The Sum of Us

What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together

De: Heather McGhee

Narrado por: Heather McGhee

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • One of today’s most insightful and influential thinkers offers a powerful exploration of inequality and the lesson that generations of Americans have failed to learn: Racism has a cost for everyone—not just for people of color.

WINNER OF THE PORCHLIGHT BUSINESS BOOK AWARD • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time, The Washington Post, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Ms. magazine, BookRiot, Library Journal

“This is the book I’ve been waiting for.”—Ibram X. Kendi, #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist

Heather McGhee’s specialty is the American economy—and the mystery of why it so often fails the American public. From the financial crisis of 2008 to rising student debt to collapsing public infrastructure, she found a root problem: racism in our politics and policymaking. 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?

McGhee embarks on a deeply personal journey across the country from Maine to Mississippi to California, tallying what we lose when we buy into the zero-sum paradigm—the idea that progress for some of us must come at the expense of others. Along the way, she meets white people who confide in her about losing their homes, their dreams, and their shot at better jobs to the toxic mix of American racism and greed. This is the story of how public goods in this country—from parks and pools to functioning schools—have become private luxuries; of how unions collapsed, wages stagnated, and inequality increased; and of how this country, unique among the world’s advanced economies, has thwarted universal healthcare.

But in unlikely places of worship and work, McGhee finds proof of what she calls the Solidarity Dividend: the benefits we gain when people come together across race to accomplish what we simply can’t do on our own. The Sum of Us is not only a brilliant analysis of how we arrived here but also a heartfelt message, delivered with startling empathy, from a black woman to a multiracial America. It leaves us with a new vision for a future in which we finally realize that life can be more than a zero-sum game.

LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL

©2021 Heather McGhee (P)2021 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Illuminating and hopeful.... McGhee isn’t a stinging polemicist; she cajoles instead of ridicules. She appeals to concrete self-interest in order to show how our fortunes are tied up with the fortunes of others. ‘We suffer because our society was raised deficient in social solidarity,’ she writes, explaining that this idea is ‘true to my optimistic nature.’ She is compassionate but also clear-eyed, refusing to downplay the horrors of racism.... There is a striking clarity to this book; there is also a depth of kindness in it that all but the most churlish readers will find moving.” (Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times)

“In this critical moment where we have fallen so far apart, The Sum of Us is a book we all need. For close to a decade, the BlackLivesMatter movement has been doing the work to change how racism, and America's willful amnesia surrounding it, devastatingly impacts the lives of Black people in America and around the world. This book provides an important and necessary piece of the equation - not just how racism hurts Black people and people of color, but white people, too. The Sum of Us is a must read for everyone who wants to understand how we got here, but more importantly, where we can go from here - and how we get there, together.” (Alicia Garza, author of The Purpose of Power and co-founder of Black Lives Matter)

"A book for every American." (Elizabeth Gilbert)

This is America

McGhee engages the reader/listener emotionally with personal vignettes from her life, interviews, and participant observation while providing extensive, original and existing, systematic qualitative and quantitative research as academic evidence for her argument against the zero sum game (i.e., white supremacist systems).

Compelling...

A compelling historical review of systemic racism and bigotry in America, and how its ongoing grip on the country, threatens our national unity, and damages the quality of life for ALL Americans...

Humbling and Important

This is the perfect book for now. I learned so much from this book. It explains so much about what our country is, why it is and what we can be together. I plan on rereading it again and again.

Amazing

This book tells the true story of America and how racism keeps us from having nice things like health care, infrastructure, education etc. the use of the drained pool as an example and exemplar is masterful. We needed this deep dive into the truth. It takes Isabel Wilkerson’s
work in Caste to another level applying a social and economic policy lens.

Wow! We have been DUPED!

As a 55 year old white woman, my heart was so heavy listening to the real truth on the history of this nation. I am truly appalled and vow to try to help people I grew up with to EDUCATE themselves. When we know better we do better. We should never let color, creed or anything else stand between us. We must have empathy and vow to be the change this world so desperately needs. Thank YOU Heather for opening my eyes wider to the truthful history of this nation.

A Work to be Widely Read

A grand, beautiful work that clearly and powerfully puts forth its case. Helped me to better understand America.

Ouch!

I started to give this work four stars, but then I looked into my heart and asked where the book fell short: it didn’t! I was about to fault it for hurting my white feelings. The truth is, this is a must read for White folks. We live in a remarkable, post-George Floyd era, in which White people can no longer claim innocence or ignorance. Let the right call me “woke”! It’s about damn time White people stopped acting as the supreme race and started embracing the Human race!

Thank you, Heather, for telling the truth!

The most important book I've ever read

so informative. this should be required reading for everyone who calls America home. well researched, and clearly explained.

A MUST READ FOR ALL AMERICANS

What I loved was Heather McGhee’s storytelling and her focus on some of the same topics I’m covering for PLACE Initiative. What was missing for me was any systemic analysis of a housing system that is not about housing; rather it’s about real estate appreciation. In booming cities that hurts most White people too. It especially hurts most young people—of whatever race—albeit it often hurts BIPOC young people more because they are less likely to have the bank of mom and dad. Still a truly great book…

Bravo!

Brilliant account of the history of racism in America and what is needed for everyone to heal and build a new future where we all belong. Thank you. Outstanding!!!!