The health consequences of backlash politics

Public policies rooted in racial resentment can carry grave consequences for health and well-being, according to new research by Vanderbilt psychiatrist and sociologist Jonathan Metzl. His findings, based on seven years of fieldwork in Tennessee, Missouri and Kansas, can be found in his new book, Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland.