The Sum of Us

Throughout The Sum of Us, Heather McGhee describes how racism is harmful to all Americans, regardless of their skin color. Part of this harm is caused by the blind spots that racism produces by dividing Americans and encouraging the establishment of racial hierarchies.

One of the most visible manifestations of this harm is in America’s segregated spaces, which persist for white citizens despite the country’s growing diversity. As McGhee notes, in one 2016 study, 75% of white respondents said their social circle was entirely white. The fact that many white people chose to isolate themselves in predominantly white neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces despite their avowed commitment to diversity shows the influence of racism at work. In particular, segregation fuels beliefs like racist assumptions about the presence of Black and brown students in a classroom reflecting a lower-quality education; resistance to affirmative action policies fueled by racial resentment, inspired by a sense that “underserving” Black people already get enough assistance from the state; and fearful perceptions of Black people motivated by racist stereotypes and projection, or the belief that, if given the chance, Black people will enact white people’s worst traits.

McGhee’s discussion of de facto segregation also illustrates the impact of blind spots—namely, white people’s lack of awareness of their own unconscious biases. These blind spots create further gaps in knowledge, which harm white people in the long run. McGhee cites research suggesting students in more diverse classrooms have a greater sense of civic engagement and improved critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Moreover, she notes that as US society grows more diverse, those best equipped to deal with it will be the people with experience navigating cross-cultural settings.

Ignorance of and indifference to the challenges facing Black Americans has also harmed white people in other contexts. As McGhee explores in Chapter 4, Black people were the first victims of the predatory subprime mortgages that contributed to the 2008 financial crisis. While homeownership increased for Black individuals following the civil rights movement, discriminatory lending practices persisted. As McGhee notes, starting in the 1990s, some banks specifically targeted Black homeowners for subprime refinancing loans, even though these borrowers could have qualified for less expensive loans. Even though advocates and local officials, seeing the impact subprime loans were having on communities of color, tried to warn Congress and the Federal Reserve, and called for action at the federal level, these pleas went unanswered.

There were several blind spots at work here. On one hand, the regulators and legislators were almost entirely white; as a result, these individuals were ignorant of how predatory loans were impacting communities. In the void created by this ignorance, another blind spot emerged: stereotypes about Black borrowers being irresponsible. Because legislators couldn’t see that framing for what it was—a stereotype built of racist assumptions—they also failed to identify the growing threat posed by subprime mortgages, which eventually claimed far more white than Black victims (even if Black homeowners remain disproportionately affected). In this way, McGhee shows how gaps in knowledge create harms that affect all society.

By showing the impact that incomplete knowledge and blind spots can have, McGhee also points toward a method of addressing these problems. People of color, who are not subject to the same blind spots as white people (because they cannot ignore the harm that racism causes) should be elevated to leadership roles at a rate that is at least proportionate to their share of the population. As McGhee explains:

we need leaders who see color, who recognize the profound impact social hierarchies have had and continue to have on our national well-being, and who create new visions for how we can recognize our American diversity as the asset that it is (279).

McGhee dismantles many of the core assumptions that characterize US society: that the United States is founded on principles of fairness and representation for all; that mid-20th-century public policies aimed at building the middle class were equally available to all citizens; and that only Black people suffer the impacts of racism. In showing how myths have given many Americans an erroneous self-image—and explaining how this self-image perpetuates racial hierarchy—McGhee also underscores how an honest reckoning with US history, rather than its mythical past, can create a more just future for all.

In Chapter 6 McGhee examines how, from its earliest days, American democracy was premised on exclusion. Initially, it excluded anyone who wasn’t a white, property-owning male, but over time, even as franchise expanded, people of color remained most targeted by voter suppression. As McGhee notes, these initiatives are broadly supported by white voters, many of whom are motivated by ethnic antagonism, or the fear that white people are losing political and cultural power. McGhee sees myths about America being founded on premises of equality as another contributor to voter suppression. She writes,

I’ve found it’s easier to understand the sorry state of today’s elections if one starts by unlearning the grade school narrative of the framers’ commitment to equality and democracy and recognize that the framers left holes in the bedrock of our democracy from the outset, in order to leave room for slavery (141).

The Electoral College was created to ensure that slave states would ratify the Constitution; this system, which overrepresents white people (especially in less-populated states) continues to have a distorting effect on elections, in part because white people, persuaded by racist tropes about voter fraud, are convinced to vote for policies restricting voting practices, even though these practices end up impacting white people the most. The myth that restrictive voting practices are an aberration, rather than a feature, of the US political system obscures the nature of the problem. Only by recognizing the foundational role racism and racial hierarchies played in forming American democracy can the nation move forward and create a more just system.

Many people, pointing to the generous public programs of the New Deal as a golden era of government spending, miss the fact that these programs were never fully available to everyone, and that Black students were always excluded from initiatives like the GI Bill, which provided free tuition and housing stipends to World War II veterans. Similarly, the rapid rise in college tuition has been driven by fiscal conservativism as well as racial resentment in response to increasingly diverse student bodies. In other words, white people do not want public funds to pay the tuition of those who don’t look like them. Ignoring the role that racism played in the rise and decline of affordable postsecondary education leaves the racial hierarchy at the center of American society untouched; without addressing racism, any public program is vulnerable to the forces of division and discord. In this way, McGhee shows how a mythical understanding of America’s past attempts at providing public goods prevents meaningful change toward a better future.

In Chapter 9 McGhee notes that racism causes suffering to white people, who struggle to square their self-image—as good people and protagonists in their own story—with the reality that they perpetuate racism. Even avowed racists, such as Angela King, a former neo-Nazi—struggle to make sense of existing in a racist system and rely on myths to justify their actions. In King’s case, she relied on myths and stereotypes to blame Black people for the disappointments in her life, a worldview informed by a mythical representation of US history, which she calls “the white version” (225). Myths also have a distorting effect even on those who aspire to be nonracist, particularly the myth of colorblindness. Under the cover of a well-intentioned attempt to not see race, many white people have wished away systemic racism. By denying that racism exists, white people are given a way to blame Black people for the problems they experience, which prevents action that would address discrimination. In this way, myths perpetuate racism with negative consequences for Black citizens, but these enduring myths also inflict harm on white people; the denial of racism and America’s racist past creates internal discord within white people. Only by tackling these myths can a more caring and just society be realized.