Many Americans – particularly white Americans – have zero-sum ideas about race, or they believe that one group’s win must mean another group’s loss, author and public policy expert Heather McGhee says.
These ideas are “a framework that is relentlessly marketed to white people by people who have a political and economic profit to gain from that kind of thinking,” she told an audience Wednesday night in Jackson.
“It was originally sort of developed in order to justify enslavement. It was sold to the masses of Europeans who were here who were never going to be part of the colonial plantation class, who were never going to be the very wealthy,” she explained.
“And they were sold a racial bargain as a way to stop what at that point had become a rising movement of white-Black cross-race servant uprisings,” she explained.
Heather McGhee’s bestselling book, “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together,” was the topic of discussion at the Two Mississippi Museums, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi TodayDuring Operation Shoestring’s “Conversation About Community” event at the Two Mississippi Museums, McGhee said racist policies harm all of society, not just people of color.
McGhee discussed ideas found in her book, “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together,” based on her 2020 TED talk. She was joined by Robert Luckett, director of Jackson State University’s Margaret Walker Center.
In researching for her book, she found that racist politics and policy-making have prevented advancements in many areas, from education to labor unions.
One example she gave was the Oak Park swimming pool in Montgomery, Alabama. The Oak Park facility was one of thousands of public swimming pools constructed during the New Deal Era, but it shut down in the 1960s to avoid serving racially integrated crowds.
McGhee called it, “a perfect metaphor to describe what we had lost in our society” when the New Deal consensus on the government having an obligation to invest in public goods fell apart due to the backlash against racial integration.
Public policy expert and author Heather McGhee, left, and Margaret Walker Center Director Robert Luckett discuss McGhee’s best-selling book, “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together,” at the Two Mississippi Museums, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi TodayDespite challenges such as artificial intelligence and the movement opposing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, she remains optimistic about the power of people to create change.
“We have to be willing to stand up together with a shared sense of purpose and say, ‘We have to rewrite these rules together,’” McGhee said.
After a question-and-answer segment, audience members were encouraged to buy copies of McGhee’s book and could line up to have them signed.
The groups will finish the book by Dec. 11, then reunite at the Two Mississippi Museums again on Jan. 19, for the National Day of Racial Healing. That day, there will be a conversation with Gail Christopher, the holiday’s founder and McGhee’s mother.
Celess-Mari Johnson attended a discussion of Heather McGhee’s book, “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together,” at the Two Mississippi Museums, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi TodayCommunity advocate Celess-Mari Johnson drove three hours up from the Gulf Coast to hear McGhee speak. She was joined by a few college friends, and they plan to form their own reading group.
She has already begun reading her copy of McGhee’s book. “I think the title says it all,” Johnson said.
“There’s a cost at all levels for everybody involved, and not just one population, not just one generation,” she added.
Public policy expert and author Heather McGhee discusses her bestselling book, “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together,” at the Two Mississippi Museums, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi TodayPublic policy expert and author Heather McGhee and Margaret Walker Center Director Robert Luckett discuss McGhee’s bestselling book, “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together,” at the Two Mississippi Museums, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi TodayMargaret Walker Center Director Robert Luckett joins public policy expert and author Heather McGhee to discuss McGhee’s bestselling book, “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together,” at the Two Mississippi Museums, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi TodayPublic policy expert and author Heather McGhee, left, speaks with Jackson Mayor John Horhn shortly before McGhee discusses her bestselling book, “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together,” at the Two Mississippi Museums, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi TodayPublic policy expert and author Heather McGhee, left, and Margaret Walker Center Director Robert Luckett discuss McGhee’s bestselling book, “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together,” at the Two Mississippi Museums, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi TodayPublic policy expert and author Heather McGhee, right, signs copies of her book, “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together,” after she discussed the book at the Two Mississippi Museums, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi TodayHence then, the article about racist policies hold back all americans bestselling author heather mcghee says was published today ( ) and is available on Mississippi Today ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
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