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

In the mid-2000s, the United States experienced a political shift marked by increased nationalist sentiment, the emergence of “backlash governance,” and the rise of Donald Trump.

In 2008, while still reeling from the effects of the Great Recession, US voters elected Barack Obama as the country’s first African American president. President Obama steered the country’s economy out of recession, but his presidency was marked by growing discontent among segments of the American populace, particularly in response to policies such as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Obama’s immigration reforms. In the 2010 midterm elections the Republican Party (also known as the GOP) gained control of the House of Representatives, largely fueled by the Tea Party movement, which argued for reducing government spending. The movement opposed taxation and rejected what they saw as an overreach by the federal government.

Donald Trump's presidential campaign in 2016 capitalized on this wave of white populism and dissatisfaction with the political establishment. His rhetoric appealed to voters who felt left behind by globalization, economic change, and demographic and cultural shifts. Many of his supporters were white Americans in the middle of the country who saw their way of life disappearing. Their fears of being “overrun” by immigrants and minorities were further stoked by political polarization and incendiary rhetoric.

In Dying of Whiteness, Metzl shows how politicians like Donald Trump manipulated the white anxiety that intensified during the many changes that took place over the first two decades of the new millennia. Promising to “make America great again” implied a promise to make America white again; however, Metzl shows how many GOP policies failed to support working-class white Americans.