi-ana, Dr: Samuel Cartwright, insisted that he had proved that Black people had a lesser lung capacity than white people. According to Cartwright, the only cure for this deficit was "forced labor." This was not his only outrageous claim in the name of science-he also believed that Black people who fled their masters were suffering from a mental illness he dubbed "drapetomania." Yet Cartwright's legacy lives on. The spirometer, a device we still use to measure pulmonary function in patients, was actually invented by none other than Cartwright-and modern versions of the device still include software that adjusts for the assumption that Black people have lesser lung capacity than white people.�
“In 1900, the United States had 100,000 midwives who attended 50 percent of all births. At the time of the writing of this book, there are only 15,000 midwives in this country, and fewer than 1,000 are Black; midwives attend only 8 percent of all births.
An abundance of studies show that out-of-hospital births are associated with lower C-section and maternal mortality rates and that if we increased midwife-delivered births, we could actually avert 40 percent of maternal deaths. Midwifery has been shown to reduce the use of medical interventions such as epidurals and C-sections, which are associated with greater risks than vaginal deliveries. In 2018, however; nearly 40 percent of all deliveriesin the US were by C-section.�
Dr Blackstone and her sister became doctors after their mom modeled it for them. They graduated from Harvard med school and worked in Brooklyn hospitals just like her. She passed from a blood cancer at 47 and I resonated deeply with them following in her footsteps and wanted to retain her legacy as that mirrors my own story.
I learned that Raleigh, NC had a medical school in the south that trained Black medical students during Reconstruction that was shut down along with several others. If they weren’t shut down, they would have trained over 35,000 Black physicians.
Dr Blackstone lays out the systemic racism in med schools, hospitals, and society at large that keeps more Black people in poverty and less healthy than their white counterparts. There is severe distrust in Black communities due to the blatant racism and malpractice historically. COVID caused disproportionate deaths in Black and Latinx communities and vaccine hesitancy followed. Here are some impactful quotes:
“Her life couldn't have been more different than theirs. While she wanted to believe that she deserved to be there, she wasn't always certain. Her own claim to fame was that her mother had received her LPN degree after raising six children, attending school full-time, working full-time, taking care of the family, and getting off welfare. Our mother was very proud of her mother's achievements, but they weren't a Nobel Prize in Medicine.�
“Today, studies show that your zip code is a much bigger determinant of health outcomes than your DNA. Your zip code determines where you go to school, and your access to decent food, health care, and secure, affordable housing. It affects the kind of jobs and transportation that are available to you, all of which are major determinants in health outcomes.�
“In fact, the pulmonary function test dates back to the 1850s when a plantation physician from Louisi-ana, Dr: Samuel Cartwright, insisted that he had proved that Black people had a lesser lung capacity than white people. According to Cartwright, the only cure for this deficit was "forced labor." This was not his only outrageous claim in the name of science-he also believed that Black people who fled their masters were suffering from a mental illness he dubbed "drapetomania." Yet Cartwright's legacy lives on. The spirometer, a device we still use to measure pulmonary function in patients, was actually invented by none other than Cartwright-and modern versions of the device still include software that adjusts for the assumption that Black people have lesser lung capacity than white people.�
“In 1900, the United States had 100,000 midwives who attended 50 percent of all births. At the time of the writing of this book, there are only 15,000 midwives in this country, and fewer than 1,000 are Black; midwives attend only 8 percent of all births.
An abundance of studies show that out-of-hospital births are associated with lower C-section and maternal mortality rates and that if we increased midwife-delivered births, we could actually avert 40 percent of maternal deaths. Midwifery has been shown to reduce the use of medical interventions such as epidurals and C-sections, which are associated with greater risks than vaginal deliveries. In 2018, however; nearly 40 percent of all deliveriesin the US were by C-section.�
November 19, 2024
I normally like it when authors combine memoir with other genres, but this felt a little flat and surface level, and I wish it more fully committed to either being a memoir or some other type of nonfiction, rather than middling inbetween. I wanted to dig deeper into everything, especially the history and antiracism pieces!
September 13, 2023
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.
February 29, 2024
This would be a fine book if racism were a completely new idea for you
May 25, 2024
10 10 10s across the board. Excellent memoir and a great introduction to the history of medical racism. I’ve already shared information that I learned with people that I interact with daily. I also love the background of why Dr. Uché Blackstock got into DEI / health equity and the importance of her and her twin sister being legacies at Harvard Medical School ❤️.
