The Sum of Us

McGhee describes her upbringing as a member of the “fragile middle class” where her family had no inherited financial safety net. Her parents came of age just as two laws designed to address racial discrimination—the Voting Rights and Fair Housing Acts—came into force. At the same time, economic inequality had started to increase, so that by 2020, the richest 1% held as much as the entire middle class. Seeking an answer for how this happened, McGhee speaks with two Harvard Business School professors named Michael Norton and Samuel Sommers, who researched how white Americans felt left behind by gains among other racial groups.

McGhee then seeks out of the roots of this zero-sum equation by turning to the early days of the United States, when the enrichment of white colonizers and slaveholders came at the expense of Indigenous and African people, which “made it easy for powerful to sell the idea that the inverse was also true: that liberation of justice for people of color would necessarily require taking something away from white people” (7). This is not just an economic formula but also a philosophical one, as many colonizers, who came from poor communities in Europe, were able to assert their newly elevated position in the hierarchy by oppressing people of color. This zero-sum model also led to the creation of America in a more direct way, by funding the War of Independence (namely, by exchanging French military aid for tobacco grown by enslaved people). In this new country citizenship provided core freedoms—for religion, movement, and speech—but was restricted to white Americans. This freedom was in turn defined by the complete lack of freedom among noncitizens, particularly Black Americans. McGhee closes the chapter by noting that until this foundational belief structure is challenged, collective action that benefits the whole society will always be vulnerable to the resurgence of the zero-sum model.

McGhee opens Chapter 2 by asking why the United States, despite having the world’s largest economy for most of the country’s history, ranks so low on global rankings of per capita government spending. Though many people have suggested explanations for why, ranging from libertarian principles to a frontier ethos, McGhee looks to racism. She cites an 1857 book written by an avowed racist named Hinton Rowan Helper, who rejected slavery because he saw how the slave economy created inequalities in wealth and power, to the detriment of many white Southerners. In his book Helper argued for the abolition of slavery and challenged the notion that slaveowners would need to be compensated, arguing that those individuals should compensate other white citizens because the institution of slavery impoverished Southern states. McGhee notes that this legacy continues into the present day, with Southern states lagging behind their Northern counterparts in public infrastructure and economic mobility.

From here, McGhee explores the intersection of economic policy and racism through legislation like the 1862 Homestead Act—which granted expropriated Indigenous land to white Americans only, benefitting roughly 46 million descendants—and the federal government’s practice of insuring mortgages during the Great Depression, except in Black neighborhoods (a policy known as redlining). Black Americans were likewise left out of many of the progressive measures included in the New Deal, including minimum wage and overtime laws, the GI Bill that sent many white veterans to college, and labor laws that encouraged unions and collective bargaining. These measures created a large and stable middle class, and because most white people did not recognize their privilege, their “elevated status seemed natural and almost innate” (22). This sense of a natural hierarchy impeded the extension of public goods beyond white communities.

One of the clearest examples of this, McGhee writes, is found in the fight over desegregating public pools. In the 1950s a Black boy named Tommy Cummings drowned in a river in Baltimore because he and his friends were excluded from the city’s pools. He was one of seven Black children to die that summer; in response, the NAACP successfully sued the city, and public pools were officially opened to all children. In practice, white communities in Baltimore and elsewhere found ways to keep Black people out, including by draining pools. In subsequent decades the Supreme Court upheld this practice, arguing that there was equal harm because both white and Black residents suffered from the draining of pools.

McGhee notes that in the 21st century, racial resentment—which fosters a view that Black people are undeserving—has created a sense of resistance toward government spending. But to explain the genesis of this resentment, even as society in general has become more multicultural and tolerant, McGhee looks to the beginning of the era of rising inequality. Under the presidency of Ronald Reagan, Republicans promoted a narrative of the “undeserving poor” exploiting government programs like welfare, with the implicit messages that these people were Black (even though the majority of people who access these programs are white). This was then contrasted with an image of hardworking taxpayers, who were white. Ultimately, this messaging was a tool to create concentrations of wealth and power at the top, even though many voters, including white Americans, do not support this kind of concentration.

For generations, white Americans could expect public money to cover part or all the cost of their college education; the most notable example of this was the GI Bill, which covered tuition and living expenses for WWII veterans (although Black veterans were excluded). McGhee notes, “When the public meant ‘white,’ public colleges thrived” (42). Over subsequent decades, people of color came to make up a greater proportion of the student body; they now make up nearly half the total. At the same time, public investment in universities declined. As a result, university tuition has risen astronomically, and more young people are forced to borrow money to cover the cost of a college degree. Black families are most affected by this, but McGhee notes that more than half of white college graduates also have student debt. While many people support lowering or eliminating the cost of college, those who are most opposed are those who benefitted most from the period when college was inexpensive or free: “older, college-educated (white) Republicans” (44). While the decline in public funding for college stemmed from backlash to the civil rights movement (and resentment over demographic change, like the increase in Black college students), the people most affected by this policy change have been white.

From here, McGhee explores the reasons for the problems with the US health care system, which is more expensive per capita and as a country than other industrialized nation, with worse health outcomes. For an explanation, she looks to the divisions sown by racism: “healthcare works best as a collective endeavor, and that’s at the heart of why America’s system performs so poorly” (49). In the mid-20th century, powerful groups like the American Medical Association (which opposed public health care on the basis that it would undercut the profitability of the medical profession) used a combination of racist messaging and other tactics (like invoking the specter of communism to criticize public healthcare as socialist) to turn people against national health insurance. In the 21st century that racial resentment fueled opposition to the Affordable Care Act introduced under President Barack Obama; the fact that the act was introduced by a Black president hardened opposition to the legislation.

The opposition to the Affordable Care Act—which would have expanded access to Medicaid, a system that provides health insurance to those too poor to pay—has had consequences for rural hospitals. In Texas, which refused to expand Medicaid under the act, 26 rural hospitals have closed since 2010 because many people can’t afford to pay their bills. This forces hospitals to close, reducing access to health care, which affects both white and racialized citizens. In contrast, states that expanded Medicaid, like Arkansas, saw medical clinics open in poor communities, with positive outcomes for both patients and the communities.

In closing, McGhee notes that addressing the underfunding of postsecondary education and health care—and the real harm that comes as a result—requires directly acknowledging racism’s role in dividing communities and calling on people’s higher ideals and sense of the public good.