Michael Charles, MD: Too Big to Hide; Too Dark to Blend In

It's chat and warm up music for the first 30 minutes, then our show gets underway with Ilene and her guest Dr. Mike Charles at 9am pacific, 12-noon eastern.

40 years in the making, this week’s guest, Dr. Mike Charles, follows the fictional form to offer the world a coming of age story that will resonate with anyone fascinated by the implications of the sweeping social changes of the 60’s and 70’s. How does a highly intelligent, well-educated young African-American make his way in a fast-changing world that traditionally not held African Americans equal to Whites? In Too Big to Hide; Too Dark to Blend In, Mike’s story demonstrates that it is not the weight of the world that holds one down, but how one carries the weight that allows each of us to have our place in the sun.

Several family members were sitting in the room where my husband lay dying. He was medicated and barely conscious. Mike Charles had come for a visit. A large man, he recounted “the early days,” when Jewish and African-American doctors were not well-accepted, even in as forward-thinking a city as Berkeley, California. He told us that my husband, Dr. Bob Fink, had used his position as head of Surgery and Neurosurgery at Herrick Hospital to recruit Jewish and African-American surgeons and get them established in their medical careers. Bob was so moved, that even in his sedated state, he smiled. After he died, Mike spoke at the Memorial Service we held for Bob, self-assured, articulate and…..funny! Listen on Thursday. Click here to visit Doctor Mike Charles’ website!