May 17, 2024
I wanted more depth from this one, which is a pretty surface level memoir.
August 1, 2024
Learned so f* much, made me so f* angry.
March 12, 2025
Despite my white privilege, this book hits home and in other ways, opened my eyes. My uncle who is black, has kidney failure and recently had triple bypass surgery bc of it. I went to visit him and he was in so much pain. I felt I had to vouch for his pain in case nurses didn’t take him seriously bc white medical staff view black people as having a drug problem. My aunt Cheryl (my uncle’s sister) passed away of blood cancer last year. She was an absolute blessing to be around and one of the strongest women I knew. I wonder if she was exposed to radiation while living in Detroit due to negligence of waste cleanups bc of the majority of black people who reside there and of which could cause blood cancer. These words ring so dry and emotionless compared to how I feel but believe me when I say there is so much anger I hold towards racist America that I see red nearly everyday.
The stats in this book were chilling. Birth mortality rates for black birthing people 5 times higher than those who’re white, 1 in 1000 black people will have been killed by police, black people’s life expectancy in racist America decreased by 3 years, I could go on.
The stats in this book were chilling. Birth mortality rates for black birthing people 5 times higher than those who’re white, 1 in 1000 black people will have been killed by police, black people’s life expectancy in racist America decreased by 3 years, I could go on.
March 7, 2025
INSANELY well written for health care providers and everyone else!! appreciated how easily she intertwined her life stories with lessons and teachings. i learned many things and cried many times about her relationship with her mother. most of all, a great reminder that “racism is not the problem of Black people to solve� and had me thinking a little more deeply about the way i see the world around me and what i take for granted. -1 star because it is of course a depressing and angry read and first half was a little slow.
March 4, 2024
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 then 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. It touched upon important issues while also having a very story like way of presenting the information.
It kind of reminds me of invisible women, only better written and focused on racism in healthcare.
This is a must read for everyone!!
It kind of reminds me of invisible women, only better written and focused on racism in healthcare.
This is a must read for everyone!!
September 28, 2024
Illuminating, educational personal and historic view on systemic racism in medicine. I think every physician needs to read this book.
August 14, 2024
Excellent book. Such important information!!!
November 14, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Group Viking, and the author for sharing this book with me in exchange for my honest feedback!
Dr. Uche Blackstock is genuinely SUCH a star. Her mom, also a doctor, passed away when she was in college, and I just know she would be so proud of how Uche has cared for her Black community personally and professionally.
I have been on quite the educational reading journey over the past few years trying to inform myself about social justice issues. Legacy is one that really sticks out from the rest. It was the perfect blend of memoir and nonfiction. Dr. Blackstock is a Harvard medical school graduate and has now been in medicine for decades, and her reflections in this book were eye-opening, to say the least.
Systemic racism is a poison that has infected everything in America. Racism in medicine is just as prevalent as police violence and mass incarceration, but more difficult to pinpoint. I was genuinely shocked to hear about some of the origins of medical school teaching and practices that go back to the days of slavery. Black men and women are scared to seek medical treatment from primarily white institutions and for good reason. It's so heartbreaking to hear her stories about people of color coming into the hospital during some of the worst moments of their lives and being treated less than others, gaslit about their sickness or pain, or rejected because of poverty and health insurance disparities.
In addition to her patients, Dr. Blackstock also shares her experiences with racism directed towards her - constantly having to be 5 times better than her white counterparts, finding herself in classrooms and leadership roles where she was the only person of color, the blatant disregard for support when she tried to help several different schools and corporations with diversity and inclusion.
I hate that she had to go through all of this, but I am so thankful for this book and the opportunity to learn about her story. It's not her job to educate others about racism, but she did it anyway. I am in awe of this woman and I am not surprised in the least bit that she is a wonderful writer as well as a physician, mother, and trailblazer.
Dr. Uche Blackstock is genuinely SUCH a star. Her mom, also a doctor, passed away when she was in college, and I just know she would be so proud of how Uche has cared for her Black community personally and professionally.
I have been on quite the educational reading journey over the past few years trying to inform myself about social justice issues. Legacy is one that really sticks out from the rest. It was the perfect blend of memoir and nonfiction. Dr. Blackstock is a Harvard medical school graduate and has now been in medicine for decades, and her reflections in this book were eye-opening, to say the least.
