Systemic: How Racism Is Making Us Ill

Racism is a public health crisis – and we can do something about it.

‘A work of towering importance that will undoubtedly change science and save lives, but it will also change the way you see yourself and the people around you’ Chris van Tulleken, author of Ultra-Processed People

A ground-breaking investigation into how racism corrodes science and medicine – leading to worse treatment for everyone.

What can you do when science and medicine are as biased as the society they treat? Black and Asian patients in the UK wait nearly a week longer for a cancer diagnosis and globally, people of colour are not only more likely to die while giving birth, they are also more likely to die while being born – or soon afterwards.

In Systemic, science journalist Layal Liverpool unearths the shocking facts behind the health threat of racism, and when a scientific bias is this pronounced, it results in worse treatment for everyone. We are collectively more ill, medical research is held back and our potential for scientific discoveries is reduced.

But there is hope for a cure – practical solutions that we can implement to heal our world. Individuals can learn to advocate for themselves and others with scientifically backed data in the face of structural prejudice. Governments can enact policies aimed at tackling systemic inequities on a national level. Drawing on years of research, interviews and cutting-edge data from across the world, Systemic is a clarion call for a healthier world for us all.

‘A groundbreaking, brilliantly argued book that debunks the myth that illness is the great equaliser’ Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize winning-author of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Song of the Cell

‘Liverpool is a wonderful researcher and this shines through in her writing. Systemic provides a powerful examination on racism in healthcare’ Annabel Sowemimo, author of Divided

Format: Paperback
Pages: 352
Imprint: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Publication date: 01/10/2024