"Poor whites are largely kept out of view like that family member we’re embarrassed by. "

Coincidently just released, 'Deaths of Despair and the future of Capitalism', co-authored by Canadian Wade Davis and Americans Anne Case and Angus Deaton, provides a nice dovetail to your writing...thank you BTW.

Here's a precis: https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/douglas-todd-deaths-of-despair-point-to-working-class-calamity