In the first part of this lecture developed for a general public audience, Dr. Coté will discuss cancer: how it's defined, what's known about causes and what it looks like. The emphasis will be on explaining such abstract concepts as oncogenesis, malignancy, metastasis through tangible blood-and-guts pictures and photomicrographs. The student will come away from this part of the lecture with a basic understanding of what cancer is and why genetic and environmental influences are thought to be the cause(s). In the second part of this lecture the cancer experience of racial minorities---particularly African Americans---is reviewed, highlighting how apparent inequities are alternatively explained in the medical literature as arising from genetic or social factors. Students will be encouraged to make up their own minds about how race, as a sociogenetic construct, has influenced the cancer experience of US minority people.