Heather McGhee’s specialty is the American economy—and the mystery of why it so often fails the American public. From the financial crisis to rising student debt to collapsing public infrastructure, she finds a common root problem: racism. But not just in the most obvious indignities for people of color. Racism has costs for white people, too. It is the common denominator of our most vexing public problems, the core dysfunction of our democracy, and constitutive of the spiritual and moral crises that grip us all. But how did this happen? And is there a way out?
In her new book, The Sum of Us, McGhee marshals economic and sociological research to paint an irrefutable story of racism’s costs, but at the heart of the book are the stories of people yearning to be part of a better America, including white supremacy’s collateral victims: white people themselves. 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.
Speakers
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Heather McGhee
Speaker
Heather McGhee, an expert in economic and social policy, chairs the board of Color of Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization.
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Thomas Perriello
Moderator
Until July 2023, Tom Perriello was executive director of Open Society-U.S.
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Carmen Rojas
Speaker
Carmen Rojas is the president and CEO of the Marguerite Casey Foundation and co-founder and former CEO of The Workers Lab.
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