How to End Zero-Sum Thinking (Heather McGhee)
Heather McGhee is a designer of, and advocate for, solutions to inequality in America. We discuss her New York Times bestselling book, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together, in which she seeks to push us all past zero-sum thinking, or the idea that if you get something you want or need, it must mean that I get less. In fact, she points to numerous examples throughout history that show how this framework has made our society more cruel and poorer than it otherwise might be. Heather pushes us to recognize the fingerprints of racism in all of our core dysfunctions, from climate change, to the roots of the financial crisis, to the ongoing fight for universal healthcare.\xa0\n\u201cWe must stop the siloed thinking that racism is great for white people and bad for people of color,\u201d Heather says, \u201cif you pull that thread, that\u2019s exactly the same zero sum logic racists hold, that progress for people of color has to come at the expense of white people, that we are at odds, fighting over crumbs\u2026there has to be a better paradigm of mutual benefit.\u201d The Sum of Us is a story of why \u201cdrained pool politics\u201d\u2014an idea named after the fact that in the \u201850s and \u201860s, many towns chose to fill in their public pools and lose access to this social good rather than integrate them and share them with Black people\u2014is costing everyone, in ongoing ways. She offers that with multiracial coalitions we can subvert fear mongering about an equitable society and fight for a more prosperous nation for all.\xa0\n\nEPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:\n\nChronicling the disappearance of public goods and the retreat from public life following the New Deal (Approx. 8:26)\n\nInvestigating\xa0the roots of zero sum thinking, finding fingerprints of racism in all of our core disfunction (Approx. 35:22)\n\nFighting for solidarity dividends (Approx. 36:35)\n\n\nMORE FROM HEATHER MCGHEE\nThe Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together\xa0\nHeather McGhee's Website\nFollow Heather on Twitter and on Instagram\n\nHEATHER\u2019S PICKS:\nFloodlines - The Story of an Unnatural Disaster Hosted by Vann R. Newkirk II \nFour Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019\nThe City We Became - N. K. Jemisin\n\nDIG DEEPER:\nSupport for Government Guaranteed Job and Standard of Living by Demographic Group - the ANES Guide to Public Opinion and Electoral Behavior\nWhich racial/ethnic groups care most about climate change? - Yale Program on Climate Change Communication\n2021 Voting Laws Round Up - the Brennan Center for Justice\n\nGET INVOLVED:\nCheck Your Voter Registration Status, Register to Vote, Find Your Polling Place, and more\n \nTo learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy\n \n Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices