Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland

by Jonathan M. Metzl

“Kansas’ Tax Plan Makes Racial Economic Disparities Worse,” illustrated the extent to which the cuts exacerbated racial wealth disparities. The data showed that the 2012 tax cuts deceptively increased taxes on the bottom 40 percent of earners in Kansas, or those earning $42,000 a year or less, by hiking sales taxes and eliminating tax credits that benefited low-income families. Such trends disproportionately affected minority communities, including 75 percent of African American and 83 percent of Latino households in the state. By contrast, according to the report, “Kansans who saw the biggest tax cut are mostly white. Indeed, the rate of white Kansans in the top tier of earners is two to three times that of black and Latinos in the highest earning tier.” Laid out visually, the findings looked like this:8