Racial Inequities in Health and the Science Behind How We Solve Them

Drs. David R. Williams, Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health and chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and Ruth Shim have been recently featured in “Racial Inequities in Health and the Science Behind How We Solve Them,” Episode 75 of A Second Opinion With Senator Bill Frist, M.D.

“It’s not just about race, it’s about any kind of social categorization,” says Dr. Williams. “I say to my students, ‘you may not be racially prejudiced, but what are your stereotypes about fat people, gay people, women, and other people?’ The same processes will occur. So, it’s the same vulnerability that we all have as humans.”

About the Podcast Episode

Our country is at a historic crossroads: the global coronavirus pandemic has laid bare our country’s racial disparities and inequities in health and healthcare, and the death of George Floyd and other events have sparked a national social justice movement.  At A Second Opinion, we seek to better understand how race, structural racism, and implicit bias impact health and healthcare, which is why I’m honored today to have two global experts with us, Dr. Ruth Shim and Dr. David Williams.

Learn more about the podcast episode.

Quotation edited for brevity and clarity.