Racism pervades health care systems across the world, putting patients’ health and lives at risk. In “Systemic: How Racism is Making Us Ill” (Bloomsbury Circus, 2024), science journalist Layal Liverpool shows how people of all socioeconomic statuses experience racism in health care, as exemplified by the widely covered story of Serena Williams’ complications after childbirth, for instance. The book traces the historical legacy of racial inequities in medicine and reveals disturbing trends that still persist in medical education and research.
Liverpool worked in biomedical research at the University of Oxford and University College London, specializing in the study of viruses and the immune system before becoming a journalist.
In “Systemic,” she draws from both sides of her expertise to highlight the stories of people who are working to close the pervasive, racialized gaps that persist in health care, education and research.
“I…