Systemic racism is a poison that has infected everything in America. Racism in medicine is just as prevalent as police violence and mass incarceration, but more difficult to pinpoint. I was genuinely shocked to hear about some of the origins of medical school teaching and practices that go back to the days of slavery. Black men and women are scared to seek medical treatment from primarily white institutions and for good reason. It's so heartbreaking to hear her stories about people of color coming into the hospital during some of the worst moments of their lives and being treated less than others, gaslit about their sickness or pain, or rejected because of poverty and health insurance disparities.
In addition to her patients, Dr. Blackstock also shares her experiences with racism directed towards her - constantly having to be 5 times better than her white counterparts, finding herself in classrooms and leadership roles where she was the only person of color, the blatant disregard for support when she tried to help several different schools and corporations with diversity and inclusion.
I hate that she had to go through all of this, but I am so thankful for this book and the opportunity to learn about her story. It's not her job to educate others about racism, but she did it anyway. I am in awe of this woman and I am not surprised in the least bit that she is a wonderful writer as well as a physician, mother, and trailblazer.
January 23, 2025
A very informative call-to-action. It's important to hear perspectives like this.
May 10, 2024
Racism, even more than sexism, pervades Western medicine. It actively harms Black patients as much as Black care providers, and in Legacy, Dr. Blackstock shows us myriad examples. From the closure of historically Black medical schools in the name of standardization, to overt racism encountered in day-to-day clinical interactions, to a history of medical experimentation on Black people, to disparate health outcomes and industry standard tools and measures that are widely known to be inaccurate or ineffective for Black people, this book will definitely make you angry.
Dr. Blackstock begins by talking about her experience growing up in New York with a mother who was also a Black female physician, and a graduate of Harvard Medical School. When her mother died at just 47, while Dr. Blackstock was still in college, she got her first glimpses of what it's like to be on the other side of the stethoscope. She already knew she wanted to follow in her mother's footsteps and, alongside her twin sister, become the first Black mother-daughter legacy at Harvard Medical School, but this experience and some others during her college years cemented her plan to bring high quality Black care providers back to her neighborhood (even as she easily could have matched for a much more prestigious residency). But as the years wore on, Dr. Blackstock had to begin to weigh to what extent she was actually able to make change in her community, and if the cost was worth it.
This memoir felt very surface-level. Even moments that clearly carried immense emotion for Dr. Blackstock, like the death of her mother, were kept at a distance. The whole book reminded me of a line in one of the later chapters, where she was being prepped for a news interview and was told to focus on racist patient encounters in the general case, but not to share her own experiences with any specificity. This is indeed a strong indictment of racism in modern American medicine, but it's light on specific details and storytelling, and that makes it a bit of a dry read, although a very important one.
Dr. Blackstock begins by talking about her experience growing up in New York with a mother who was also a Black female physician, and a graduate of Harvard Medical School. When her mother died at just 47, while Dr. Blackstock was still in college, she got her first glimpses of what it's like to be on the other side of the stethoscope. She already knew she wanted to follow in her mother's footsteps and, alongside her twin sister, become the first Black mother-daughter legacy at Harvard Medical School, but this experience and some others during her college years cemented her plan to bring high quality Black care providers back to her neighborhood (even as she easily could have matched for a much more prestigious residency). But as the years wore on, Dr. Blackstock had to begin to weigh to what extent she was actually able to make change in her community, and if the cost was worth it.
This memoir felt very surface-level. Even moments that clearly carried immense emotion for Dr. Blackstock, like the death of her mother, were kept at a distance. The whole book reminded me of a line in one of the later chapters, where she was being prepped for a news interview and was told to focus on racist patient encounters in the general case, but not to share her own experiences with any specificity. This is indeed a strong indictment of racism in modern American medicine, but it's light on specific details and storytelling, and that makes it a bit of a dry read, although a very important one.
January 28, 2024
me too
Dr b needs to do more research
The ob complications she refers to can happen to any woman
I 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.
Like the doctor I had no support except my husband and he had to return to work after only one week.
Dr b needs to do more research
The ob complications she refers to can happen to any woman
I 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.
Like the doctor I had no support except my husband and he had to return to work after only one week.
February 5, 2024
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.
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