Dying of Whiteness

How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland

By: Jonathan M. Metzl

Narrated by: Jamie Renell

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.

Every social justice leader should read this book

There are so many nuggets and strategies woven in the accounts in this book that I recommend anyone doing work around social justice should also take a listen!

Shocked

It is amazing the levels people will go to not have to re-think their beliefs even when confronted with irrefutable facts to the opposite. People vote against their best interests and are willing to die on a hill because they cannot expand their minds. This book will have you shaking your head in disbelief and teach the reader to look at their own blind spots.

thought provoking, especially in these times

should be required listening for anyone looking to understand their whiteness better. fifteen words. words.

interesting

thus book was very interesting, it opened my eyes to alot of things. must read

Great book!

Fantastic read about how white people vote against their interests every time they vote. A true shame.