I've got a lot to say about page 5 in our text. I believe there is a contradiction, or an error in logic, or neither and I am missing a piece of the puzzle. All of these are possibilities.
At the end of the second full paragraph there is the sentence: "Durkheim explained the difference in terms of social integration: Categories of people with strong social ties had low suicide rates, and more individualistic categories of people had high suicide rates."
Okay, so this sentence was used to sum up the sociological explanation of why wealthy male WASPs are more likely to kill themselves than those who are not wealthy and not WASP. And it appears that this is for good reasons, like "strong social ties."
Two paragraphs down (right above the heading "Seeing Sociologically: Marginality and Crisis") the second to last sentence says something that could be a contradiction. It states "Applying Durkheim's logic, the higher suicide rate among white people and men reflects their greater wealth and freedom, just as the lower rate among women and African Americans reflect their limited social choices."
So, which is it? Is the lower suicide rate due to strong social ties or due to limited social choices? Which would Durkheim really apply?
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