Toward the Abolition of Biological Race in Medicine

The following is a partial, imperfect, ever-in-progress list of scholars and works we have found useful. This is neither the beginning nor the end of the conversation, but squarely in the middle.  As build the changes we need, we are grateful for the foundational work of these scholars and activists.  

Womxn of Color Scholars on Race and Medicine

• Dorothy Roberts, Fatal Invention and Killing the Black Body

• Kimberley Crenshaw

• Joia Crear-Perry

• Khiara Bridges

• Tina Sacks

• INCITE! 

• Melanie Tervalon and Jann Murray-Garcia “Cultural Humility versus Cultural Competence” (1998)

Racism, Not Race, Causes Health Disparities

• The Urban Institute and the Virginia Commonwealth University’s Center on Society and Health briefs on income and health: https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/49116/2000178-How-are-Income-and-Wealth-Linked-to-Health-and-Longevity.pdf

• Link and Phelan, “Social Conditions as Fundamental Causes of Disease” (1995): https://www.jstor.org/stable/2626958?seq=1

• Phelan and Link, “Social Conditions as Fundamental Causes of Health Inequalities” (2010): https://doi.org/10.1177/0022146510383498

• Clarence Gravlee, “How Race Becomes Biology: Embodiment of Social Inequality” (2009) (and other later works): https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.20983

• Thomas A. LaVeist, “Disentangling Race and Socioeconomic Status: A Key to Understanding Health Inequalities” (2005): https://doi.org/10.1093/jurban/jti061 

White Supremacy Dismantling 

• Layla F. Saad, Me and White Supremacy workbook: https://www.meandwhitesupremacybook.com/

• White Noise Collective: https://www.conspireforchange.org/resources/

• Resources from INCITE!: https://incite-national.org/2019/07/31/new-resources-for-transformative-justice-and-community-accountability/

• Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist (2019)

• Robin DiAngelo, “White Fragility” (2011)

• University of California, San Francisco, OB-GYN Grand Rounds talk on White Fragility (12/10/19): https://obgyn.ucsf.edu/education-training/grand-rounds

• Teaching resources from the 2006 Stop Dreaming, Keep Working Workshop: https://www.lsu.edu/hss/wgs/files/nwsateachingraceguide.pdf

• Tim Wise books and DVDs: http://www.timwise.org/books-and-dvds/

• There are many more people of color and white people who have published resources and books—go read them!  

Fundamental Texts and Resources in Race-Based Medicine

• Dorothy Roberts, “The Problem with Race-Based Medicine,” TEDMED (2015): https://www.ted.com/talks/dorothy_roberts_the_problem_with_race_based_medicine/transcript?language=en

• Dorothy Roberts, “What’s Wrong with Race-Based Medicine?” (2011)

• Janet K. Shim, Heart-Sick: The Politics of Risk, Inequality, and Heart Disease (2014)

• Lundy Braun, Breathing Race into the Machine (2014)