Racism has a cost for everyone

Racism has a cost for everyone by Heather C. McGhee.

About Heather C. McGhee

Heather is an American political commentator political strategist, currently a distinguished senior fellow and former president of Demos, a non-profit progressive U.S. think tank. McGhee is a regular contributor to NBC News and frequently appears as a guest and panellist on Meet the Press, All In with Chris Hayes, and Real Time with Bill Maher.

After graduating from Yale, she taught English in Barcelona for a short time, but soon after the September 11 attacks, she moved to Hollywood to pursue a career in television writing. After about a year, she moved to New York City and began working with the non-profit think tank, Demos.

In 2003, McGhee connected with Elizabeth Warren and her daughter, Amelia Warren Tyagi, on the topic of credit card debt. She served as a Deputy Policy Director for the John Edwards 2008 presidential campaign.

McGhee returned to Demos in 2009 and co-chaired a task force with Americans for Financial Reform which helped develop the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2009. McGhee became the president of Demos in 2014.

McGhee’s response to a man named Garry on C-SPAN who said he was afraid of black men was widely covered by the news and shared over a million times. A year later, Garry stated he had taken her advice to heart and his views had changed.

In early 2018, she stepped down as president but remained a distinguished senior fellow at Demos.

McGhee has appeared on episodes of Pod Save America and was a guest host for a live recording of the podcast in Boston. Her ‘Racism has a cost for everyone’ Ted talk video explains how racism makes our economy worse.