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

by Jonathan M. Metzl

A number of people with whom I spoke, when I explained the thesis of my book, told me that positions that appeared to reflect racism instead reflected a larger, color-blind “hatred of the poor.”

Ultimately, when it is all added up, the concerns about the ACA’s cost yet again did not make sense when analyzed through the logic of life years, dollars, and cents. Politicians warned that expanded health care would take actual money out of the pockets of hardworking Americans in places like Tennessee or force them to pay for the ill-fated health decisions of others, when this was clearly not the case.

Next, Brownback signed a controversial school finance bill, HB 2506, which created tax breaks for corporations that donated to private school scholarship funds, allowed public school districts to hire unlicensed teachers for science and math classes, cut support for at-risk students, and made it easier for schools to fire experienced teachers.