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Linda Villarosa directs the journalism program at the City College of New York and is a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine. Her article "Why America\u2019s Black Mothers and Babies Are in a Life-or-Death Crisis" was one of Longform's Top Ten of 2018. She is at work on a new book, Under the Skin: Race, Inequality and the Health of a Nation, due out in 2020.\n\n\u201cI think at the beginning I was afraid to say it right out, so I think I was saying \u2018racial bias\u2019 or something like that. Then I stopped. ... I think how I learned about it both in earlier reporting and in grad school and in my own research was that race is a risk factor for a bunch of different health problems, whether it\u2019s heart disease, infant and maternal mortality, or HIV. It\u2019s just said that race is a risk factor. It\u2019s disproportionate. What it really is is that race is a risk factor, but it\u2019s also a risk marker. Instead of looking at what individuals are doing wrong, it\u2019s what society is doing wrong in creating problems for individual people which lead to health crisis. It\u2019s sort of like bias, related to racism, is creating problems in people\u2019s actual bodies. That\u2019s what I came to understand. It really shifts the blame off the individual.\u201d\n\nThanks to MailChimp, The Great Courses Plus, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode.\n\n\n\n\n@lindavillarosa\n\n\nlindavillarosa.com\n\n\nVillarosa on Longform\n\n\n[0:40] "Why America\u2019s Black Mothers and Babies Are in a Life-or-Death Crisis" (New York Times Magazine \u2022 Apr 2018)\n\n\n[5:00] "America\u2019s Hidden H.I.V. Epidemic" (New York Times Magazine \u2022 Jun 2017)\n\n\n[13:20] "A Conversation With: Phill Wilson; Speaking Out to Make AIDS an Issue of Color" (New York Times Magazine \u2022 Dec 2000)\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices