Linda Villarosa

Linda Villarosa is the author of the text. Her first person perspective also guides Under the Skin’s central assertions, examinations, and investigations. Villarosa introduces herself on the second page of Chapter 1, “Everything I Thought Was Wrong.” “I am a Black American,” she begins her introduction, “and have been a journalist and author in both ethnic and mainstream media for several decades” (2). She goes on to explain that although the majority of her work “has looked at the health of African Americans, particularly Black women, and at racial health disparities,” it was not until more recently that she began to understand the reason why “being Black has led to the documented poor health of Black Americans” for generations (2). In particular, Villarosa explains in her humble and forthcoming tone, she began to see the ways in which “much of what I believed about health disparities and inequality...