Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine by Damon Tweedy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I picked up this book because I was looking for a book written by an author who went to UMBC. Tweedy graduated the same year I did and so we are similar in age and career stage which made me even more intrigued.
The examinations of race were especially interesting. Exploring not only racism experienced at the hands of Caucasian people, but also at the hands of other Black people who assume that they will receive substandard care from a black doctor.
There were many situations where I could personally relate to Tweedy’s struggles. My first year of grad school at a predominantly white institution in the south I was told by a professor that I was “pretty smart for a black girl”.
Tweedy examines the many ways that class and poverty impact health care especially when they intersect with racial factors. Though this book was written almost 10 years ago, many of those same issues remain. Just recently, my own daughter had to leave her neighborhood in North Philly to get care because the care is substandard at the urgent care facilities that are nearby to her. Assumptions are made based on someone’s address and/or color about their compliance with treatment, likely diagnoses, etc.
I was especially saddened to see the ways black patients were being over diagnosed with psychiatric illnesses. As a mental health professional myself, it was disturbing to see the ways black patients were callously labeled with stigmatizing diagnoses and given no follow-up care to address them.
Though I found the patient stories very interesting and deeply moving, I do wish there had been more of a discussion of his personal life. The snippets that were revealed were few, but they served to humanize him, and I do wish more of Tweedy the person and not just Tweedy the doctor was featured in the narrative.
Overall, I found this a deeply moving and interesting exploration of the ways race impacts the health care system both for patients and providers. I am very glad I picked this up for my 2024 summer reading challenge.
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