An Examination of Drained-Pool Politics, the zero-sum mindset, and the cost of racial Exclusion
By Mariam Diallo
If I told you why the United States does not have affordable healthcare, housing, and education- would you believe me? To some people, it may come as no surprise, and others might call it “socialist propaganda” as a result of American exceptionalism and indoctrination.
To sum it up, America has such a disregard for African Americans that they would rather collectively suffer than acknowledge our country’s discriminatory institutions. You might be wondering: what is this teenage girl talking about, and what does racism have to do with affordable healthcare, housing, and education? Racism is why we don’t have societal opportunities and goods. It has cost our country billions of dollars and the livelihood of the majority of American citizens. To understand this, we must examine drained-pool politics, a term coined by economist Heather McGhee.
To sum it up, America has such a disregard for African Americans that they would rather collectively suffer than acknowledge our country’s discriminatory institutions. You might be wondering: what is this teenage girl talking about, and what does racism have to do with affordable healthcare, housing, and education? Racism is why we don’t have societal opportunities and goods. It has cost our country billions of dollars and the livelihood of the majority of American citizens. To understand this, we must examine drained-pool politics, a term coined by economist Heather McGhee.
Later, in the 1960s, when the Civil Rights Movement mobilized, which led to desegregation and the enactment of The Civil Rights Act of 1965, public pools were now open to African-Americans. However, Americans did not want to share their commodities with African Americans, so instead of integrating, many cities across the country drained their pools instead. Author Heather McGhee coined drained-pool politics because of this. Americans would rather lose out on a public good than integrate and allow Black people to enjoy the same commodities that they are allowed. For example, in Montgomery, Alabama, not only did they drain their pool and fill it with dirt, but they also closed down their entire parks recreation department, and zoo because of their disdain for integration. It was not until the 1970s that the citizens of Montgomery, Alabama, could enjoy public goods again.
For example in Heather McGhee’s novel, The Sum of Us, she wrote “ Over the next decade, millions of white Americans who once swam in public for free began to pay rather than swim for free with Black people; desegregation in the mid-fifties coincided with a surge in backyard pools and members-only swim clubs. In Washington, D.C., for example, 125 new private swim clubs were opened in less than a decade following pool desegregation in 1953. The classless utopia faded, replaced by clubs with two-hundred-dollar membership fees and annual dues. A once-public resource became a luxury amenity, and entire communities lost out on the benefits of public life and civic engagement once understood to be the key to making American democracy real.” (McGhee) This all boils down to a concept that has plagued American society– the zero-sum mindset.
Public goods became a private luxury and racial exclusion cost white middle-class Americans economic guarantees. Once the Civil Rights Act of 1965 expressed support to cater to and include Black Americans, support among White Americans became limited. Their hatred for Black Americans was so imminent that White middle-class Americans began to vote against their best interests because of racial inclusion. They stopped supporting policies such as minimum incomes because Black Americans would also benefit from this.
The zero-sum mindset believes that if I have to suffer, then everyone else has to, and has cost the progression of American society.
Drained-pool politics began to trickle down into our education and healthcare system. Until the 1960s, higher education was free, with students only paying for books, room, and board. Back then, higher education was considered a public good, so taxpayer dollars and federal funding covered the tuition costs for universities. Coincidentally, it was not until the 1960s that schools began to implement school fees.
The zero-sum narrative has taken over American society, convincing many White Americans to believe that they should oppose the establishment of public goods because these benefits might go to others whom they deem undeserving. In turn, this perspective has fostered an us vs. them mentality, which is a significant force in the rise of fascism.
Sources:
Demby, Gene. “Who Gets to Hang out at the Pool?” NPR, NPR, 9 June 2015, www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/06/09/412913702/who-gets-to-hang-out-at-the-pool.
Illing, Sean. “The Racial Hoodwink.” Vox, 16 Mar. 2021, www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22301484/america-racism-the-sum-of-us-heather-mcghee.
McGhee, Heather. “Public Pools Used to Be Everywhere in America. Then Racism Shut Them Down.” Marketplace, 17 Feb. 2021, www.marketplace.org/2021/02/15/public-pools-used-to-be-everywhere-in-america-then-racism-shut-them-down/.
McGhee, Heather. The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together. One World, 2022.