A  Family Action Network (FAN) virtual event featuring Heather McGhee and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren.

“Why can’t we have nice things?” This is the question that Heather McGhee asks at the outset of her groundbreaking book, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together. A majority of Americans agree on some of the most important issues facing the country today. According to a Harvard survey, at least 85% of Americans believe that affordable healthcare, quality education, a job, and a healthy environment are essential rights. Then why, with so much in common, do Americans fail to band together in pursuit of their shared goals?

McGhee argues that it is the self-destructive bargain of white supremacy. She posits that White America has come to believe in a zero-sum paradigm —the idea that progress for some of us must come at the expense of others. This dynamic is at the core of the polarization, dysfunction, and moral crisis gripping our country.

In The Sum of Us, McGhee embarks on a journey across the country, tallying up what we lose when we buy into the zero-sum paradigm. Along the way, she collects the stories of white people who confide in her about losing their homes, their dreams and their shot at a better job to the toxic mix of American racism and greed. The Sum of Us is an examination of how racism has weakened the institutions that should improve the quality of life for all Americans, and it provides a hopeful path forward by showing that we can indeed have nice things when we work together.

Ms. McGhee will be interviewed by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

Heather McGhee is Board chair of Color of Change, the nation’s largest online justice organization and author of The Sum of Us. She is also the former president of the non-partisan think tank, Demos.

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren is the U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, re-elected to a second term in  2018.

In addition to the speakers, FAN is giving away 500 hundred copies of The Sum of Us to attendees randomly selected from the Zoom attendance report.