Into the heart of darkness: reflections on racism and diabetes care.

I have learned that effective diabetes care must be tailored to the lived experience of patients. Developing individually tailored self-management plans requires acknowledging the importance of other people's culture, goals, resources, and values. It has involved crossing the social distance created by the roles of healthcare professional and patient, and encountering patients in their full humanity. In these encounters, I have learned about myself as well. My experience over the past 7 years has made it clear to me that I was naive to believe that I could grow up in a country permeated by racism and free myself of its taint by simply rejecting it as an ideology. I have seen how profoundly my attitudes, perceptions, and habits of thought have been shaped by my cultural experience. I have developed a better appreciation of how far I (and we) have to go in achieving an equitable society. At times the process has been difficult and painful. However, I have come to believe that providing effective diabetes care engenders personal learning in both patients and health professionals. I believe that such learning will offer significant benefits to both groups.