The US Department of Health and Human Services has developed an initiative called "Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health," which parallels Healthy People 2010, the nation's health goals for the next decade. The initiative focuses on areas of health disparity that are known to affect racially and ethnically diverse groups of the population yet hold the promise of improvement. The first step to addressing such health inequities is to understand the scope and nature of the diseases that contribute to such disparities. This commentary reviews the epidemiology and consequences of type 2 diabetes, particularly as it is manifested in socially and culturally diverse groups, and offers recommendations for actions to address the disparities resulting from diabetes.