I have been a physician for 37 years and am close to ending my medical career.  It has been a privilege for me to have practiced in many medical settings that include rural health centers, penal health systems, military medicine, the VA Hospital, academic medicine, sports medicine, and private practice. I have been afforded the opportunity to witness, experience, and be a change agent in the concept of Race Matters and how it has impacted our noble profession.

It is somewhat of a paradox that the question has been asked if race matters in the medicine.  The history of African Americans and medicine is well documented.  Many people are unaware that the American Medical Association made an apology to black patients and physicians, in 2008, for 100 years of decimation, bigotry, and unconscious biases.  So, race has always mattered in medicine.

The book, Unequal Treatment, clearly documents that health disparities exist throughout this country and further documents that race and medicine have always been strange bedfellows.