Heather McGhee: The Disneyfication of American History

If you’ve seen Abby’s documentary, The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales, you won’t forget the wisdom imparted by the formidable writer and policy analyst Heather McGee. In the film, Heather reminds us that the economy is not like the weather–it is actually something we can control. And, crucially, she tells a story about American history that’s not told often enough: how deep seated racism in the 20th Century helped unravel a whole host of government policies responsible for creating the largest middle class the world had ever seen. Because so much of their powerful and thought-provoking 2021 conversation never made it into the documentary, this week Abby goes into the vault to share an extended version. Too often, Heather tells Abby, American history gets “Disneyfied.” It's important,  she says, that people know the truth, because “when we don't know what the powerful will do in order to keep power, we are vulnerable to the powerful doing it again”. Heather’s insights, based on her groundbreaking book, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together, help explain why so many Americans are working full time, yet unable to pay their bills.

Follow Heather @HeatherCMcGhee on Instagram and Facebook, @HMcGhee on Twitter.

EPISODE LINKS
Dumbo Crows (Disney Fandom)
How the Federal Government Built White Suburbia (Bloomberg)
Time to Fight: How the Powell memo convinced big business it was losing American hearts and minds (Slate)
How Slavery Inspired Modern Business Management (Boston Review)
Why Black workers still face a promotion and wage gap that’s costing the economy trillions (CNBC)
Insurance Policies on Slaves: New York Life’s Complicated Past (NY Times)