RACIAL JUSTICE READING GROUP

Roots of Resilience and Finnriver invite community members interested in racial justice learning and community engagement to join us for a monthly reading group to develop our liberatory consciousness* and move forward into greater awareness, analysis, action and accountability for social justice.

The next reading selection will be "The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We can Prosper Together" by Heather McGhee. The ten chapters of the book will be divided into 5 segments, discussed monthly on the third Thursdays, from May through September. The April session will be a general connection and greeting time as we shift into this new book.

We meet on the Third Thursdays from 5:30-7pm at Finnriver in Chimacum on the following dates:
April 20
May 18
June 15
July 20
August 17
September 21

We suggest donations for the series are sent to the Jefferson County Anti-Racist Fund or the Longhouse for the People project. Sign up in advance by emailing and we will get you more information and ways to access the book. Jefferson County Library has e-book, audio and print copies available, as well as support services to facilitate access.

Email us at: crystie@rootsproject.com to sign up!

You can access the local Library catalog links for the book here:

Log in here to reserve e-books and e-audiobooks: https://anytime.overdrive.com/anytime-jeffersoncounty/content

View availability of the print version and place a request for it here: https://tinyurl.com/239uew3c

Jefferson County Library is in reciprocal relationships with King County, North Olympic and Kitsap library systems. You can take your Jefferson County library card there and receive a card providing access to materials at those libraries. People can place suspended holds as well for future book needs. People are always welcome to come to or phone the library/bookmobile for more help with placing holds and downloading e-versions.

This reading group will be organically facilitated by Crystie Kisler and guest facilitators, with group agreements, open conversation and exploration of social justice practices. Participants are encouraged to bring questions, highlighted passages and a willingness to listen, learn and engage.

About the book, The Sum of Us, and the author:

"Heather McGhee’s specialty is the American economy—and the mystery of why it so often fails the American public. From the financial crisis to rising student debt to collapsing public infrastructure, she found a common root problem: racism. But not just in the most obvious indignities for people of color. Racism has costs for white people, too. It is the common denominator of our most vexing public problems, the core dysfunction of our democracy and constitutive of the spiritual and moral crises that grip us all. But how did this happen? And is there a way out?

McGhee embarks on a deeply personal journey across the country from Mississippi to California to Maine, tallying what we lose when we buy into the zero-sum paradigm—the idea that progress for some of us must come at the expense of others. Along the way, she meets white people who confide in her about losing their homes, their dreams, and their shot at better jobs to the toxic mix of American racism and greed. This is the story of how public goods in this country—from parks and pools to functioning schools—have become private luxuries; of how unions collapsed, wages stagnated, and inequality increased; and of how this country, unique among the world’s advanced economies, has thwarted universal healthcare.

But in unlikely places of worship and work, McGhee finds proof of what she calls the Solidarity Dividend: gains that come when people come together across race, to accomplish what we simply can’t do on our own.

The Sum of Us is a brilliant analysis of how we arrived here: divided and self-destructing, materially rich but spiritually starved and vastly unequal. McGhee marshals economic and sociological research to paint an irrefutable story of racism’s costs, but at the heart of the book are the humble stories of people yearning to be part of a better America, including white supremacy’s collateral victims: white people themselves. With startling empathy, this heartfelt message from a Black woman to a multiracial America leaves us with a new vision for a future in which we finally realize that life can be more than zero-sum."

Learn more about the author at: https://heathermcghee.com/