Tuesday, June 20 at 12:00 PM
A physician's "provocative" (Boston Globe) and "timely" (Ibram X. Kendi, New York Times Book Review) account of how right-wing backlash policies have deadly consequences — even for the white voters they promise to help.
In election after election, conservative white Americans have embraced politicians who pledge to make their lives great again. But as physician Jonathan M. Metzl shows in Dying of Whiteness, the policies that result actually place white Americans at ever-greater risk of sickness and death. Interviewing a range of everyday Americans, Metzl 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. He shows these policies' costs: increasing deaths by gun suicide, falling life expectancies, and rising dropout rates.
Now updated with a new afterword, Dying of Whiteness demonstrates how much white America would benefit by emphasizing cooperation rather than chasing false promises of supremacy.
Winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award
This is a book club meeting, the author will not be present.
About Enaj:
Enaj, a voracious reader since childhood with a keen interest in all things pertaining to social justice and inclusion relied on this leisure pursuit to thrive being quarantined alone. Reading and participating in virtual book clubs like Books with Beth at The Athenaeum of Philadelphia proved a perfect combination for surviving the lockdown while safely interacting with other avid readers. A retired lawyer and judge who resides in California, Enaj sees reading as a journey of self-discovery, as well as a way to uncover gaps in a country that suffers from historical amnesia.
