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

In 2014, a white police officer shot and killed unarmed African American teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The resulting protests continued through October and November, creating an atmosphere of unrest throughout the St. Louis area.

On the night of November 21st, 2014, amid this tension, Becca Campbell left her job at a local pub to drive home with her boyfriend. In the car, Campbell took a gun out of her purse, waving it “around her head” and claiming she was “ready for Ferguson.” In a moment of distraction, their car rear-ended the vehicle in front of them; Campbell’s hand clenched, and she shot herself in the head. 

Metzl believes Campbell “died of whiteness” and calls her story “emblematic” of the text’s “larger narrative […] regarding the kinds of mortal trade-offs white Americans make in order to defend an imagined sense of whiteness” (270). To remain “at the top of social hierarchies,” white people in the United States are willing to shave years off their own lives instead of contributing to “an ever-more integrated world” (270).

Importantly, Metzl notes that the “risk” associated with whiteness exists regardless of racial biases. In the wake of Campbell’s death, leftist media outlets attributed her death to racist fear of Black protesters, while conservative media claimed she was protesting “for racial equality.