Posted on 08/18/2006 4:46:15 PM PDT by redpoll
High suicide rate for older white males WASHINGTON, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- Older white males have the highest suicide rate in the United States, said the Population Reference Bureau in Washington.
Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the United States with 11 suicide deaths per 100,000 Americans.
For white males over the age of 65, the rate is almost triple that figure.
White males are more than eight times as likely to kill themselves as women of the same age and the risk increases as they get older, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
Suicide experts are unable to pinpoint an exact cause for the higher rate but some believe white males lack the resilience and coping mechanisms that women and other ethnic groups have.
They also point to the fact that males are socialized to be in control and are less apt to seek help for depression which leads to suicide.
My reason for screaming? The "experts" here tell us that the reason for the high rate of suicide among Native people is oppression by outsiders, cultural disintegration, and high rates of alcohol and drug abuse. Suddenly oppression and cultural disintegration are no longer the reasons for suicide - because the reasons given for Native suicide rates obliquely blame white males. Now suicide is due to lack of "resilience and coping mechanisms" among people "socialized to be in control."
This article is fabulous example of the lack of reasoning power among the media and elites in general. Imagine someone telling Native people that the suicide epidemic here is due to "lack of resilence and coping." They'd be pilloried for racism and lack of compassion. I guess it's all right to express that kind of racism as long as the person killing himself has the right skin color and gender.
Excellent observation by redpoll.
I think your point is accurate, but the numbers might not be.
"A 2000 report by the Indian Health Service, an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, showed that among American Indian youth, 33.9 per 100,000 commit suicide each year, which is 2.5 times the national rate for all youth.
Stacey Freedenthal: "We wanted a more accurate representation of what is found in the American Indian population."
"Suicide is a profound problem for American Indians," said Stacey Freedenthal, M.S.W., L.C.S.W., who is one of the researchers on the study and presented its findings at the annual conference of the American Association of Suicidology in Santa Fe in April.
She explained that within the general population, elderly men commit suicide at the highest rate, but within the American Indian population, adolescent boys have the highest rate of suicide. This translates into "many lost years and generations," she said."
The rates will increase dramatically when todays young inferior males educated in government schools reach 65.
Thank you NEA and Feminazis.
I'm over 30, and have never met a native american, eskimo or otherwise, but I had a white male neighbor near his 60s who killed himself...
Not a lack, a surfeit.
"The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason." - G. K. Chesterton
When is Jimmah Cahtah gonna off hisssef?
My first thought would be that older white males may be more likely to have health problems (unless they controlled for that in the study).
susie
Or it could be that they get tired of the ENDLESS whining they have to put up with from "women and other ethnic groups" and get REALLY tired of being blamed for EVERYTHING that goes wrong in the world.
There are many reasons for suicide. This article points out one of them.
it used to be called "Going out like a man..." and I will decide when my time comes. watched my Mother die of cancer while being kept alive by doctors milking her insurance. made up my mind then and there... I"LL never die like that.
As an older white male, I can tell you that I personally am not allowed to let up and slack off. I will not, and I refuse to. But I can see that if I were faced with dwindling capabilities, I might become depressed.
I always thought the biggest reason was intimate knowledge of Bill and Hillary's finances..scandals...affairs..etc.etc.etc..
...women and minorities hardest hit...< / WashPost>
So is it eight times more than white women or women of all colors?
Suicide experts are unable to pinpoint an exact cause for the higher rate but some believe white males lack the resilience and coping mechanisms that women and other ethnic groups have.
Oh that standard canard "some believe" crappola - mental health experts, politicians, UPI reporters? As to the "resilience and coping mechanisms that women and other ethnic groups have" is simply asserted with the proof in the pudding being again the elusive, anonymous "some believe" aforementioned.
They also point to the fact that males are socialized to be in control and are less apt to seek help for depression which leads to suicide.
This last line is the actual rationale for this pitiful, sophomoric article. Who is "they"? The "some believe" or members of the "Population Reference Bureau in Washington"? This article takes some asserted facts and then assigns motives for older white male suicide without a lick of empirical proof. Are they hiring high scholl freshman over at UPI?!
STFU UPI!
Liberals cannot acknowledge the existence of a humanity shared among the sexes, races and ages. It would contradict their oppressor-victim worldview. Since the left views elderly white males as members of the oppressor group, their deaths simply don't matter. If the suicide stats were reversed by sex, media liberals would strive to establish elderly female suicide as one of society's major concerns.
Our society prefers to focus on eradicating nonexistent sexist bigotry while ignoring the real thing.
Some poster wrote "growing old is not for sissies".
I think men are far less willing to be unproductive members of society. We are raised that we must earn our keep by hard work and, when we can no longer work, it's time to move on. I know I feel this way. I'm not going to let the medical community string me along in nursing homes for years like my mother is enduring. I don't see the point in going broke just to slowly deteriorate into death.
Why not go quickly with an inheritence to leave to your loved ones instead of years of pain followed by humongous medical and funeral bills? It sounds far more utilitarian although you do deny your children the "fun" of taking care of you in your "golden years".
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