Subscribe to our blog Like us on Facebook Subscribe to our YouTube Channel Follow us on Twitter Follow us on instagram Follow us on Tumblr

Dying of whiteness

Metzl, Jonathan
Genre: 
With the rise of the Tea Party and the election of Donald Trump, many middle- and lower-income white Americans threw their support behind conservative politicians who pledged to make life great again for people like them. But as "Dying of whiteness" shows, the right-wing policies that resulted from this white backlash put these voters' very health at risk-- and, in the end, threaten everyone's well-being. Physician and sociologist Jonathan M. Metzl travels across America's heartland seeking to better understand the politics of racial resentment and its impact on public health. Interviewing a range of Americans, he uncovers how racial anxieties led to the repeal of gun control laws in Missouri, stymied the Affordable Care Act in Tennessee, and fueled massive cuts to schools and social services in Kansas. Although such measures promised to restore greatness to white America, Metzl's systematic analysis of health data dramatically reveals they did just the opposite : these policies made life sicker, harder, and shorten en the very populations they purported to aid. Thus, white life expectancies fell, gun suicides soared, and school dropout rate rose. Powerful, searing, and sobering, "Dying of whiteness" ultimately demonstrates just how much white America would benefit by emphasizing cooperation, rather than chasing false promises of supremacy.

adult

Jonathan M. Metzl.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Target Readership: