Jonathan Metzl’s award-winning 2019 book, Dying of Whiteness, provided a warning: white Americans were drawn to politicians who pledged to make their lives great again, but whose policies actually placed them at greater risk of illness and death. Racial resentment fueled pro-gun laws in Missouri, caused resistance to the Affordable Care Act in Tennessee, and drove cuts to schools and social services in Kansas. The direct results of these policies? Increasing deaths by gun suicide, rising dropout rates, and falling life expectancies. As Dr. Metzl shows in this talk, rather than mobilizing a course correction, falling life expectancy became the core on which was built an ever-more-expansive political movement during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to widespread dismantling of public health infrastructure and reinforcement of racial and class hierarchies. This talk ultimately offers a necessary plan for working collectively toward a society that would be healthier for everyone, bringing people together across ideological divides through messages that span “the highways and hedges.”
Bio: Jonathan Metzl is the Frederick B. Rentschler II Professor of Sociology and Psychiatry, and the director of the Department of Medicine, Health, and Society, at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. Metzl’s books include The Protest Psychosis, Prozac on the Couch, Against Health: How Health Became the New Morality, and Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America's Heartland.
Respondents:
Craig Jackson, MSW, JD - Dean, LLU School of Allied Health Professions
Winetta A. Oloo, PhD, MS, LMFT - Chair, Department of Counseling & Family Sciences, LLU School of Behavioral Health
Location: Damazo Amphitheater in Centennial Complex (24760 Stewart St., Loma Linda)
Sponsored by: Center for Christian Bioethics