Awards

• Short-listed for National Book Awards (Nonfiction) 2021

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9780525509561

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Heather McGhee does not shy away from telling hard truths. Racism sits at the heart of America, and McGhee shows its effects on the very people who cleave to it. The Sum of Us removes the cloak from this land of so-called innocents and brilliantly offers a path forward for the nation. This book is for all of us standing in the breach, working toward social change. With care and unflinching honesty, McGhee has written an extraordinary book for these difficult days. --Eddie S. Glaude Jr., New York Times bestselling author of Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own The beauty and power of this book is blinding. Heather McGhee is one of our society's brightest minds and The Sum of Us serves as a torch that we must follow to get us to a better place. The impact of racism is all-encompassing, and this book doesn't just highlight that; it gives us a road map for the future. I am better because of this book. Our country will be better because of this book. --Wes Moore, New York Times bestselling author of Five Days and The Other Wes Moore The most consistent lie of racism is the lie that it benefits most white people. Just as Dr. King observed that poor white people had nothing to feed their children but Jim Crow, Heather McGhee brilliantly demonstrates in The Sum of Us that systemic racism hurts everybody. Which is why we have to link together across every dividing line to build a fusion coalition that can remake a nation that works for all of us. --Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, president of Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival No one writes about the intersection of race, class, and politics more brilliantly, honestly, and hopefully than Heather McGhee. The Sum of Us is a powerful and timely argument for the collective value of multiracial solidarity, told with a humanity and empathy that comes from McGhee's own journey to learn from people and places that show us what a more equal and just America might look like. --Jon Favreau, host of Pod Save America In this compelling book, Heather McGhee exposes the dangerous zero-sum fallacy that has led some white people to believe their well-being is threatened when Black people get ahead. With powerful illustrations drawn from various fields, McGhee shows that the truth is the opposite: Collaboration across races yields a Solidarity Dividend making us all better off. Critically important and relevant. --Robert B. Reich, former U.S. secretary of labor and author of The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It Drawing on her experience on the front lines of social policy, Heather McGhee marshals data, history, and the stories of everyday Americans to make the case that racism--and the false zero-sum hierarchy at its core--is responsible for our runaway inequality. The Sum of Us is a special, luminous book that points a clear path forward, toward a future that is less divided, richer, and more just. It is essential reading for leaders from every sector seeking a way to heal our country's divisions. --Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation

The Sum of Us is a powerhouse of a book about the deep, enduring, cross-cultural, multi-generational, and real-life cost of racist policy-making in the United States. With intelligence and care (as well as with a trove of sometimes heart-breaking and sometimes heart-opening true stories) Heather McGhee shows us what racism has cost all of us, as a society. And that cost has been brutally high, across the board. This is a book for every American, and I am grateful for McGhee's research, her humanity, and her never-more-important teachings. --Elizabeth Gilbert, #1 New York Times bestselling author 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 vital, urgent, stirring, beautifully written book . . . a compassionate road map out of our present troubled moment. --George Saunders, New York Times bestselling author of Lincoln in the Bardo Heather McGhee does not shy away from telling hard truths. Racism sits at the heart of America, and McGhee shows its effects on the very people who cleave to it. The Sum of Us removes the cloak from this land of so-called innocents and brilliantly offers a path forward for the nation. This book is for all of us standing in the breach, working toward social change. With care and unflinching honesty, McGhee has written an extraordinary book for these difficult days. --Eddie S. Glaude Jr., New York Times bestselling author of Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own What would it be like to live in an America where we embraced diversity as our superpower? Heather McGhee's The Sum of Us challenges readers to imagine a country where we are more than the sum of our disparate parts. Through the stories of fast food workers in Missouri, community organizers in Maine, and more, McGhee illustrates the power and necessity of multi-racial organizing. Hopeful, inspiring, and timely, The Sum of Us makes the case for the radical notion that 'we the people' means all of us. --Cecile Richards, co-founder, Supermajority, and former president, Planned Parenthood Heather McGhee is one of the wisest, most penetrating, most brilliant minds to set herself to the Big Problem of American democracy: how we share this country in a way that works for all of us. Reading it made me feel free, truly free, and ready to run and march and shout. I think it will do the same for you. --Chris Hayes, New York Times bestselling author and Emmy Award-winning news anchor

