Legacy

If you want your summer reading to include a volume of substance on a crucial and timely topic Uche Blackstock's Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons With Racism In Medicine is a fine choice. Part memoir, part social analysis, and part manifesto, it is a for sure eye opener.
Blackstock's mother, born into poverty, made it through college and medical school, the first in her family. Until her untimely death she was a practicing physician. Blackstock and her twin sister, who were very close to her, followed in her professional footsteps.
But it was no professional garden of Eden for either generation. There was a serpent lurking in the hallowed halls of prestigious medical institutions: a venomous being called racism. Blackstock takes us through its history when nonconsensual, very painful medical research was conducted on slaves to the present when Black birthing people are at extremely high risk of dying or losing their babies, COVID claims disproportionate numbers of Blacks, and racist micro aggressions take place in every medical venue from clinics to elite Medical schools. She incorporates her experiences and those of patients and peers and segues between research based knowledge and narrative example.
Despite the long standing racism in medicine, the refusal of the establishment to address it, and its intersection with other forms of oppression—the steepness and rockiness of the road ahead—Blackstock realizes combatting it is a moral imperative for everyone, not just Black doctors. The last chapter tells us what roles we can play.
In my mind Legacy is a fine summer read and a must acquire for school and public libraries.
On a purrrsonal note, it looks like the heat will be letting up just a little in time for the weekend.
A great big shout out goes out to you with wishes for a great weekend.
Jules Hathaway