Graphic credit: Wall Street Journal
When does a suicide epidemic become a national crisis? When women and minorities end their lives in greater numbers than men and whites, thus confirming the dominant narrative of a racist, patriarchal society that discriminates against all manner of oppressed groups… Until that time, the rising suicide rate will get only passing attention. Depending on the age group, according to new data, American men kill themselves at a rate four to ten times the rate of women. Whites also end their lives at three times the rates of African-Americans, Latinos and Asians.
In a society stained by “white privilege,” and “male privilege,” a strikingly large number of white males seem to think otherwise. Rather than basking in their advantages, they’re checking out in ever greater numbers. Reviled in the dominant narrative of our age as the oppressor, white males are the one group whose cultural mores reject the idea of victimhood and grievance mongering. Rather than interpreting the inevitable setbacks and vicissitudes of life through the lens of race, class, gender, the so-called “angry white male” is far more likely to direct his anger inward by means of suicide or outward in explosive, mass shootings and death-by-cop incidents.
Graphic credit: American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
While the right-thinking people are all caught up in the latest victimization drama — the trauma of transgendered people unable to use the bathroom of their choosing — the suicide epidemic receives very little notice. Sure, the problems of transgendered people are real, but c’mon, so are the problems of people whose lives suck so badly that they kill themselves.
According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Virginia’s suicide profile matches that of the nation (which should come as no surprise, because our demographic profile matches that of the nation). There were 1,122 suicides in Virginia in 2015 — 12.86 per 100,000 population, a hair below the national average. Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the state; more than three times as many people die by suicide here than by homicide.
Does anybody care?
— JAB
