Conversation

Linda Villarosa, “Under the Skin: Understanding Race & Racism in US Health”

Wed, Feb 15, 2023

6:00 PM–7:30 PM

This event will take place online via Zoom. Please register below.

Please join us with the Center for the Study of Women and Society presenting Linda Villarosa for a discussion about her new book, Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation.

Through case histories as well as independent reporting, Villarosa’s remarkable third book elegantly traces the effects of the legacy of slavery — and the doctrine of anti-Blackness that sprang up to philosophically justify it — on Black health: reproductive, environmental, mental and more. Beginning with a long personal history of her awakening to these structural inequalities, the journalist repositions various narratives about race and medicine — the soaring Black maternal mortality rates; the rise of heart disease and hypertension; the oft-repeated dictum that Black people reject psychological therapy — as evidence not of Black inferiority, but of racism in the health care system.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS ONLINE EVENT VIA ZOOM.

About the Author:

Linda Villarosa is a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine where she covers race, inequality and public health. Her 2018 Times Magazine cover story “Why America’s Black Mothers and Babies Are in a Life-or-Death Crisis” was a finalist for a National Magazine Award. She is the author of Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation which was named one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post, Publisher’s Weekly, Time Magazine and NPR – and by the New York Times as one of the Top 10 Books of 2022. Villarosa is a journalist in-residence and professor at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, CUNY, with a joint appointment at the City College of New York.

This online event is free and open to the public. Please reach out to [email protected] for accessibility accommodation requests, questions or concerns.

This event is organized and hosted by the Center for the Study of Women and Society and is co-sponsored with the Center for the Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center.