‘Zero-sum lie’: In Kansas City panel discussion, group talks race and class divides
Racial and socioeconomic divides were the focus of a panel discussion organized Monday night by the Missouri Workers Center, a new group that aims to rally people behind a common cause of greater prosperity for the working class.
The group, a newly formed multiracial organization, kicked off its inaugural event, broadcast over Zoom and Facebook Live, in Westport Presbyterian Church by featuring Heather McGhee, a public speaker and author. Emceed by Rev. Rodney Williams, president of Kansas City’s NAACP, the discussion focused on forming workers unions, changing government policy and addressing inequities in Kansas City as well as the country at large.
Introducing the speakers, Williams challenged a “false narrative” that the American economy rewards only hard-working individuals and those in poverty are solely responsible for their own lot in life.
“The truth of the matter is this,” Williams said. “Poor people in the United States are poor because the wealth and the resources of our country have been flowing to a small number of people, and federal programs are not meeting the growing needs of all across this nation.”
Arguing against the “zero sum” theory that one person’s gains must come at another’s expense, McGhee, author of “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together,” drew on the findings she discovered through researching her book to describe why child care, health care and well-funded schools remain out of reach for many. At the core of the issue are the racist policies that have pitted people against one another along racial lines that have ultimately placed burdens on people of all backgrounds, she said.
“What I discovered is that in short, racism, in our politics and in our policymaking is why all of us can’t have ‘nice things’” like child care, McGhee said.
“We know that that zero sum lie is being sold for profit day in and day out by the political and economic leaders who are benefiting from the status quo,” she added.
Others speaking Monday night included leaders from the Missouri Workers Center Bridget Hughes and Terrence Wise.
Hughes, an organizer with Stand Up KC, which has sought higher wages for working Kansas Citians, described her own struggles working in the fast food industry while raising her children. Financial issues have forced her to make rationing choices with her medication. She was unable to take leave when her children were newly born. And like many, she said, she thought that she was getting what she deserved.
“I too was fed that lie that I didn’t work hard enough in school. I didn’t do well enough in my adult life to become successful,” she said. But when she started to see others struggling the same way, she eventually “realized that I’m not alone.”
“I am better than this. I am worth more,” she said.
Wise described being homeless and living in a minivan outside one of his jobs at one point in life. He said the “lie we’re telling each other” in this country is that if someone from one racial group or a different nation gets ahead, others will fall behind. And he said overcoming that mentality has been key toward recent advances in local labor movements.
“I know the power that we’ve shown when we’ve come together and organized and helped lift wages not only here, but across the country. And it’s what we’ve got to continue to do to build power,” Wise said.
