The.Ink FULL AUDIO: Heather McGhee on reparations, Trump, and making meaning
Today we present for our subscribers the full audio recording of our conversation with the author and policy expert Heather McGhee.
In her influential book, The Sum of Us, McGhee argues against the idea that progress for some must come at the expense of others. It’s the opposite, she maintains, famously recounting how, when the racist response to desegregation drained public pools across America, everyone — including white families — lost out.
McGhee tells us about how to argue against zero-sum politics, why reparations would provide seed capital for the future and benefit everyone, why Trump is the only political leader in America currently able to make meaning for people, and how Democrats can learn to reach voters more deeply and durably.
To read an edited transcript of this conversation, please visit the link below.
And for our earlier interview with Heather McGhee, on the thinking that went into her book The Sum of Us, how to combat disinformation, and the anxieties driving America’s political crises; click on this link.
A request for those who haven’t yet joined us: The interviews and essays that we share here take research and editing and much more. We work hard, and we are eager to bring on more writers, more voices. But we need your help to keep this going. Join us today to support the kind of independent media you want to exist.
Photo: Andreas Burgess