When we think of the American Dream, we often envision a family in a suburban home bordered by a white picket fence, a two-car garage, 2.5 kids playing in a yard, maybe even a dog.
But throughout history and even today, this imagery is often void of black faces.
This is because financial literacy is not a legacy passed down in black households and as a result, wealth accumulation is a rarity among us.
For the lot of us, having grown up in poverty, we believe this reality of empty American materialism is the best life has to offer.
Ironically, achieving this heralded standard of living leaves many blacks “hangin’ in a chow line,” as Good Times put it.
There are, of course, several historical reasons black citizens have difficulty accumulating substantial wealth.
De jure laws prohibited blacks from owning property for the hundred-something years that defined America’s pioneer days.
Once our ancestors were given freedom, de facto discriminatory practices would disqualify blacks from the race to acquire capital.
The 40-Acres-and-a-Mule initiative, as one of many half-hearted enterprises by the Freedman’s bureau during Reconstruction, was a bust. And many blacks, especially in the rural South would live as primitively as even the poorest whites.
It would be robbery if we didn’t mention the cold shoulder that was given to Booker T. Washington, who devoted a lifetime to teaching his people how to become economically viable, in turn gaining affluence and political power.
The thousands of black soldiers returning from World War II were barred from receiving the benefits afforded to veterans through the G.I. Bill. Although they’d engaged in bloody battles in South Pacific and Central Europe, it was unconscionable to give them access the resources that would allow them to settle into a comfortable life in the States.
Discriminatory housing practices went virtually unchecked by the Fair Housing Act of the 1968 effectively keeping black in worthless, crumbling, overpriced properties in urban cores.
Those shoddy practices would continue into the 2000s as desperate black families were sucked into hazard-prone adjustable-rate mortgages, which led to the ongoing Sub-prime Loan Crisis. It was during this period of easy credit and predatory lending during the Bush Administration, that more blacks were homeowners than in any other time in history.
Last year, a study conducted by the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University revealed something that is neither surprising nor perplexing. The wealth disparity between blacks and whites increased by $75,000 between 1984 and 2007. At the end of this period, financial assets of black families were only worth $5,000 on average.
Twenty five percent of blacks have a negative net worth – we owe more than we own. A large portion of the remaining 75 percent do not hold assets worth mentioning.
We could dedicate several pages reflecting on the sins of white privilege and the indifference of its benefactors, but blacks would still be the poorest racial group in the country, still having nothing to pass on to our children.
So it is up to us, this generation of young black adults, to begin wealth building in our families-to-be. This can only occur if we seriously question what it means to have “made it.”
Today, for the vast majority of us, to have made it means embodying American materialism. We graduate from college, occasionally land high-end jobs, move into houses we can’t afford, which provide shelter for families we also find are difficult to afford.
To expedite the painstaking process of wealth building among blacks, we must attempt to define our own American Dream ? after all, the dream we doltishly chase was realized by our predecessors.
Redefining that dream starts in the black household, where black children must be taught financial literacy: the meaning of interest rates, the importance of saving and investing money, the folly of spending on material with no liquidity. Even if we aren’t financially literate, relaying the most basic concepts of being money-savvy is much more than many of us had.
We must also begin to live within our means. And yes, that means we can no longer arrive at church driving nicest cars and wearing the most expensive suits; our children cannot and should not be wearing the latest Jordan’s, playing $50 video games on $400 consoles, as we struggle to save for retirement and pay off our mortgages.
This is important because without wealth, status has no company. And if none of us make it to the top of the American wealth strata, then who will pull the bulk of us from up from the binds of destitution?When we think of the American Dream, we often envision a family in a suburban home bordered by a white picket fence, a two-car garage, 2.5 kids playing in a yard, maybe even a dog. But throughout history and even today, this imagery is often void of black faces.
This is because financial literacy is not a legacy passed down in black households and as a result, wealth accumulation is a rarity among us.
For the lot of us, having grown up in poverty, we believe this reality of empty American materialism is the best life has to offer. Ironically, achieving this heralded standard of living leaves many blacks “hangin’ in a chow line,” as Good Times put it.
There are, of course, several historical reasons black citizens have difficulty accumulating substantial wealth.
De jure laws prohibited blacks from owning property for the hundred-something years that defined America’s pioneer days.
Once our ancestors were given freedom, de facto discriminatory practices would disqualify blacks from the race to acquire capital.
The 40-Acres-and-a-Mule initiative, as one of many half-hearted enterprises by the Freedman’s bureau during Reconstruction, was a bust. And many blacks, especially in the rural South would live as primitively as even the poorest whites.
It would be robbery if we didn’t mention the cold shoulder that was given to Booker T. Washington, who devoted a lifetime to teaching his people how to become economically viable, in turn gaining affluence and political power.
The thousands of black soldiers returning from World War II were barred from receiving the benefits afforded to veterans through the G.I. Bill. Although they’d engaged in bloody battles in South Pacific and Central Europe, it was unconscionable to give them access the resources that would allow them to settle into a comfortable life in the States.
Discriminatory housing practices went virtually unchecked by the Fair Housing Act of 1968 effectively keeping black in worthless, crumbling, overpriced properties in urban cores.
Those shoddy practices would continue into the 2000s as desperate black families were sucked into hazard-prone adjustable-rate mortgages, which led to the ongoing Sub-prime Loan Crisis. It was during this period of easy credit and predatory lending during the Bush Administration, that more blacks were homeowners than in any other time in history.
Last year, a study conducted by the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University revealed something that is neither surprising nor perplexing. The wealth disparity between blacks and whites increased by $75,000 between 1984 and 2007. At the end of this period, financial assets of black families were only worth $5,000 on average.
Twenty five percent of blacks have a negative net worth – we owe more than we own. A large portion of the remaining 75 percent do not hold assets worth mentioning.
We could dedicate several pages reflecting on the sins of white privilege and the indifference of its benefactors, but blacks would still be the poorest racial group in the country, still having nothing to pass on to our children.