White Male Suicide

I recently heard that suicide in the U.S. was highest among middle-age white males. The 2017 statistics indicated that nearly 70% of all U.S. suicides were carried out by white men. Over half of the suicides involved the use of a gun. Although white men have occupied the most privileged position in our society, they are facing a growing demand by women and people of color for increased access to the opportunities once only afforded only to them as white males. The return to a zero-sum game promoted by Trump wherein they continue to be the winners and women and people of color remain at the bottom is dangerous for all of us.

I can only wonder what goes through the mind of a white male who loses his job, fails to get a promotion, or is denied admission to his dream school? What does he think when he sees a woman or minority succeed where he has not? In a country where he has been taught to believe that he will ascend to the top because of his ambition, hard work, and intelligence, he likely was never asked to notice how the obstacles to his success had once been removed. He never saw how competition by equally gifted women and minorities for admission to the best schools or for the best jobs had been squelched for years by “Need not apply” signs explicitly or implicitly erected for women and minorities. Competition for societal prizes is new for them. And they don’t like it! Who would?

The under-educated whites likely view immigrants and globalization as a threat to their livelihood. The social climbers see women, Jews, and people of color as competition for social promotion. Perhaps having the Obamas in the White House for eight years was too much for many of them. White male success is no longer a given and if they do not succeed they are looking for someone to blame. But many know that they cannot with integrity blame other human beings who also have the right to pursue their dreams and aspirations. Their own sense of fairness will not allow for that. So, finding themselves lacking or without the where-with-all to compete and win, are they dealing with their failure in this lethal way?

But other white males are taking a different path. The rise in white supremacy is no joke and the narrative that they are feeding themselves and others is meant to provide them with a way to overcome their feelings of failure and to roll back competition because they have a “right” to the best jobs and to be at the top. Make America great again is code for relegating minorities and women to the lower classes. When young white males are chanting, “Jews will not replace us”, what are they saying? Who benefits when abortion rights are rolled back and women are saddled with children? What happens to a woman’s education and job prospects with an unplanned pregnancy? Who benefits when communities of color are over-policed and prison sentences for black and brown people are systematically longer than that of whites? Who benefits from a broken or severely limited immigration system?

On the surface, some might think that white males benefit from the oppression of others. But in truth, everyone loses. The economic cost, the lost of productivity, as well as the loss of human talent in order to sustain a growing prison system, provide public welfare to raise children born to poor women, and limits on immigration hurt everyone.

Change toward meritocracy is necessary and good for everyone except those who find the change a challenge. Older white men are killing themselves while younger white men are picking fights that they know are morally wrong. A few white males are becoming terrorists, shooting up schools, malls, houses of worship. What is evident, is that our society better come up with a narrative that brings people together in a win-win scenario. Martin Luther King, Jr. said it best, “We either learn to live together as brothers, or we’ll perish together as fools.”