Dying of Whiteness, Jonathan M. Metzl
Dying of Whiteness, Jonathan M. Metzl
5 Rating(s)
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Dying of Whiteness
How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland

Author: Jonathan M. Metzl

Narrator: Jamie Renell

Unabridged: 9 hr 42 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 03/26/2019


Synopsis

A physician reveals how right-wing backlash policies have mortal consequences -- even for the white voters they promise to help

Named one of the most anticipated books of 2019 by Esquire and the Boston Globe

In the era of Donald Trump, many lower- and middle-class white Americans are drawn to politicians who pledge to make their lives great again. But as Dying of Whiteness shows, the policies that result actually place white Americans at ever-greater risk of sickness and death.

Physician Jonathan M. Metzl's quest to understand the health implications of "backlash governance" leads him across America's heartland.Interviewing a range of everyday Americans, he examines how racial resentment has fueled progun laws in Missouri, resistance to the Affordable Care Act in Tennessee, and cuts to schools and social services in Kansas. And he shows these policies' costs: increasing deaths by gun suicide, falling life expectancies, and rising dropout rates. White Americans, Metzl argues, must reject the racial hierarchies that promise to aid them but in fact lead our nation to demise.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Alok on November 09, 2020

Political pundits overwhelmingly focus on why a small percentage of people of color vote conservatively, rather than examining why the majority of white people vote for policies and candidates that harm them in the long run. Because whiteness is seen as the default (not a race) it goes unmarked and......more

Goodreads review by Morgan on March 07, 2019

I’ve read over and over about how socialism is not popular in the US because working class Americans identify more with the idea of obtainable wealth than the idea of living in poverty, which they see is embodied by a degenerate “other”. This book really drives it home, when we example after example......more

Goodreads review by Mara on September 09, 2019

An incredibly informative & thought provoking book that had a lot of descriptive power for the attitudes that I see here "on the ground" in Tennessee. As so many other reviewers have mentioned, this is basically a case study on just how steep DeBois' "wages of whiteness" have become in an increasing......more

Goodreads review by Dan on June 05, 2019

You can't hold a man down without staying down with him- Booker T. Washington I loved this book! It takes a complicated issue like the decline of white power in America and throws tons of data at it in thee crystal clear sections. As a resident of Missouri, I could identify with all three sections t......more

Goodreads review by Malia on August 16, 2021

What a worthwhile read! Though it is heavy on statistics, the author presents them in a very human, accessible and impactful way. He chose to focus on education, gun control and healthcare and how those factors play an integral part in the well-being and prosperity of people and communities. I thoug......more

Awards

  • Robert F. Kennedy Book Award