Re: “Old white men stick to society’s suicide script,” Jan. 17 news story.
As a white male over 65 and someone who is well aware of these statistics, because I teach a life-span human development class at a local college, this article interested me. However, I was very disappointed in professor Silvia Sara Canetto Canetto’s view of the causes of these high statistics.
For all other negative demographic characteristics, such as teen depression and suicide, African-American male homicide rates, poverty on Native American reservations, and so on, scholars provide a sensitive, thoughtful analysis of possible causes and solutions. But not here! According to Dr. Canetto — who recently published an article on this topic — these unacceptably high suicide numbers are “because of their privilege” (as white men) until late adulthood. I am surprised she did not add, “By age 65 white men realize they are the cause of all the evils in contemporary American society, and therefore decide to kill themselves.”
What has happened to scholarship today?
Francis Wardle, Denver
This letter was published in the Jan. 22 edition.
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