From the financial crisis to rising student debt to collapsing public infrastructure, she found a common root problem: racism. Political developments like Barack Obama’s election, the rise of the Tea Party, and the presidency of Donald Trump provided opportunities for further research. However, the warning that should have been sounded by this example was not heeded, and subprime lending continued until the crash of 2008. In the 1920s and 1930s, large public pools that could accommodate thousands sprung up across the nation, partly aided by the Works Progress Administration. The Sum of Us removes the cloak from this land of so-called innocents and brilliantly offers a path forward for the nation. One of the first stops on my book journey to write The Sum of Us was Montgomery, Alabama, which is one of many places where there is a … Part of the reason is the zero-sum thinking that leads many to assume that what is good for the environment will be bad for the economy, but as with every other sector McGhee examines in her book, another motivator is systemic racism. McGhee looks into disenfranchisement throughout American history, from limited rights to vote as drawn up in the Constitution, to poll taxes and literacy tests in the Jim Crow era, to continued attacks on the democratic process today. This is the essence of McGhee’s concept of the zero-sum paradigm. I- What? Users who like The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee, read by Heather McGhee; Users who reposted The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee, read by Heather McGhee McGhee began thinking about … Chapters 4-6. ABOUT THE MAIN BOOKHeather McGhee’s specialty is the American economy—and the mystery of why it so often fails the American public. This racial hierarchy, in part, replaced a class-based system that placed white workers at the bottom. Another public good that could benefit the majority of Americans but has been deemed a handout that will be taken advantage of by freeloaders is healthcare. Join us for a candid conversation between Heather McGhee, author of The Sum of Us and Tom Perriello, Executive Director of the Open Society Foundations, moderated by Dr. Carmen Rojas, President and CEO of Marguerite Casey Foundation. Indeed, many communities remain mostly white or Black, and public school systems continue to reflect more diverse populations than private institutions. McGhee marshals economic and sociological research to paint an irrefutable story of racism’s costs, but at the heart of the book are the humble stories of people yearning to be part of a better America, including white supremacy’s collateral victims: white people themselves. When their economic interests and desire for racial superiority come into conflict, white voters choose “racial allegiance.”. In essence, white Americans do not vote in their own economic self-interest when they feel that people of color will also benefit, because they think that progress for people of color means losses for white people. Further, slavery lowered land value, impoverishing southern whites. 2021-03-04T18:26:00Z. Heather McGhee’s specialty is the American economy—and the mystery of why it so often fails the American public. Last Updated on April 8, 2021, by eNotes Editorial. However, once more students of color began to enroll, and anti-government sentiment grew after the civil rights era, public funding for higher education was perceived as a handout. Chapter Summaries & Analyses. From the financial crisis to rising student debt to collapsing public infrastructure, she found a common root problem: racism. McGhee relays the myriad mechanisms white people use to ignore their involvement in maintaining the racial hierarchy and the privilege they enjoy as a result. American colonists’ radical notion of individual liberty could only be concretely understood in contrast to the utter bondage of slavery. For example, McGhee explores the ways African slavery in the colonial and early national eras resulted in a racial hierarchy that lifted white people above Black slaves and Indigenous peoples. McGhee traces how the slave economy stunted the growth of the entire slave-holding region. Heather McGhee’s specialty is the American economy—and the mystery of why it so often fails the American public. Now, nearly half of Americans do not earn enough to meet basic needs, and a third of workers’ jobs offer no benefits; meanwhile, the wealth gap has grown as CEOs and corporations thrive. Despite the adoption of the modest Affordable Care Act, states have turned down what McGhee calls “free money” through Medicaid, resulting in rural hospital closures and negative health outcomes, even deaths, for everyday Americans. McGhee then examines how higher education was once considered a necessity; it received more generous public funding, making it affordable for middle-class white Americans. McGhee references and analyzes the historical conditions that gave rise to America’s persistent racial resentment. But not just in the most obvious indignities for people of color. Summary: "Heather C. McGhee's specialty is the American economy--and the mystery of why it so often fails the American public. Word Count: 1435. McGhee’s parents came of age when voting rights and access to affordable housing made the American dream somewhat achievable for people of color. Racism contributed to disapproval of the Affordable Care Act but also negatively impacts lower- and middle-class white Americans who have less access to healthcare. Access to housing and Social Security is limited by arbitrary “job categories” that exclude fields dominated by workers of color. Further, the entire country’s economy depended on slave labor, as northern mills processed cotton from plantations. After Demos’s report and policy recommendations, Congress passed a reform bill that helped credit card companies instead of citizens. The final chapter studies Lewiston, Maine, as an exemplar of how immigrants of colors can invigorate failing rural towns and provide opportunities for cross-racial solidarity. 