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The closing afterword sums up the problem of this book pretty well. Written just after Biden won in 2020 but before we saw much of what his administration would look like, it is very hopeful about all of the progressive policies proposed in the original Build Back Better plan and Green New Deal. McGhee closes on what for her is the shocking progressiveness of Biden's first speech on race, and makes it clear that for her all of these happenings are an indication that we may just finally be turning the corner on race.

Of course in 2025 we know how that all turned out.

Biden couldn't even get all the Democrats on board for any of his progressive policies, and passed a hollowed out shell of what he was originally proposing. He presided over the ending of the Child Tax Credit, sending millions of kids back into poverty. He attempted the weakest version of student loan cancellation possible, just the right amount to make sure literally everyone is pissed off about it. We are now in the very early stages of the most overtly reactionary, racist regime since probably the end of Reconstruction. Biden himself, whose pretty words on equity McGhee "nearly dropped (her) glass" at, has always been one of the most notorious racists in the Democratic party, and a barely reformed segregationist (something even his vice president famously called out on a debate stage). He presided over an extremely racist genocide halfway around the globe, one which probably led directly to Trump's reelection.

So what went wrong in McGhee's analysis, that she could be so wrong about our prospects for improving as a society? Well basically it's the lack of Marxism... i.e. her liberalism. It's the ideology that continues to mistake lofty words for action; that continues to blame predominantly conservatives/Republicans for these unpopular policies; that continues to believe that if we can just have enough difficult conversations with enough people, eventually they'll see the light. It's the ideology that ignores any issues of capitalism and imperialism, except for the occasional mention (I counted maybe 10-12) of "greed," as if it's only certain capitalists that are the problem... the racist ones. It's the ideology that can ask "What is racism without greed?" (p.86) in an effort to show how racism always has financial benefit... yet never stops to examine the reverse question, if greed exists without racism, and if it does what are the implications for addressing it?

I wouldn't say there's a lot McGhee says here that is wrong per se, it's just that it's extremely limited, and not too original. A fairly significant portion of the book is her simply describing the arguments of a half dozen books that are all pretty well known and have already said versions of what she's saying. And her main solution to what ails us, basically a national Truth and Reconciliation Commission, is... well to be nice I'll just call it "utopian." In fact, I'm not recalling a specific mention of "capitalism" in the entire book, and if it's there it's in the single digits.

The crux of my problem with McGhee's approach is in her completely ineffective proposed solution. It's literally more likely that we have a Russian-style revolution than that we institute a meaningful (i.e. not just lofty liberal words) Truth & Reconciliation Commission. You simply can't get there without first addressing end-stage neoliberal capitalism.

That's not to say we shouldn't be working toward racial equality, because we obviously should. But it's not the primary contradiction, as McGhee seems to be arguing. White supremacy is probably the most useful tool of capital, so useful that it's inextricable to the U.S. variety. But because it's such a vital tool of capital the ruling class will never allow it to be resolved -- they'll sooner die.

So yes I guess I've become a "class-first" communist in my older age. I strongly disagree at the efficacy of investing our time/effort/energy into convincing white people that racism hurts them too. Maybe try changing their material conditions first, so that they no longer feel like they live in an environment of scarcity.