Today it is the 22-inch rims on your car that barely runs. Tomorrow, it will be the must-have Jordans that you save two paychecks just to buy.
For some reason young blacks are fixated on wasting money on foolish, material things.
If an individual feels it is more important to buy rims than it is to pay the past due payment on the car, that person’s priorities are mixed up and they are into wasting money.
Why would anyone want to spend hundreds on a pair of rims for a car that will be repossessed next week?
We, as blacks, feel as if it is necessary “to keep up with the Joneses.”
We all desire and deserve the finer things in life, but why is it that the finer things in life must be the foolish things that cannot be taken with us once we leave this earth? After all, it is inevitable that we all will leave this earth one day.
If an individual can spend $200 on one pair of shoes, why can he not spend that same money on a class at the nearest community college?
We complain about how “the man” never gives us an equal opportunity, but the fact is no employer in his right mind wants to give an opportunity to someone that blows every dollar that comes his way on foolish things.
If an individual would spend all his money on rims he or she may do the same with the company’s money.
We pretend as if we do not understand the word investment. If we do not invest in ourselves who will?
Many will argue and say that those $200 rims are most definitely a useful investment. I fail to agree. You are investing in your car, not in yourself.
So what happens to the $300 investment you made in your car when someone driving recklessly completely totals your car? Where did that investment go? When that happens, it goes down the drain just like every other foolish thing that money can buy.
Why do we insist on spending our precious money on these things?
Young blacks are obsessed with consuming foolish things because we feel as if we must constantly prove that we are capable of owning just as much as others. We refuse to feel inferior so we do what is necessary to keep up with the wealthy.
What we fail to realize is that those people who are wealthier than others, are more than likely educated on some level. They have invested both time and money in themselves to get their riches.
Is it so hard for us to do the same?
If blacks took the time to invest in themselves and not in materialistic things, life would be a lot less difficult, and we could finally stop using “the man” as an excuse for our problems with success.
Brittany McCrary is a sophomore magazine production student from Kansas City, Mo. She can be reached at famuanopinions@hotmail.com.