Heather McGhee, a writer and policy advocate focused on race and economic policy, discusses how racism in America hinders collective progress. She shares insights from her book, emphasizing the 'Solidarity Dividend'—the idea that unity across racial lines can lead to shared benefits. The conversation touches on a poignant metaphor of a drained pool in Alabama, symbolic of exclusion, and critiques how current policies might not appear explicitly racist but perpetuate inequality. McGhee calls for critical reflection and collective action to achieve social justice.
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Drained Pool Metaphor
Heather McGhee visited a drained public pool in Montgomery, Alabama.
The city drained the pool rather than integrate it during the Civil Rights era.
insights INSIGHT
Diversity and Zero-Sum Thinking
Derek Thompson highlights research showing that diversity can create a zero-sum mentality.
This hurts support for redistribution, especially among right-wing respondents.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Cross-Racial Solidarity in Kansas City
In Kansas City, McGhee observed white fast-food workers embracing cross-racial solidarity.
They recognized their shared struggle with poverty and organized for better wages.
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What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
Heather McGhee
In 'The Sum of Us,' Heather McGhee explores the pervasive impact of racism on American society, arguing that it is a systemic issue that harms not only people of color but also white people. She documents how policies and practices rooted in racism have led to economic disparities, such as student debt, housing crises, and lack of accessible healthcare. McGhee also introduces the concept of the 'Solidarity Dividend,' which suggests that gains can be achieved when people come together across racial lines. Through personal stories, historical examples, and economic research, McGhee presents a compelling case for why addressing racism is essential for the prosperity of all Americans.
Several years ago, the writer, researcher, and policy advocate Heather McGhee traveled around the country to report on how racism in America holds us back from policies that would benefit everybody. In her book The Sum of Us, she explained how racist fears have made us all worse off. For decades, many voters and politicians have fought against policies that would have gotten them better jobs, better benefits, and more upward mobility—because they were afraid that those policies might also help non-white people, and especially Black people.
She made another point that struck me. Progressives sometimes talk about racism in a way that is pretty helpful for their causes. “Progressives often end up talking about race relations through a prism of competition—every advantage for whites, mirrored by a disadvantage for people of color,” she wrote. “The task ahead, then, is to unwind this idea of a fixed quantity of prosperity and replace it with what I’ve come to call Solidarity Dividends: gains available to everyone when they unite across racial lines, in the form of higher wages, cleaner air, and better-funded schools.”
Today’s guest is Heather McGhee. In this episode she talks about her new podcast The Sum of Us; the indelible metaphor of a drained pool in Alabama; how progressives talk about race; and why many laws today that might not seem explicitly racist still sustain racial inequality.
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