Summary: Chapters 7–8

Chapter 7

McGhee recalls microaggressions she experienced growing up and environments in which she was the only POC. She has often navigated overwhelmingly white worlds and realizes that “White people are the most segregated people in America.” Most white people live in neighborhoods that are 75% white, and even though they say they would prefer to know diverse people, McGhee says they are hindered by the belief that any neighborhood with many POC is “bad.” This began because of redlining and other processes by which the government separated Americans. Even after the Supreme Court made it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, the government discriminated in giving loans to POC to buy homes. But houses in white neighborhoods with “good” schools are more expensive.

McGhee’s great-grandmother Flossie bought a house with a high-interest contract and was somehow able to make all the payments. Chicago is one of the most segregated cities in America, and the author asked her grandparents about growing up there. Her grandmother said that Black people were happy for one another’s successes because they knew how hard they had worked. They were a thick community. The author believes that, “[Though] segregation is aimed at limiting choices for People of Color, it’s white people who are ultimately isolated.” Most white people don’t know any POC well, she says.

McGhee explains that segregation exists because many POC can’t afford to buy homes in white neighborhoods, but if white people buy in historically Black neighborhoods, it leads to gentrification, displacing Black people. “The solution is more housing . . . people can afford on the . . . incomes of workers of color,” she says. But this gets in the way of profit.

“Good schools” are considered by many people to be mostly white schools, McGhee writes. But all schools should be good schools, she argues. Moreover, the budgets of all schools are being depleted because a disproportionate number of white parents send their children to private schools. People don’t recognize that there is a benefit to attending an integrated school, where they can learn to work with a group of people that resembles America. There is a solidarity dividend to integration.

Ali Takata, a half-Japanese, half-white woman who lives in Texas, initially sent her children to the “good,” mostly white school. She liked it at first and made friends there. However, she felt awkward because there were few POC. She felt there was too much “helicoptering” and actions she saw as expressions of white privilege. She took her children out of the school and put them in a more integrated school. She says it “has been an eye-opening experience for [her children].” They learned more about the real world where not everyone is rich. Other parents have also found that their children can get a good education in a school that isn’t considered “good.”

Chapter 8

This chapter examines how Americans have ignored climate change. The United States should be leading the way in fighting it, McGhee writes, but it isn’t, because of partisan politics.

In 2019, Oregon State Senate president Peter Courtney (born 1943) called a session to order and found that all the Republican members had refused to come to work so that the Democratic majority would not have a quorum to vote on a measure to combat climate change. When he tried to send out the state’s sheriffs to find them, a Republican state senator said he would kill the police if that happened. The measure got tabled, and even a compromise measure did. This reminds the author of the “drained public pool.” While this wouldn’t seem to be about race, it has become a partisan issue, with mostly white men taking the side of climate change denial. POC are more likely to view climate change as a major concern, McGhee says. Polls showed that division on this issue became sharper when Barack Obama made it a priority. White respondents saw it as a Black man hurting white jobs.

The author can recall many times when white politicians had stated that some social good was “bad for the economy.” She realized that, in this case, they were talking about the economy for people like themselves. Protecting the economy helped them to assure themselves that they weren’t being racist, she says. Kirsti M. Jylhä, a Finnish researcher, believes that some Americans see the world as being more competitive and believe that those in a lower position have done something to deserve it. They aren’t afraid of climate change because they believe it won’t affect them, because they have managed to avoid having bad things happen to them. She says, “There is . . . unconscious risk calculation going on here . . . Should we really do all these changes?” She argues that white men don’t think they will suffer and prefer the status quo. Jylhä recalls coming to New York and realizing that she was white when she saw the diversity there. She describes living in Sweden, where there is little or no homelessness. She believes people are more inclined to ignore human suffering in the United States because “If you’re in a society where you’ve already let someone [be homeless], what does it matter if they drown?” White Americans largely believe that the risks of climate change will fall on others, McGhee says. But, of course, white people are at risk.

McGhee explains that many try to contain environmental risk to other communities that they term “sacrifice zones.” These have been historically neighborhoods of color. Looking at the distance between neighborhoods of color and toxin-causing incinerators shows environmental racism. This is also true of landfills, which are placed in less-affluent neighborhoods so rich people don’t have to look at their garbage. But POC don’t choose to live in sacrifice zones, the author notes. Rather, that was the only place they were able to live, either due to restrictions or due to being priced out of other places.

Torm Nompraseurt, a Laotian refugee who works for the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, lived in a Richmond, California, neighborhood, North Richmond, abutting a Chevron refinery. It was heavily polluted, and the people who lived there had many health problems from it. They also constantly worried about a “bad day” when the plant would spew more chemicals than usual and they would have to lock themselves inside with a towel under the door. However, the affluent white neighborhood nearby, Point Richmond, is only slightly less polluted than Torm’s neighborhood. The wind usually blows toward North Richmond, but occasionally, the wind would blow their way, and there was always some pollution. The white people are still losing from pollution, just not quite as much.

McGhee uses this story to illustrate that if people feel that others, to whom they don’t feel connected, will be burdened, they won’t want to do anything about it. This kind of thinking keeps pollution higher for everyone.

The neighborhoods took on Chevron. They recruited candidates who would knock on doors and tell the truth about the real risk to everyone. A white woman, Gayle McLaughlin, who is a member of the Green Party, got elected to a city council position and then mayor. Suddenly, the city started taking a harder look at permit applications that might harm the environment. The city installed solar power. This was accomplished by working together. “The type of multiracial coalition that [loosened] Chevron’s grip on Richmond [is assembling] across the nation,” McGhee writes.  

Stories like this are happening nationwide. These groups might not have been powerful enough to take on white identity politics, McGhee says, but they are becoming stronger due to their shared vision.

Analysis: Chapters 7–8

Kirsti M. Jylhä is from a country where there is more government benefit to people and less poverty and homelessness. However, just about everyone there is white. It may be that, without diversity, people are less likely to write off other people as “other” or not like themselves. They do not have to see the world as a zero-sum game because there are no clear groups to see as potential winners and losers.

The main idea of a solidarity dividend is clear in this chapter, as the author discusses integrated schools. Studies have shown that it is beneficial for white students to attend diverse schools. Once the study controlled for socioeconomic status, it found that white students’ test scores were not lower based upon whether they attended a predominately white school or a diverse one. Moreover, students who attend diverse schools are more empathetic and understanding of differences and, therefore, more able to work in a diverse workplace, a key to success.

The author again uses the symbol of the “drained public pool” as a metaphor for doing things that hurt everyone to avoid benefitting the minority group. Here, the Oregon politicians were willing to destroy their environment in order to avoid helping Democrats, whom they saw as representing minorities. However, in her later statements, she sees hope in the younger people, who are forming multiracial coalitions for change.