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 One of the most fascinating things about The Sum of Us is how it challenges the assumptions of both white antiracism activists and progressives who just want to talk about class. -The New York Times, The Book That Should Change How Progressives Talk About Race Required reading to move the country forward . . . Every so often a book comes along that seems perfectly timed to the moment and has the potential to radically shift our cultural conversation. [The Sum of Us] is one of those books. . . . It is a sometimes angry or frustrated book, rooted in McGhee's long career at Demos trying and mostly failing to secure legislation that would benefit the public. But in the end, it's a hopeful book because McGhee's vision is so clear and so convincing. -Chicago Tribune If everyone in America read this book, we'd be, not only a more just country, but a more powerful, successful, and loving one. A vital, urgent, stirring, beautifully written book that offers a compassionate roadmap out of our present troubled moment. -George Saunders, New York Times bestselling and Booker Prize winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo Supported by remarkable data-driven research and thoughtful interviews with those directly affected by these issues, McGhee paints a powerful picture of the societal shortfalls all around us. There is a greater, more just America available to us, and McGhee brings its potential to light. -BookPage [McGhee] takes readers on an intimate odyssey across our country's racial divide to explore why some believe that progress for some comes at the expense of others. Along the way, McGhee speaks with white people who confide in her about losing jobs, homes, and hope, and considers white supremacy's collateral victims. Ultimately, McGhee-a Black woman viewing multiracial America with startling empathy-finds proof of what she terms the Solidarity Dividend: the momentous benefits that derive when people come together across race. A powerful, singular, and prescriptive blend of the macro and the intimate. -O: The Oprah Magazine, 20 of the Best Books of February 2021 to Fall in Love With

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 One of the most fascinating things about The Sum of Us is how it challenges the assumptions of both white antiracism activists and progressives who just want to talk about class. --The New York Times, The Book That Should Change How Progressives Talk About Race Required reading to move the country forward . . . Every so often a book comes along that seems perfectly timed to the moment and has the potential to radically shift our cultural conversation. [The Sum of Us] is one of those books. . . . It is a sometimes angry or frustrated book, rooted in McGhee's long career at Demos trying and mostly failing to secure legislation that would benefit the public. But in the end, it's a hopeful book because McGhee's vision is so clear and so convincing. --Chicago Tribune If everyone in America read this book, we'd be, not only a more just country, but a more powerful, successful, and loving one. A vital, urgent, stirring, beautifully written book that offers a compassionate roadmap out of our present troubled moment. --George Saunders, New York Times bestselling and Booker Prize winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo Supported by remarkable data-driven research and thoughtful interviews with those directly affected by these issues, McGhee paints a powerful picture of the societal shortfalls all around us. There is a greater, more just America available to us, and McGhee brings its potential to light. --BookPage [McGhee] takes readers on an intimate odyssey across our country's racial divide to explore why some believe that progress for some comes at the expense of others. Along the way, McGhee speaks with white people who confide in her about losing jobs, homes, and hope, and considers white supremacy's collateral victims. Ultimately, McGhee--a Black woman viewing multiracial America with startling empathy--finds proof of what she terms the Solidarity Dividend: the momentous benefits that derive when people come together across race. A powerful, singular, and prescriptive blend of the macro and the intimate. --O: The Oprah Magazine, 20 of the Best Books of February 2021 to Fall in Love With

Author Information

Heather McGhee is an expert in economic and social policy. The former president of the inequality-focused think tank Demos, McGhee has drafted legislation, testified before Congress, and contributed regularly to news shows including NBC’s Meet the Press. She now chairs the board of Color of Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization. McGhee holds a BA in American studies from Yale University and a JD from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.

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