When Damon Tweedy began medical school, he envisioned a bright future where his segregated, working-class background would become largely irrelevant.
Instead, he found that he had joined a new world where race is front and center. Black Man in a White Coat examines the complex ways in which both black doctors and patients must navigate the difficult and often contradictory terrain of race and medicine. As Tweedy transforms from student to practicing physician, he discovers how often race influences his encounters with patients.
These issues take on greater meaning when Tweedy is himself diagnosed with a chronic disease far more common among black people. Tweedy explores the challenges confronting black doctors, and the disproportionate health burdens faced by black patients, ultimately seeking a way forward to better treatment and more compassionate care. Dr. Damon Tweedy joins us this morning.
