# Heather please convince me we are good people Date: 2022-12-11 --- --- ### Heather please convince me we are good people So I’m reading Heather McGhee’s [The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together](https://a.co/d/ebokS10) and it’s an amazing book that everyone should get access too immediately. Heather’s theory is that most of American politics is based on racism (and misogyny) and racism (and misogyny) is based on a belief that “that progress for some comes at the expense of others”. The book really got me thinking and so I wrote [a piece](https://medium.com/@disrael/the-dark-triad-traits-problem-2fd951ae98d9) on the difficulty of breaking out of us versus them thinking which concludes that it’s very difficult. Then I wondered, well Heather and I are not racists or misogynists (Heather is absolutely not and I am at least relatively not), but are we actually less “progress for some comes at the expense of others” than anyone else? I wondered if I looked Heather up would she be the product of elite universities and gorgeous? ![Graduated Yale (BA) and Berkeley (JD)](https://disrael.github.io/blogs/assets/heather-please-convince-me-we-are-good-people-3a09ed0750.jpeg) *Graduated Yale (BA) and Berkeley (JD)* Hmm and isn’t academic prowess and stunning looks potentially just as much or more a zero sum advantage as race and gender? I’m trying to convince myself that race and gender are more invidious classifications then academic accomplishments and beauty. Certainly I believe race and gender classification is worse but how much worse? Can the lack of diversity resulting from granting all power on academic accomplishment have appalling results also? Yes exhibit A, nuclear weapons, inspired by people like Einstein. Exhibit B, the COVID pandemic, now suspected of being [the result](https://www.help.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/report_an_analysis_of_the_origins_of_covid-19_102722.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2D3-JDmQ2dn2h2lSYelhVqWIbg5w0Tbqb1rk0L1SrfJWAZCI9s--QYgts) of gain of function research (inspired by researchers from my alma mater UNC-CH no less). As for beauty well you have to go back to Truman to find an [American president of average height](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heights_of_presidents_and_presidential_candidates_of_the_United_States) (okay Carter was half an inch above average at 5' 9 1/2 but then he lost to an over six foot actor who was formerly governor of California — and not even the only actor turned governor of California as if that was some obvious career path). And how many of us have suffered from vapid bosses whose main qualification seems to be their height or looks? What’s more racial division has a [potential cure](https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/06/06/the-rise-of-multiracial-and-multiethnic-babies-in-the-u-s/) (my children are participants and I hope that my grandchildren can have more than two races — *but does that make me more anti-racist or just racist?*): > One-in-seven U.S. infants (14%) were multiracial or multiethnic in 2015, nearly triple the share in 1980, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data. Whereas no amount of education seems to be closing the gaps that us versus them academic accomplishment has opened. In short are we asking everyone to put away their knives despite holstering a firearm? As McGhee’s book explains racism hurts the afflicted races more but ends up hurting everyone. There is a natural limit to a weapon that pokes everyone else in both eyes but the wielder in only one. Academic prowess and looks do not seem to be similarly limited — assuming some good looking, ivy league graduate, president does not use or fund new WMDs. Our children can live right on the edge or over the edge of abusive levels of daily study without much uproar. Our young adults can participate in highly toxic dating markets without any ban on swiping on pictures. In short racism (and misogyny) are symptoms not root causes. The root problem is a system that pits everyone against each other and our willingness to use every weapon at our disposal. Heather McGhee is the former president of a think tank called [Demos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demos_%28U.S._think_tank%29). Heather left and was replaced by [K. Sabeel Rahman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K._Sabeel_Rahman). ![Harvard (BA, JD)](https://disrael.github.io/blogs/assets/heather-please-convince-me-we-are-good-people-145258dd1f.jpeg) *Harvard (BA, JD)* Then at some point Taifa Smith Butler became president — masters from Carnegie Mellon University. So I can hear you saying, “Hey don’t worry about using academia as an us versus them weapon — anyone can work hard and succeed in academia.” (As opposed to changing your race or gender.) No actually statistically that’s not true. No matter how hard people work most schools are set up to sort them relatively — not absolutely. Yes a single person can work hard and change his position on the bell curve but everyone working harder just makes everyone’s life unbearable without affecting the ratios of us versus them grades and test scores. That is to say schools are deliberately weaponized. Now I can hear you saying, “Well at least someone who studies harder is actually more qualified.” (As opposed to race or gender making you better at your job.) No again apparently not. Diversity studies that track hiring less prestigious candidates don’t find any difference in outcomes and there are also plenty of other studies showing that academic credentials are mostly just signalling a willingness to slave long hours. Maybe at some point in the past education level would make a difference but that was before levels of education rose so dramatically. In South Korea Ph.Ds are frequently unemployed. At some point in the distant past facial symmetry or height really said something important about your genes or how you were raised but I suspect its relevance is also long over. It is true that “progress for some comes at the expense of others” is backward thinking but respect for some comes at the expense of others might not be.