New ​Chair of ​our ​Diversity ​and​ Health Disparities​ Research Cluster​ on Colorblindness and the Need for a New Biopolitics

Osagie K. Obasogie is the new Haas endowed chair of the Haas Institute's Diversity and Health Disparities research cluster. Obasogie, Professor of Bioethics in the Joint Medical Program and School of Public Health, spoke with us about his research on racial disparities in health, the myth of "colorblindness," and how blind people "see" race.

Let’s start with a little bit about you. Did you always see yourself entering academia? How did you become interested in the ways in which racial thinking is central to law, medicine, science, and other areas? 

In a way, yes. Both of my parents are retired educators. My mother taught high school, and my father was a college professor. And I have other family members who taught at various levels. So, education is, in some sense, a big part of my family. 

I became interested in race and science when I was a graduate student here at Berkeley. I was interested in race in general, but the health sciences weren't on my radar. That changed in 2005 when I read an article about the FDA approving a...