Author and Physician




Praise for

Black Man in a White Coat


On one level the book is a straightforward memoir; on another it’s a thoughtful, painfully honest, multi-angled, constant self-interrogation about himself and about the health implications of being black.

--The New York Times


In this fascinating, heartbreaking memoir, Tweedy documents his experiences as an African American doctor in a medical system that can be 'just as sick as its patients.' -- O, the Oprah Magazine


In ways wholly individual but similarly intricate, Margo Jefferson, Dr. Damon Tweedy and Ta-Nehisi Coates examine the impact of race on our expectations and experiences. And in doing so, they challenge us to as well. -- TIME


A timely, thought-provoking examination of our heartbreaking health care system. -- USA Today


"Black Man in a White Coat" offers a clear, informative, and uncommonly balanced assessment . . . Attentive to the frustrating inequalities rooted in our history, Tweedy is also usefully attuned to the promising prospects ahead. -- Washington Post


Tweedy reveals all you need to know about the Byzantine health care system, wide-ranging disparities that persist and, more important, how we can take control of our well-being…"Black Man in a White Coat" is certain to garner incredible attention during the literary awards season. It’s a book that deserves a very long shelf life. -- Essence


Tweedy, an African American psychiatrist at Duke University, expertly weaves together statistics, personal anecdotes, and patient stories to explain why 'being black can be bad for your health.' . . . A smart, thought-provoking, frontline look at race and medicine. -- Booklist  *Starred Review*


An arresting memoir that personalizes the enduring racial divide in contemporary American medicine…. In this unsparingly honest chronicle, Tweedy cohesively illuminates the experiences of black doctors and black patients and reiterates the need for improved understanding of racial differences within global medical

communities.—Kirkus Reviews

Eye-opening . . . [Tweedy's] painful anecdotes, both as an intern and physician, show the critical health crisis within the black community . . . and he nicely unravels the essential issues of race, prejudice, class, mortality, treatment, and American medicine without blinking or polite excuses. -- Publishers Weekly


A must-read for anyone interested in improving medical care from training to delivery in a world where race persists as a factor in life and death. -- Library Journal


A sincere and heartfelt memoir about being black in a mostly white medical world. Essential reading for all of us in this time of racial unrest.

—Sandeep Jauhar, author of Intern: A Doctor's Initiation and Doctored: The Disillusionment of an American Physician

Eye-opening and compelling examination of medicine's continued discomfort with race. Damon Tweedy is unafraid to dissect the both the intriguing and disturbing elements of becoming a doctor. Required reading for anyone wishing to understand medicine in America today.

—Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD, author of What Doctors Feel: How Emotions Affect the Practice of Medicine

Damon Tweedy eloquently weaves the experiences of an African-American physician with those of African-American patients, carefully documenting how issues of race--too often unspoken--permeate American medicine in this timely and necessary book.

—Barron H. Lerner, MD, PhD, author of The Good Doctor: A Father, A Son and the Evolution of Medical Ethics

Everyone interested in medical education should read this book.  Tweedy’s writing is clear and compelling as he describes his experience as a black medical student and resident in a predominantly white southern university. This book inspires hope that racial prejudice is diminishing in medical education and patient care. It is an optimistic commentary on the future of American medicine.

—H. Keith H. Brodie, MD, President Emeritus, Duke University