Kansas City native, physician and sociologist Jonathan Metzl spent six years travelling parts of the country, including areas of Kansas and Missouri, trying to understand how white Americans supported policies that seemed to go against their self-interest.
The result was his new book “Dying of Whiteness,” which he discussed in a recent virtual event hosted by Avodah Kansas City and Jewish Vocational Service. Metzl answered questions from KCUR senior reporter and editor Dan Margolies.
One striking aspect of this trend among white Americans – particularly white men in parts of the southern and midwestern United States – is that the behaviors are contributing to falling life expectancy, according to Metzl.
“Think how remarkable it is that that demographic, the majority, privileged, dominant group, is seeing a shorter life expectancy… It’s really unprecedented that this would happen in a First World country,” Metzl told Margolies.
In his travels, Metzl explored how whiteness (not just the color of people’s skin but certain fundamental notions central to people’s identities) was tied to public policies. His research took him to Franklin, Tennessee, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and Olathe. He talked with people about issues like healthcare, guns, taxes, education and the scope of government.
He found that policies that were meant to (or were at least touted to) help secure status and a sense of privilege actually led to negative outcomes among the populations who supported them. The decision to support these policies was often driven by racial resentment and anxiety among the white population in those states, particularly those without a college education, according to Metzl.
Examples in Metzl’s book include:
The story of Trevor, a 41-year-old uninsured Tennessean who, despite dying of liver failure, adamantly opposed the Affordable Care Act and expanding Medicare. “… There’s no way I’m going to sign up for a program that would also benefit Mexicans and welfare queens,” he told Metzl.
In Missouri, loosening gun laws, and the advertising of guns as a symbol of what it meant to be a white man, led to a dramatic rise in white male gun “super owners,” followed by skyrocketing white male suicides from guns. The research Metzl examined showed that white men were dying at a rate that cost 11,000 quality of life hours in a three-year period, which was catastrophic to many communities.
As a result of former Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax cuts to public schools, the high school dropout rate increased. This led to shorter lifespans as people without a high school education typically have worse jobs, which means poorer healthcare and nutrition. The effects of the tax cuts were first seen in minorities, but then white rural areas also showed skyrocketing dropout rates. Metzl added it up to a loss of 12,000 quality of life hours for whites, people who generally supported these tax cuts.
Metzl argued support for these policies doesn’t necessarily stem from outright racism, but rather racial resentment that shapes the policies and the narratives around them. And at a time when the country is so polarized on issues of racial equality and racism, the question of where we go from here has a complicated answer. Metzl said before the pandemic there was a fair amount of research showing that, when push comes to shove, most people are centrist. Now polarized political and media systems leave no room for common ground.
Metzl challenged people to “rebuild the public square,” reclaiming a space where it’s safe to talk about policies and disagreements in a more human and empathetic way.
Part of the solution, he said, is building structures that reward cooperation over competition and building systems like common healthcare programs and school districts, places where people can actually see the benefits.
As to where Jews specifically fit into all this, part of that is “taking ownership of a failure of social justice.”
“We have to continue to remember where we came from and our responsibility to others, not just our own community,” he said.