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KQED's Forum

Economic Policy Expert Heather McGhee on What Racism Costs Us All

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2021

⏱️ 54 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the 1950s and 60s, when some towns faced integrating their “whites only” public pools, they drained the pools instead so nobody could use them. Economic and social policy expert Heather McGhee says this zero-sum thinking has impacted the U.S. economy and the public for the worse--and racism is at the root of it. For her new book, "The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Us and How We Can Prosper Together," McGhee journeyed across the country, including to California, documenting the stories of Americans who struggle with meeting their basic needs as a consequence of the “drained-pool politics” that keeps the country divided and vastly unequal. We'll talk to McGhee about what she uncovered in writing the book and her proposed plans for charting a more equitable path forward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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From KQED.

1:00.1

From KQED Public Radio in San Francisco, I'm Mina Kim.

1:11.7

For her new book, The Sum of Us, on what racism costs us all, Heather McGee journeyed across the country, including to California, documenting the stories of Americans of all races, struggling to meet their basic needs as a consequence of what she calls zero-sum thinking, the idea that progress

1:17.6

for one racial group has to come at the expense of another. We'll talk with McGee about the role

1:22.9

of racism in thwarting efforts like well-funded public schools or affordable health care, and what she learned about a way out of zero-sum thinking.

1:31.3

That's next on Forum. I'm Nina Kim. In the 1950s and 60s, when some towns faced having

1:51.8

to racially integrate their whites-only public pools, they drain the pools instead, and nobody

1:58.6

could use them. For economic and social policy expert Heather McGee, the act of draining pools and taking

2:04.8

them away from everyone rather than let black families swim there exemplifies how racism

2:10.7

takes from all of us.

2:12.4

And that's the central argument in her new book, The Sum of Us, how racism costs everyone

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