'Sum Of Us' Examines The Hidden Cost Of Racism — For Everyone Author Heather McGhee draws on a wealth of economic data to make the case that … Ultimately, McGhee argues for racial unity, which will yield a “Solidarity Dividend,” a resulting enrichment for all Americans. Chair of the Board of Directors at Color of Change, McGhee argues America’s toxic mix of racism and greed is responsible for current and historic division, destruction, and inequality. And its primary function in … A chance moment during which McGhee overheard a senator lambasting “deadbeats [who] dodge the child support” led to an epiphany—racial stereotypes limit productive reform. ©2021 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Introduction–Chapter 2 Summary and Analysis. March 18 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm The Sum of Us is a brilliant analysis of how we arrived here: divided and self-destructing, materially rich but spiritually starved and vastly unequal. These white Europeans then created a nation with a racial hierarchy, situating themselves at the top. McGhee realized that some Americans were not “operating in their own rational economic self-interest.” She concludes that feelings “about who belongs and who deserves” can be understood by examining the racial divide at the heart of American history. From the financial crisis to rising student debt to collapsing public infrastructure, she found a common root problem: racism. Ultimately, exposing and discussing the roots of inequality will help the nation move forward. McGhee then shifts her attention to a less tangible impact of systemic racism: the moral cost of racism on white Americans. Pools that were once social hubs for white swimmers fell out of use after integration granted equal access to Black Americans. : An Insightful Account Of The Deep Enduring Cost Of Racism And How We Can Overcome It To Prosper Together. The American democratic system, fueled by the flawed electoral college, is inherently problematic, not least because a politician can be elected without the support of the majority of the voting public. The Constitution did not envision slaves as Americans, instead defining American identity in terms of whiteness. But to write The Sum of Us (11 hours), Heather McGhee traveled across the country—from coastal Washington and rural Kentucky to an evangelical church in Chicago and a Nissan plant in Mississippi—to understand the roots of white America’s zero-sum attitude toward racial equity and how this mistaken belief system damages everyone. It’s the root of the most pressing public problems affecting us all, says Heather McGhee in The Sum of Us. Former Demos president McGhee undertook her first project for the organization by studying credit card debt—which, by the early 2000s, was far more likely to affect Black and Latinx families than White ones. She finds that a potential unionization drive at a Canton, Mississippi, Nissan plant failed, because white management pitted workers against one another based on race and painted Black workers as “lazy” complainers who just wanted handouts. Heather McGhee’s The Sum of Us starts with the assumption that the majority of Americans are suffering economically due to policy that benefits only a small segment at the top of the social hierarchy. eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. by Heather McGhee ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 16, 2021 A head-on consideration of the costs of American racism. However, the vote holds so much potential for change that the most powerful will seek any method to disenfranchise citizens, whether Americans of color or progressive college students. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party has been associated with civil rights since Johnson’s presidency. McGhee moves on to a more modern phenomenon as she examines how the government has been “singularly stingy” toward its citizens in regards to public goods and infrastructure that would benefit everyone. Segregation continued with the Jim Crow South, and even after integration, it remains a common practice, even when white citizens claim they value diversity. HEATHER McGHEE: In The Sum of Us, I visit with workers who are fighting for $15, who are fast-food workers making a little over $7 an hour, Black and white, who were really at … Each chapter of her text tackles a specific area of American society to uncover the sources of injustice and inequality and to suggest strategies for tackling these problems for the common good. Racism resulted in public losses for everyone, not just Black citizens. Chapters 7-10. What is Heather McGhee’s concept of the “Solidarity Dividend” in The Sum of Us? “Racism sits at the heart of America, and McGhee shows its effects on the very people who cleave to it. In the African American activist Heather McGhee’s first book The Sum of Us: What Racism[in the United States] Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together (2021), she perceptively explores how to develop a multi-faceted alternative to the zero-sum thinking in our contemporary American winner-take-all economy in the United States. What is Heather McGhee’s concept of the “zero-sum paradigm” in The Sum of Us. The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee « All Events. eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. Summary. These examples become McGhee’s earliest evidence of her concept of the “Solidarity Dividend.”. 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