The LOOP's 21 Day Equity Challenge Checkup and Intro to Zero-Sum

21-Day Challenge Checkup

The LOOP shared a 21-day Challenge a year ago, a concept created by The America & Moore consulting firm, to invite you to see health equity as the larger social justice solution, to help us recognize our own biases, and to challenge how various policies may have unintended consequences for people of color and other vulnerable populations. The LOOP is inviting you to check in, a year later, to continue our collective work towards breaking long-standing habits that influence our mindset, behaviors, and environment, as well as our responses to others around us.

The term “zero-sum thinking” is derived from game theory, where one person's gain would be another's loss. Joanna Rozycka-Tran et al. (2015) defined zero-sum thinking as:


“A general belief system about the antagonistic nature of social relations, shared by people in a society or culture and based on the implicit assumption that a finite amount of goods exists in the world, in which one person's winning makes others the losers, and vice versa ... a relatively permanent and general conviction that social relations are like a zero-sum game. People who share this conviction believe that success, especially economic success, is possible only at the expense of other people's failures.”

Zero-sum thinking creates a perception that there is limited good, that the slice of pie you take for yourself means that someone else gets less pie. This way of thinking is a critical limiting mentality that is at the center of struggles for achieving and securing a more equitable and just future for all.

Today, we can see examples of zero-sum thinking everywhere – such as, debates over expanding health care coverage, conflicts over how we teach history in our children’s schools, struggles over how we represent history in public spaces, the battle over voting rights for all versus voter suppression, and debates over taxation and the distribution of public benefits – all of which suggest that this zero-sum thinking is something deeply embedded in our culture and politics. Unfortunately, there are many who exploit “zero-sum” to leverage their political and policy gains.

Understanding how “zero-sum thinking” shapes debates about public goods and benefits can help prepare those working in commercial tobacco control to both recognize and counter zero-sum dynamics when encountered in the field. How do we counter this way of thinking?

In her book, “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together, Heather McGhee finds proof of what she calls the Solidarity Dividend: gains that come when people come together across race, to accomplish what we simply cannot do separately on our own. Furthermore, Ms. McGhee addresses the questions, do we gain when others lose? And what do we lose when we all benefit?

Join us over the next 5 days as we further explore “zero-sum thinking” and the “solidarity dividend” through readings, audio, reflection, and discussion.


Challenge Checkup: The 5-Day Reading & Reflection Plan - Join Us on This Journey!


DAY 1:

Theme: "Introducing Zero-Sum"

Reflect: Where are you in your thinking now?

Read: “A ‘Community for All’? Not So Fast, This Wisconsin County Says.”

Listen: Michael Moore interviews Heather McGhee, author of “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together”



DAY 2:


Theme: "Zero-Sum Hurts Everyone"

Reflect: Can seeing how zero-sum thinking hurts everyone help shift the way we frame issues?

Read: “Racial History of American Swimming Pools”; “‘You Can Feel the Tension’: A Windfall for Minority Farmers Divides Rural America”; “Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland,” by Jonathan M. Metzl

Listen: Chris Hayes interviews Jonathan Metzl, author of “Dying of Whiteness”; Jonathan Capehart interviews Jonathan Metzl on ‘Dying of whiteness’ during the coronavirus pandemic and to explain how his argument “has been on steroids since this pandemic started.”



DAY 3:


Theme: "The Roots of Zero-Sum"

Notice:
Do you have any experiences where “zero-sum thinking” has influenced your work?

Read:
“Plantation planned Juneteenth event that would tell the stories of displaced ‘White refugees’”“; As plantations talk more honestly about slavery, some visitors are pushing back”; “Segregation by Design: Local Politics and Inequality in American Cities”; “Racial residential segregation: a fundamental cause of racial disparities in health”

Listen:
Chris Hayes interviews Clint Smith, author of “How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America”



DAY 4:


Theme: "Creating a Bridge: Zero Sum to Solidarity Dividend"

Reflect: What role can you play in shifting the conversation to this idea that we can all win?

Read: “Pollution, Poverty and People of Color: Living with Industry”; “The Key to Happiness Might Be as Simple as a Library or a Park”; “Bridging or Breaking? The Stories We Tell Will Create the Future We Inhabit” by john a. powell,” director of The Othering & Belonging Institute at UC-Berkeley

Listen: Chris Hayes interviews Eric Klinenberg, author of “Palaces for the People: How to Build a More Equal and United Society,” explores how investing in social infrastructure can help address some of our pressing social justice issues



DAY 5:

Theme: "The Solidarity Dividend (Let's come together)"

Read: “The Way Out of America’s Zero-Sum Thinking on Race and Wealth,” by Heather McGhee

Discuss: Use McGhee’s discussion guide to engage with others in your network

Act: Get to know The LOOP and our resources. Invite friends, families, and/or colleagues to participate in this Challenge Checkup!