And you write that getting to some of the ideas that motivated this book came from your discovering the limits of research and facts. You'd talk to members of Congress and their staffs hoping to make change. And you write in the introduction that you were in love with the idea that information in the right hands was power. Then you went and got a law degree and came back to it. HEATHER MCGHEE: I'm so glad to be with you.ĭAVIES: You worked at the think tank Demos for a long time. Her new book is 'The Sum Of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone And How We Can Prosper Together.' She joins me from her home in Brooklyn, N.Y. She currently chairs the board of Color of Change, a nationwide online racial justice organization. She holds a BA in American Studies from Yale and a law degree from the University of California, Berkeley. Heather McGhee is the former president of the progressive think tank Demos, where she spent much of her career. When people unite across racial and ethnic lines, she argues, there's a solidarity dividend that helps everyone. Drawing on a wealth of economic data, she argues that when laws and practices have discriminated against African Americans, whites have also been harmed.

The heart of McGhee's case is that racism is harmful to everyone, and thus we all have an interest in fighting it. But it isn't just an argument that racial discrimination is morally wrong and unfair, even deadly to people of color. Our guest today, Heather McGhee, has a new book about the importance of recognizing and fighting racism in America. I'm Dave Davies in today for Terry Gross.

Mcghee the sum of us