Raymond's Reviews > The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together

In the January/February 2009 issue of The Atlantic, the writer Hua Hsu wrote an article titled “The End of White America?”. It was displayed on the cover of the magazine beside a large picture of then-President Barack Obama. I don’t remember much about the article but I do remember it made the argument that America was changing into a majority-minority nation in just a few decades. For many White Americans, that is a fearful prospect. Heather McGhee, former president of the think tank Demos, starts off her new book showing how White Americans, regardless of their political ideology, became more conservative on issues when they were told that in a few years they would be in the minority. They tend to oppose policies that would benefit everyone because it might also benefit people of color. She reveals that this is a zero-sum game, Whites think that if Blacks and other minorities are doing better then White people must be losing out. This is simply not the case. In The Sum of Us, McGhee makes the argument that racism hurts everyone, including Whites. She does this by showing racism’s effect on Americans across a variety of policy areas such as education, health care, housing policy, residential segregation, unions, the environment, and more. She shows that racial resentment causes many Whites to have a negative opinion on policies that would benefit them. In each chapter McGhee uses a good mix of history, social science studies, and conversations with real people (whom she describes with vivid detail) to make her points. I personally loved her use of scholarly studies, she has a way to make them relatable to the reader. One example is in her chapter on residential segregation. In it McGhee presents studies that showed that Whites may say they want to live in an integrated neighborhood, but at the end of the day they tend to live in a segregated neighborhood that is at least 75% White. Other studies show that segregated neighborhoods brings more pollution to White people, more so than in integrated neighborhoods. In other words, racism can be a matter of life or death, even for Whites.

She closes her book by covering her five “discoveries” on how we can all prosper together. The zero-sum game that she opens the book up with does not have to be; all of us can address systemic racism together. I think this book will be especially eye-opening to White people who may not be aware of the disparities that they face because of racism. Racism is not just a minority problem it effects everyone negatively. McGhee persuasively closes her book by saying that demographic changes will not unmake America, instead it will fulfill America. Overall, Heather McGhee has written a powerful must-read book. It definitely belongs on the shelf alongside other popular anti-racist works.

Thanks to NetGalley, One World, and Heather McGhee for a free ARC copy in exchange for an honest review. This book will be released on February 16, 2021.

Review published on Ballasts for the Mind: https://medium.com/ballasts-for-the-m...