Equity Action: The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee

As we’re closing out the year 2021, our communities have had to come to terms with the fallout from two major events, the COVID pandemic and racial justice in very stark terms. Public health authorities continue to face major backlash advocating for evidence-based science-backed COVID responses. Racism was declared a public health crisis, acknowledging that without such a declaration, little will change until white people and the systems they institute realize that racism has a cost to them too. Heather McGhee, author of the book, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together, wrote in detail about the self-defeating practice of exclusion, which we now label as the “zero-sum theory. ” Zero-sum implies that any gains for other groups must come at white people’s expense. To counter that belief, the author provided examples of how BIPOC and their allies can appeal to the concrete self-interest of white people, to demonstrate how fortunes are tied together. This is an excellent read with many examples of how addressing racism impacts fortunes at its most basic level. View the author discussing her book here.

The associated files and links are available below.