Hi everyone, my name is Emily Dukes, a first year student of CCGA. I am doing this podcast for my English Composition class, largely based on social justice issues. Welcome to my podcast on Race and Wealth! Today we’ll be analyzing The New York Times author Heather C. McGhee’s article titled “The Way Out of America’s Zero-Sum Thinking on Race and Wealth.”
The opening volley happens to be a photograph taken in 1937. The irony is not lost on you, that the happy white family in the background rides around in their fancy car. While in the foreground, the unhappy people of color are standing in line for something. Only to find out through personal research, that the photograph was actually taken during the Kentucky flood when the Ohio River overflowed its banks as well, leaving all local residents in need of relief supplies. The minorities standing in line for said relief supplies during this particular shot, happened to be in front of a wall mural depicting the white family.
McGhee’s main point of her opinion piece, indicates a progressive slant with little evidence to back up her views. The evidence that she does provide, unfortunately dates back many generations to the 1960’s. McGhee asserts many things: 1)“the basic aspects of a high-functioning society: well-funded schools, reliable infrastructure, wages that keep workers out of poverty, or a comprehensive public health system equipped to handle pandemics…” are nice things that all are entitled to (Par. 2); 2) that the Tea Party largely influenced the former Obama Administration to cut back on needed public Programs that resulted in a slow economic recovery (Par. 4); 3) and finally throughout the remainder of the article (but specifically in paragraphs 7 and 8) to imply that white Americans earned more money, had better schools and healthcare and therefore were not the group in need of continuation of such programs. Though claiming that they would still benefit from them (Par. 8).
McGhee assertions resulted from her eight years at a progressive policy research group called Demos. (Par. 3) Substantiating that her views and opinion are of a leftist slant. The information she provides here, being the most current, as it dates back to 2010. Interestingly enough, McGhee does reference former President Lyndon Johnson (Par. 12), but only to imply that “It’s also no accident that, to this day, no Democratic presidential candidate has won the white vote since the Democrat Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts”. Rather than possible other reasons that this truth may be the result. It is worth pointing out, though McGhee never does in this article, that Lyndon Johnson's “Great Society” that many of these public programs were created to help needy Americans of all color. That the white middle class worked to largely provide for their families without use of government assistance programs short of participation in Social Security.
McGhee references “O.E.C.D” (Par. 13) which I needed to look up, as I was not familiar with the term. Once understood, McGhee fails to convince here that legislatures can budget in things like “mandatory paid family leave or universal child care”, nor what, if anything, business owners are doing to address these benefits to their employees, as part of their employment package.
The most offensive proclamation comes in the subsequent paragraph (14) where she implies that “...it’s now clear that racial resentment is the key uncredited actor in our economic backslide.” Further alleging a Conservative bias of “makers and takers”, “taxpayers and freeloaders.” With further allegations of social divides and oppression in the next four paragraphs (Par. 14 - 18).
The article somewhat abruptly ends on a flat note, when McGhee pushes the solution of raising the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour as the cure all for our social division. As if through a sudden epiphany, a white woman named Bridget (Par. 19) finally understands how raising the minimum wage would be the end all solution to low income families. Further, that through an organization meeting, Bridget finally related to a Latino woman simply because she too was a mother of three.
In conclusion, I went into the reading with an open mind but was not persuaded by McGhee that 1) there is an actual racial injustice in that white America looks any differently toward their non white American counterparts; 2) that McGhee does not take into account any modern day supporting evidence regarding any possible budgetary restraints affecting public programs; and finally that 3) while raising minimum wage to $15.00 an hour sounds great in theory, how would such action adversely affect both small businesses and consumers at large?