Book Review: Race and Excellence: My Dialogue With Chester Pierce. By Ezra E. H. Griffith. Washington, DC:  American Psychiatric Association Publishing, 2023,  220 pp., $32.00 hardcover.

The irony is striking: while virtually every psychoanalyst and psychiatrist now knows the term microaggressions, younger generations of clinicians remain largely unaware that Chester Middlebrook Pierce coined it. Pierce's impressive legacy remained hidden until fellow psychiatrist Ezra E. H. Griffith brought it to light in Race and Excellence: My Dialogue With Chester Pierce. As Pierce's protégé, colleague, and friend, Griffith explores with intense curiosity his subject's retreat from the limelight to reveal a rich tapestry of Pierce's life.

Although this biography was initially published in 1998, I did not discover it until 2021, when my friend and colleague, Cynthia Turner Graham, who was then president of the Black Psychiatrists of America (BPA) brought it to my attention. We were preparing for an American Psychiatric Association annual meeting panel where Dr. Turner Graham would interview Dr. Griffith in anticipation of the second edition's release, and I was to serve as panel chair. Cynthia and I were captivated by excerpts from Ezra's text, which revealed previously unknown information about Dr. Pierce beyond his well-known conceptualization of microaggressions. This review will highlight some of those discoveries. This gem of a book was reissued in 2023 and remains as relevant today as when it was originally published.

In the revised edition's introduction, Griffith recalls their first meeting when Pierce delivered a lecture in New York, writing, “He had been an academic for many years … He understood transactions and context,

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