Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland Paperback – May 12, 2020

Fabulous. Stunning what we actually do not know. For a better grasp of the politics of race everyone needs to read this book ---but only if you want to learn because it's shocking.

Powerful! Awesome! Informative research based analysis of politics, whiteness, gun violence, health & racism. It illuminates the inequity in the education system and how it contributes to & perpetuates the gap between wealthy and poor Americans. An examination of the systemic, structural, institutional & perpetual practices of racism and class bias in US is presented.It alerts the reader to “how inequality& oppression” not only historically has killed many Afro-Americans, but in contemporary society is also killing Whites. The latter, Whites, are unaware of “how their votes” & their naive belief in whiteness are used against them in healthcare, education& the tax system.

Incredible read and information presented! A book on how Republican think hurts voters in their base.A must read for 2024.Rated 4/5 ☆ because the font size is 1 to 2 sizes smaller than most books. Seniors may have a difficult time.

While reading this excellent book, I reflected on the massive acceptance of remedial measures taken during the Great Depression. During FDR’s terms, there was so little resistance from the people, who desperately needed assistance, in contrast to corrective measures taken today. The contrast in reaction can be explained. The protective laws that were created did not apply evenly to all citizens. In order to get them passed, FDR had to cave to powerful southern senators who made sure that there were racist in nature by carving out from coverage occupations that were mostly occupied by blacks and other minorities. The way monetary assistance was distributed to such states was largely by a sort of block grants, the beneficiaries to be determined by those in control of those states. Perhaps this is the only way to rid us of the people in this country, who despite much dispositive and/or persuasive evidence to the contrary, insist on believing the corrosive misinformation to which they stubbornly and irrationally adhere, mostly tethered by their own bigotry. I highly recommend this book, which IMHO, should be read in conjunction with Caste by Isabel Wilkerson.

This book provides three case studies of states whose populist right-wing politics actually caused a quantifiable increase in death among their white populations. Missouri massively relaxed its gun laws, leading to a dramatic increase in white male suicide. Kansas slashed taxes and therefore school funding, and within two years the high school dropout rate exploded (high school dropouts have lower life expectancy). Tennessee refused to expand Medicaid, and yes, white people died as a result (the author speaks to a white man literally dying a slow painful death from Hep C, who would have been treated had he moved 39 MINUTES away to Kentucky and signed up for Medicaid. But he literally didn't want "his money" going to "welfare queens."What I miss in this book is a mention of additional aspects of politics that keep whites in the former Confederacy stuck in political ruts that hurt them most: toxic masculinity, and evangelical so-called Christianity. Many southern Republicans consider themselves single issue voters because of abortion, though the abortion rate is remarkably high and kept secret in the white evangelical church. And Medicaid expansion was accepted in all states as it covers pregnant poor women, just not working poor without children under the aegis of a black President. The hatred for Obamacare among poor whites in this book is only overshadowed by the tragedy of those "hunting families" left behind by gun suicides.Abortion and evangelical Christianity are topics missing from this otherwise excellent book.

This book lays out the notion that the motivation behind gun culture, opposition to socialized healthcare, and the defunding of education is white grievance and racial animosity. Throughout this book, one sees example after example of things I have witnessed with my own eyes in the American Midwest—fears and animus towards the minority lurking beneath every thought of those around me. This book has clarified and revealed something that needed to be said, and it is indispensable if you wish to understand fools voting time and again against their very own interests.The denouement I will not ruin here, but what happens in Kansas after the effects of Governor Brownback will have your jaw on the floor!

The author does his level best to help us understand and sympathize with the people he is writing about, but I'm afraid it's a lost cause. What do you do with people who are so deluded that they think single-payer healthcare is Communist tyranny? How do you help people who would cut off their arms before they would reach out to help anyone whose skin color or national origin is different from theirs? People who hate others who exist on government handouts while they themselves feed greedily off the public teat? I'm afraid the response of many readers to this depth of delusion will be at best a chilly indifference to these victims of their own inability to think clearly. Dying of Whiteness is part tragedy, part farce, the story of a suicide by a victim too far gone to listen to reason.

This work is a roadmap coming from the heartlands, leading to the answer of, “How did we get here?”Simply, clearly, startlingly on point.

Love the cover! If I could read it would be awesome!

Worth the read. Very intriguing and had a lot of important information.

A chiling look at the current state of affairs