New Books Network Joseph L Graves, "Why Black People Die Sooner: What Medicine Gets Wrong about Race and How to Fix It" (Columbia UP, 2025)
Dec 14, 2025
Joseph L. Graves, a professor of biology at North Carolina A&T State University, delves into the intersections of race and health disparities in his latest work, revealing unsettling truths about racialized medicine. He uncovers the historical roots of health inequities and debunks the myth of genetic explanations for racial differences in health outcomes. Graves emphasizes that social factors, including poverty and racism, play critical roles in health disparities. He advocates for a systemic change to dismantle medical racism and proposes more equitable healthcare solutions.
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Genetics Don’t Explain Lifespan Gaps
- Genetic differences between African-descended and European-descended people are minuscule and cannot explain major lifespan gaps.
- Joseph L. Graves argues social structures, not genetics, drive morbidity and mortality disparities.
Historical Racism Shaped Medical Thinking
- Historical scientific racism framed Africans as biologically inferior and shaped medical thinking into the 19th and 20th centuries.
- Modern evolutionary biology shows humans are far more alike than different, undermining race-as-biology claims.
Sickle Cell Linked To Malaria, Not Race
- Graves explains sickle cell's distribution by malaria selection, not by being an 'African disease.'
- He notes the allele appears across the tropics from Africa to India and parts of Europe.
