[PREV - GASOLINE_DIET] [TOP]
THE_SUM_OF_US
July 22, 2021
The Heather McGhee book, "The Sum of Us" is a
pretty impressive piece of work. The general
thesis: while many people think that US citizens
are playing a "zero sum game" where races are
competing against each other, in actual fact
racist polices tend to be damaging to everyone.
It isn't just that the white racists are selfishly
defending their own, really they're not even
managing to do that-- instead they make things
worse for everyone, including themselves.
If you've kind of suspected that this might be true,
Heather McGhee can convince you it really is.
If you think you already know it's true, Heather
McGhee will show you the case is even stronger
than you thought.
If you're on the other side on this, Heather McGhee
might, just maybe, punch through your shields and
make you wonder if you've really got it right.
This is not some demand that some sacrifice for
the good of all, it's a case where we just need
to wake up and collect what McGhee calls "the
solidarity dividend". We really are all in this A standard attack line
together, and we're stronger together than conservatives like to
apart-- so don't let them divide us. use on anyone
discussing racial
issues is that they're
being "divisive"--
Heather McGhee is the
precise opposite.
The only people she
wants us to give up
on are the ones who
want us to give up
on each other.
You might notice this is an unusually positive,
glowing review for someone like me-- there's
usually *something* I can think of to complain
about...
But not here. Going over it in my head, looking
for problems, I started thinking things like:
o did she really support all of her points,
or just most of them? Yeah she does: 55 pages of
notes (albiet not 'footnotes').
o did she skip some issues that are hard
to deal with? Like, how about "affirmative
action", wouldn't that seem to be
"zero sum" by design? I'm not
o is the tone of her message off and under the delusion that this has
unlikely to persuade people who don't really been happening, but the
get it already? idea would seem to be to take
slots from race A and reserve
There's a tendency for many on on them for race B.
the left to slip into insider
jargon that does little except Her answer on this is pretty
identify yourself to another good-- as usual she makes an
member of the tribe, but Heather even stronger case than I
McGhee dodges that trap-- e.g. I would've figured you could.
don't think she invokes
"intersectionality" even once. SUM_AFFIRMATIVE
Throughout the book, McGhee does an excellent
job of grounding stastics in anecdotes-- she
never lets the big picture get disconnected I might complain about
from the close focus, nor does she use cherry the lack of explicit
picked individual cases to force an overall footnotes-- there are
view that isn't supportable. no forward references
into the Notes, you
need to trace them
backwards yourself--
but in McGhee's case I'm
willing to give her the
benefit of the
It's actually very difficult to find something doubt. Maybe this works
that's missing from this book. better in a persuasive
text, and keeps it from
The best I can do: I don't think she seeming too academic.
covers the "macroeconomics" angle very
well-- if a third of the US populace is
regularly under-used, that should
actually translate into a big economic
hit. Maybe if we could finally stop
fighting the Civil War, GDP growth could
be a point higher. That's the sort of
thing our conservative friends claim they
care about...
--------
[NEXT - SUM_AFFIRMATIVE]