Metzl uses three case studies to investigate why so many poor and working class white Americans support government policies that undermine their own health and well being when politicians promise such policies will preserve white privilege and control. Even when the actual effect of these policies only deepens the divide between the wealthy elite and everybody else (regardless of race), working class whites cling to their illusion of privilege in the face of their own diminished lives.
Metzl asks how did the politics of racial resentment become so powerful that it has overwhelmed even the basic instinct of self-preservation? To find out, he spent eight years talking to voters in Missouri, Tennessee and Kansas, asking them to explain political actions they supported: repealing gun laws in Missouri; refusing to participate in the ACA and Medicaid expansion in Tennessee; slashing taxes and funding for infrastructure, education, and health programs in Kansas. The answers he got are sobering and a testament to the damage still being inflicted on our nation by the legacy of racial animosity.
Dr. Metzl is a professor of sociology and psychiatry and director of the Center for Medicine, Health and Society at Vanderbilt University. A nationally recognized expert on gun violence and mental illness, Dr Metzl grew up in Kansas City, and has family ties in Missouri and Kansas. He lives and works in Nashville, Tennessee.
Click HERE to read the * review from Publishers Weekly.
Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus Review.
Click HERE to read the review from Vox.com.
Click HERE to watch an interview with the author on PBS.
Click HERE to read a review from the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
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