We are only just beginning to understand the deep impacts of racial resentment—including its fatal consequences on public health. In the era of Donald Trump, many lower- and middle-class white Americans were drawn to politicians who pledged to make their lives great again. But as Lavin’s newest speaker physician JONATHAN METZL shows in his explosive book Dying of Whiteness, the policies that resulted actually placed those voters at ever-greater risk of illness and even death, and harmed everyone’s well-being.
As a professor, psychiatrist, and prominent expert on gun violence and mental illness, Jonathan Metzl makes sense of the urgent issues of our time: healthcare reform, education policy, guns, politics, American race relations, and diversity. Through these lenses, he exposes the tremendous harm that racism and other forms of prejudice pose to our society’s well-being (read his latest for the Boston Review here).
But why do people so often vote against their own interests? And how can we build a movement towards justice and compassion, rather than chasing false ideals of supremacy? Metzl answers these necessary questions in groundbreaking and empathetic talks—based on his critically acclaimed book—proving “that policies promising to bolster white Americans’ status have instead made life ‘sicker, harder, and shorter’ for all…” (Publishers Weekly). If we want to “build back better” in a post-pandemic world, Metzl’s insights will drive our collective efforts toward a society that’s healthier for everyone.
Discover how we can extinguish the fire of racial resentment in public health with speaker Jonathan Metzl at your next event. Contact The Lavin Agency, his exclusive speakers bureau, today.
