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).

Everyone should have to listen to this book!

Amazingly written and very informative! I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone willing to make a change in society!

Simply Well Sooken

This was the most on point book I heard/read in a long time. I appreciate this woman, strong Queen!

Required Reading. Absolutely Excellent!

Everyone NEEDS to read this book. Depending on your political beliefs, some phases may irritate you. However, you will also be enlightened. Be strong, let go of minor differences while listening, and learn the truth. This is some fine work.

Shined a light

This was a good read. Heather's book gets to the root causes of racism in America. I liked that her book not only talked about issues racism causes but also the price everyone pays for it.

Fabulous book

This was an amazing book and I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves America and who is troubled by the policies being proposed by too many of our elected representatives.

The author’s reading!

To have Heather read this in the voice it was written makes this book even more powerful! I learned so much from this book and would listen to it again. The knowledge here is powerful and teaches lessons about the subtle class warfare that goes along with the utilization of race as a divisive tactic used by powerful capitalists to keep the rest us fighting and not reaching the sum of us!

This is a must read!

I loved this book so much and educational. If you are on an anti racist journey you need to read.

With gratitude to the author

Cannot say enough positive things about this extremely well documented and beautifully written book. As a white, middle class, senior citizen who has benefited from being white all my life, I feel like a blindfold has been removed from my eyes. I believe that every American who wants to have a realistic understanding of American’s racial history, as well as a well reasoned opinion about what might be done to Establish true democracy, equality and freedom in our country, should read this book.

Depth and breadth of author’s knowledge.

I Loved all of it. I might listen again to retain more information. I will recommend to thoughtful person I know.