“To overcome the challenge of special interests that work against the conditions that create health, we need to extend the sphere of what we talk about when we talk about health so that our conversation includes factors like money, power, love, hate, culture, the environment, and politics.”

  - Sandro Galea.

As the United States faces unparalleled challenges due to COVID-19, racial disparities in health and healthcare have once again taken center stage. If effective interventions to address racial disparities in transplantation, including those magnified by COVID-19, are to be designed and implemented at the national level, it is first critical to understand the complex mechanisms by which structural, institutional, interpersonal, and internalized racism influence the presence of racial disparities in healthcare and transplantation.

As the world faces unparalleled challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic and high-profile, racist acts of violence, racial inequalities in health and safety for people of color living in America have once again taken center stage. The factors that make up the root causes of health inequity are diverse, complex, evolving, and interdependent in nature. It is important to understand the underlying causes and conditions of health inequities to inform equally complex and effective interventions to promote health equity.