Structure

Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation is organized into eight chapters and an afterword. The chapters appear in the following order: Chapter 1, “Everything I Thought Was Wrong,” Chapter 2, “The Dangerous Myth That Black Bodies Are Different,” Chapter 3, “Unequal Treatment,” Chapter 4, “Something About Being Black Is Bad for Your Body and Your Baby,” Chapter 5, “Where You Live Matters,” Chapter 6, “Strong, Loud, and Angry: The Invisibility of Black Emotional Pain,” Chapter 7, “Discrimination and Ill-Treatment Can Harm Every Body,” and Chapter 8, “Putting the Care Back in Health Care: Solutions.” The arrangement and the titles of the chapters are important to understanding the author’s overarching explorations. At the start of the text, Villarosa identifies a series of social and cultural issues, particularly as they relate to the lives and the health care of Black Americans. Throughout each of...