History 128
Channon Miller
05/13/2022
The Ripple Effect of Racism
When any one of us is held down, we’re all held back. This is what Heather McGhee’s book, The Sum of Us portrays through different racial stories and themes. During a Black History Month event on Monday, February 7, 2022, a lecture series titled, The Sum of Us: an evening with Heather McGhee took place over zoom, sponsored by the San Diego Public Library and the San Diego Copley Library. McGhee discussed how racism does not just hurt the party being opposed, in this case, people of color. But everyone it touches. She also goes in-depth on how her book was written, the themes in her book, and how the zero-sum idea has affected Americans since the beginning of racism. Heather McGhee is currently on the board of chairs of Color of Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization. She holds a BA in American Studies from Yale University and a JD from the University of California Berkeley, School of law. McGhee specializes in the American economy and why it fails the American public. While thinking to herself, “Why does the American Economy Fail Us?” She then realized the problem may not be within the economy but in Congress. This thought motivated her to travel the country and research her book.
McGhee’s research for her book led her to discover that in today’s and history’s societies, racism shows how the progress of one group comes from the hurting of another group. This theory is called “the zero-sum.” This came to McGhee when she asked herself, “Why can’t we have nice things?” The “Zero Sum” idea reveals how racism is a ripple effect and that whites see racism as a zero-sum gain. Meaning, white people think if people of color get more success, it is at the expense of white people. “If I get one point, you get one point taken away.” This was demonstrated in the 1930’s and ’40s during the new deal era, in public colleges in the 20th century, and during the financial crisis of 2007-2008. This was seen in the government when Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton were in office. Paired with McGhee’s ideas, these ideas offer the audience a new way of looking at America’s past and present. Her goal is not to show her anger and frustration toward white people but to show how racism is wrong and hurts everyone. McGhee wants to discuss the ramifications of racism and the ripple effect it has on society as a whole. She wants to show how it is better to interact with people who are not like yourself and how as Americans, we need to link together rather than push each other apart.
During the lecture series event, McGhee uses the example of Montgomery, Alabama, during the New Deal Era. This era was sparked from the Great Depression and the Government wanting the American public, white people, to have a decent way of living. During this era, public goods were built, including pools, libraries, schools, and parks. These public goods, however, were almost unattainable for people of color. These services were funded from tax dollars which were paid by all Americans, not just whites. When the civil rights movement started during the 1950s and 60s, African Americans questioned why they did not have access to these “public” goods. When African Americans started fighting for the right to these public goods, the white community fled instead of sharing. In Montgomery, Alabama, there used to be a public swimming pool at Oak Park. African Americans started coming to this pool, and on January 1, 1959, not only was the park closed, but the entire recreational district closed in the city. The white community could not handle sharing what they had, so they shut it down. The city then blamed the closing of the parks on the black community, enraging the white citizens. This is an example of how the government has brainwashed the white society into thinking they are better than African Americans and not to share what they have. But, it proves how racism causes a ripple effect of losses. Not only did African Americans end up not being able to have access to the pool, but the entire community of Montgomery, Alabama, lost their complete recreational services. This is a prime example of the question, “Why can’t we have nice things?”
Racism has not just taken away public goods but has taken away free education and caused a financial crisis for all Americans that can still be felt today. At the time of free public college during the 20th century, 90% of the students were white. When African Americans and immigrants wanted to get an education at the college level, the government decided they did not want to give free education to immigrants and African Americans. Instead of sharing free college between whites, immigrants, and people of color, the government made everyone pay. This is a form of zero-sum. The white people would rather have everyone pay for college than have everyone have access to the benefits of free education. White people believed if black people benefited in society, then they would lose. This zero-sum racism did not stop at colleges and education but continued to affect people financially across the United States.
At the end of the Great Depression, the Roosevelt administration created many new government organizations to raise the housing market. The administration wanted white, working-class people to be able to be in homes. The organizations worked together to ensure new and old neighborhoods were racially segregated. According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), one of the requirements for the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) was, “the purchasers were not [allowed to be] African American.” Even if they had good credit and qualified for a loan, another requirement was white purchasers were not allowed to move into an African American neighborhood, further separating the black and white community. The federal government set up these organizations to create segregation in metropolitan areas across the nation. The white people in power -scared of African Americans gaining too much footing- helped the white working-class community, hoping to maintain their position of power. The people in power put significant separation between people based on their race. This separation caused racism and segregation to grow. This goes back to the zero-sum idea. If black Americans benefit from living in areas where white people are then the racist people in power will eventually be voted out.
The financial crisis struggle can also be seen in the text Freedom on my Mind, when African Americans struggled to fight for jobs and wanted to live in a more diverse area. According to the text, during the ’60s and’ 70s the black unemployment rate “was at the recession level of 10.2% compared to the white rate of 4.9%.” (Freedom on My MindChapter 15 pg. 594) During this time African Americans were making 55% of what white people were making. The employed African Americans were working in greater numbers and longer hours than whites who were making the same. This led to African Americans migrating out of the South and heading to more northwestern cities, searching for more secure, higher-paying, and non-factory-oriented jobs. The first wave of African Americans who arrived in these cities found work, education, and quality of life to be better than in the cities they left behind. However, these cities were starting to decline because the companies had decided to move. The whites, seeing African Americans coming to these cities, moved with these companies from the help of government loans that were not given to people of color. This is called the white flight, and it left these cities just as separated and unequal as the cities in the South. These areas started to decline even more and became areas of “urban decay.” ( Freedom on My Mind Chapter 15 pg. 595) With white Americans leaving these cities it caused a higher concentration of black poverty. When poverty and unemployment increased, so did crime and drug use. These cities were caught in a downward spiral of poverty. However, when Bill Clinton was elected as president, there was hope. Clinton “lent his support to health and education systems, increased minimum wage, and [helped] all working blacks.” (Freedom of My Mind Chapter 16 pg. 643) But, because of fear of the conservatives, he did not narrow the gap between the black lower and middle class. Again, this shows how white, conservative, upper-class Americans were scared of bridging the gap between the poor and the rich. They believed benefiting the poor will end up hurting them. This is still relevant in today’s government, companies, and policies.
The zero-sum ideal is not to expose white racists, although racism is terribly wrong, but to show how racism has a ripple effect of hurting everyone it touches. Racism is a one-way track of ruining society and separating the gap between the rich and poor for all races. McGhee’s goal of the zero-sum is to show how working together and connecting our differences will, in time, benefit society, and the question of, “Why can’t we have nice things?” will ultimately disappear when we learn everyone can have nice things and everyone will benefit.
Bibliography
McGhee, H. (2022, February 28). The sum of us: An evening with Heather McGhee. The Sum of Us: an evening with Heather McGhee | San Diego Public Library. Retrieved May 10, 2022, from https://sandiego.librarymarket.com/HeatherMcGhee
Press, D., Press, D., Murray, I., 08/04/2021, Young, R., 06/15/2021, Zinberg, J., & 05/12/2021. (2018, November 9). The financial crisis 10 years later: A legacy of Racist Government Housing Policy. Competitive Enterprise Institute. Retrieved May 10, 2022, from: https://cei.org/blog/the-financial-crisis-10-years-later-a-legacy-of-racist-government-housing-policy/
White, D. G., Bay, M., & Martin, W. E. (2021). Freedom on my Mind: A history of African Americans, with documents. Bedford/St. Martins.