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A review by alexisrt
Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland by Jonathan M. Metzl
5.0
This was excellent but infuriating. In this book, Dr. Jonathan Metzl, a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt (and KC native) seeks to answer the eternal question, "why do white Americans endorse policies that hurt them?" And his answer is that the most basic cause is racial resentment and ensuring their place at the top of the pyramid. They will support policies that hurt them, as long as they hurt people of color--especially African-Americans, but increasingly Latinos--more.
He looks at three examples: gun violence in Missouri, healthcare in Tennessee, and education in Kansas. He uses research to learn about why people support policies, and many of them say outright that they don't want money to go to black people/Mexicans/welfare queens. This includes people who are literally dying: a man suffering from liver disease due to Hepatitis C opposes Medicaid expansion because he doesn't want to give money to "welfare queens." The white participants in the healthcare section frame their beliefs about health as a matter of individual responsibility. Black men, on the other hand, talk about healthcare as a communal benefit that makes everyone healthier. It would be easy to dismiss quotes and interviews as cherry picking, except for the fact that large numbers of people continue to vote in politicians who implement these policies.
This is combined with a look at the rhetoric of politicians that promote these policies and how they use the politics of race. Gun rights are promoted as being about white self defense, ignorant of the link to white male suicide. The specter of black male violence is constantly raised, despite its actual decline.
Metzl goes beyond the usual sociological observations, though, and tries to quantify what these policies have actually cost white Americans--and it's a lot of lives lost and a lot of horrifying statistics. Of course, the statistics on gun violence aren't as robust as they could be, since there are legal limits to gun violence research. But even taking the specifics with a grain of salt, the conclusions are grim.
The section on Kansas is, in some ways, particularly revealing. Brownback's Kansas experiment was popular when it was believed to focus on waste. When his education cuts hit affluent Johnson County suburbanites who were proud of Kansas' tradition of strong public schooling, there was a revolt. (It's worth noting that after the book was completed, a Democrat won the race for Kansas governor, and moderate Democrat Sharice Davids won the Congressional seat for the KC suburbs.) This raises questions about the limits of how much white people are willing for themselves to suffer in order to take away from people of color.
He looks at three examples: gun violence in Missouri, healthcare in Tennessee, and education in Kansas. He uses research to learn about why people support policies, and many of them say outright that they don't want money to go to black people/Mexicans/welfare queens. This includes people who are literally dying: a man suffering from liver disease due to Hepatitis C opposes Medicaid expansion because he doesn't want to give money to "welfare queens." The white participants in the healthcare section frame their beliefs about health as a matter of individual responsibility. Black men, on the other hand, talk about healthcare as a communal benefit that makes everyone healthier. It would be easy to dismiss quotes and interviews as cherry picking, except for the fact that large numbers of people continue to vote in politicians who implement these policies.
This is combined with a look at the rhetoric of politicians that promote these policies and how they use the politics of race. Gun rights are promoted as being about white self defense, ignorant of the link to white male suicide. The specter of black male violence is constantly raised, despite its actual decline.
Metzl goes beyond the usual sociological observations, though, and tries to quantify what these policies have actually cost white Americans--and it's a lot of lives lost and a lot of horrifying statistics. Of course, the statistics on gun violence aren't as robust as they could be, since there are legal limits to gun violence research. But even taking the specifics with a grain of salt, the conclusions are grim.
The section on Kansas is, in some ways, particularly revealing. Brownback's Kansas experiment was popular when it was believed to focus on waste. When his education cuts hit affluent Johnson County suburbanites who were proud of Kansas' tradition of strong public schooling, there was a revolt. (It's worth noting that after the book was completed, a Democrat won the race for Kansas governor, and moderate Democrat Sharice Davids won the Congressional seat for the KC suburbs.) This raises questions about the limits of how much white people are willing for themselves to suffer in order to take away from people of color.