Too Many Americans See Economics as a Racial Zero-Sum Game

Right now I’m reading “The Sum of Us” by Heather McGhee. It’s a great book and McGhee gives clear but engaging examples of how racialized zero sum thinking has manifested itself throughout American history.

There’s a huge elephant in the room when talking about race or racism in America. We avoid it, but regardless of race, class, gender, political ideology, religion, citizenship status, etc., millions and millions of Americans believe in one incredibly powerful logical fallacy: that minority progress, particularly the progress of black people, is, by definition, achieved by taking things from white people.

We compartmentalize it differently, we reconcile it differently, we think it applies to varying degrees, we address or dismiss it differently, but it’s there. That base assumption is central to a vast variety of discourse — ”blacks are lazy,” “Mexicans take our jobs,” arguments against affirmative action, what people think of when they hear words such as “diversity,” which immigrants we demonize, etc.

That is the foundation we stand on anytime race and politics inhabit the same conversation. And to paraphrase James Baldwin, the longer you avoid talking about a thing, the sooner it becomes the only thing you talk about, even when you think you are talking about something else.