We will examine the relationship between race and language by interrogating texts in medical ethics, gleaning from them wider lessons for navigating prior controversies at the juncture of racial and social difference and medicine (for instance, phrenology and eugenics). We will also examine features of medical and scientific practice that overlap with the study of language, such as contract, disclosure, survey design and policymaking, and how the medical profession and medical practice work to correct past mistakes in interactions with different communities of race.