October SDARJ Book & Film Discussion
Founder, Dr. Aimee Wiest. Hosted at the Lewes Public Library
Please register to attend *either* In-Person or Online. You will receive a confirmation email within minutes of registering. If you do not receive an email from LibCal, check your spam filter. Or you call the library (302-645-2733) during business hours (M – Th from 10 AM to 2 PM, F from 10 AM to 5 PM, and Sat from 10 AM to 2 PM) and ask a staff person to check on your registration. DO NOT register again.
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October 28th will feature:
Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on Health in America
by Linda Villarosa
(GoodReads.com) PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • “A stunning exposé of why Black people in our society ‘live sicker and die quicker’—an eye-opening game changer.”— Oprah Daily
From an award-winning writer at the New York Times Magazine and a contributor to the 1619 Project comes a landmark book that tells the full story of racial health disparities in America, revealing the toll racism takes on individuals and the health of our nation.
In 2018, Linda Villarosa’s New York Times Magazine article on maternal and infant mortality among black mothers and babies in America caused an awakening. Hundreds of studies had previously established a link between racial discrimination and the health of Black Americans, with little progress toward solutions. But Villarosa’s article exposing that a Black woman with a college education is as likely to die or nearly die in childbirth as a white woman with an eighth grade education made racial disparities in health care impossible to ignore.
Now, in Under the Skin , Linda Villarosa lays bare the forces in the American health-care system and in American society that cause Black people to “live sicker and die quicker” compared to their white counterparts. Today’s medical texts and instruments still carry fallacious slavery-era assumptions that Black bodies are fundamentally different from white bodies. Study after study of medical settings show worse treatment and outcomes for Black patients. Black people live in dirtier, more polluted communities due to environmental racism and neglect from all levels of government. And, most powerfully, Villarosa describes the new understanding that coping with the daily scourge of racism ages Black people prematurely. Anchored by unforgettable human stories and offering incontrovertible proof, Under the Skin is dramatic, tragic, and necessary reading.
About the Author
Linda Villarosa (born January 9, 1959) is an American author and journalist who is a former executive editor of Essence magazine. She has worked on health coverage for Science Times. She is also author of several books, and her first novel, Passing for Black, was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award in 2008.
Villarosa was born on January 9, 1959. Her mother Clara Villarosa is also an author, publisher and motivational speaker. Linda Villarosa is a graduate of the University of Colorado and spent a year at Harvard University as a journalism fellow. She also earned a master’s degree in urban journalism/digital storytelling in 2013 from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner, two children and pets.
Linda Villarosa was awarded the Lillian Smith Book Award for her book: “Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on Health in America” in Sept. 2023. Linda Villarosa has covered women’s and African-American health issues in The New York Times, The Root, O Magazine, Glamour, Health, Vibe and Woman’s Day. She was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award in the Outstanding Magazine Article category for an article in Essence titled “Pride and Prejudice.”
She is a co-founder of Villarosa Media, other co-founders being her mother Clara Villarosa and sister Alicia. In 2008, her first novel, Passing for Black, was published. She is author and co-author of three books, including Body & Soul: The Black Women’s Guide to Physical Health and Emotional Well-Being. Villarosa worked as a consultant to provide editorial expertise to companies and organizations like American Express Publishing and Meredith. She also directs the undergraduate journalism program at the City College of New York.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Villarosa
The books & films of the 2025 SDARJ Book & Film Series
View the books and films we’ve discussed in previous meetings.
