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About this talk: Lung function tests (i.e. pulmonary function tests) are used to assess lung-related conditions such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Around the world, health care systems apply a “race correction” based on the false and racist assumption that Black people have lower lung function at baseline for a variety of reasons. These false and racist ideas about Black people and lung function can be traced directly back to slave owners who used these ideas to advance white supremacy (Braun, 2014). What is “race correction”? Health care providers often use tests to assess a patient’s health. In many cases, health care providers calculate test results differently for Black patients than they do for everyone else. Overall, “race correction” means that Black people are diagnosed late, or never diagnosed at all, for serious conditions from heart, kidney and lung diseases to cognitive impairment. It also means that Black people are systematically excluded from timely access to life-saving treatments like organ transplants and other surgeries. “Race correction” has no scientific basis because “race” is not biological. It is a social construct that is applied differently at different times and in different places. In fact, scientists have shown us that people have more in common genetically across “racial” groups than within them.