The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together

Heather McGhee's area of expertise is the US economy and the riddle of why the American people are let down by it so often. She identified racism as the underlying cause of all the issues, including the financial crisis, growing student debt, and crumbling public infrastructure. but not limited to the most blatant injustices meted out to individuals of colour. The consequences of racism also fall on White people. It is the fundamental cause of our democracy's fundamental dysfunction, the unifying factor in our most difficult public issues, and the basis of the moral and spiritual crises that affect us all. However, how did this occur? Is there a means of escape?

From Maine to Mississippi to California, McGhee sets out on a very personal trip that counts the losses we incur when we accept the zero-sum paradigm, which holds that some people's advancement must come at the price of others'. She encounters white individuals along the road who confide in her about how the poisonous combination of American racism and greed has destroyed their homes, hopes, and opportunities for better careers. This is the tale of how public goods in this nation—from swimming pools and parks to operational schools—have turned into private indulgences, of how unions have crumbled, wages have stagnated, and inequality has risen, and of how this nation—unlike other developed nations—has obstructed universal healthcare.

However, McGhee discovers evidence of what she refers to as the Solidarity Dividend—benefits that result from people coming together across racial boundaries to do what we just cannot do on our own—in unexpected places of worship and employment.

Although McGhee uses sociological and economic data to illustrate the consequences of racism, the book's main focus is on the modest tales of individuals who want to live in a better America, especially the collateral victims of white supremacy—white people. With startling empathy, this heartfelt message from a Black woman to a multiracial America leaves us with a new vision for a future in which we finally realize that life can be more than a zero-sum game.