This Is Us

So a few years ago (2021)  I saw an interview with Heather McGhee who had just released her book “The Sum of Us.”

In the interview, Ms. McGhee recounts two stories that are indicative of how she she says racism impacts all Americans negatively.

The first story is about swimming pools after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Long story short, after the passage of the Act, many communities (Montgomery County, MD I’m looking at you.) decided to close public pools instead of integrating them. (As an aside, I feel like as an urban planner, this is something I’ve known for decades just through osmosis).

The second story is union support. According to Ms. McGhee, whites are sometimes reluctant to vote for unionization because their was this perception that anything that benefitted African Americans somehow was seen as a loss for whites.

In my mind, this isn’t a new thought, this isn’t a new phenomenon. This is simply an old thought in the United States. In essence, this is us, this is who we are. And I’ve accepted it.