Understanding the Black Economy Part I

We’ve watched and read every bit of news throughout 2008 as it relates to the downward spiral in this global economy. The issues have done more than scathe the surface of our households. The issues have taken on the role of a meat cleaver. They’ve cut down to the bone of our family foundations, exposing the many facets of financial mis-education that exists across all tax brackets.

There is something institutionally off key when men and women of all ages, education and income levels, face the same dilemmas just on different scales. It lets us all know that we need to come together. It lets us all know that it’s time to dig deep and get it right, not just for ourselves but for generations to come. So the question today is…

“What financial foundation can we begin to build that is worth handing down to the next generation?”

There are many ways to get rich. But would you rather be rich or wealthy? It’s been made pretty clear that the Jones’s that many have been trying keep up with having been playing an incredible game of charades. The jobs, the homes(s), the cars, the private school for the children, the vacations and of course, the expensive shoes and matching purses that are the envy of the PTA. We looked at everything they had and then we had a choice to make. Option A was not to worry about what anyone else has or looks like they have. They have theirs, you’ll have yours and I’ll have mine (and together we’ll be fine...). And you thought it was just a song? Option B was to worry about why they have nice things and you don’t. Even though you work just as hard and nothing ever seems to come to you easy, but they always have nice new stuff and go to nice places and the closest I’ve been to a vacation was seeing one on the travel channel.

Why did we make a lifestyle out of competing for false wealth and short lived celebrity? Over the last 150 or so years, the percentage of African American wealth in the Total Net Worth of the United States has not changed. We remain only 1.2% of the country’s total net worth, yet we make up 13% of the total population. To put that in perspective, even though we have the most amount of African American millionaires and billionaires in history, we have not progressed beyond the same 1.2% from 1865 (Civil War Reconstruction Era). Slavery ended in 1865 with the Thirteenth Amendment and we are dead even with the net worth of the then newly free African Americans. My mind screams the necessary yet assumedly rhetorical, why?

Surely the net worth of the country in 1865 was pennies in comparison to what it was during the Clinton Administration, yet the African American population’s percentage of 1.2% hasn’t grown. There are several facts that we must acknowledge before we can begin to understand why. Do understand that when it comes to the practical application and foundations of African American economics, we all need to keep an open mind. There is no room for pride or wearing of a prized college degrees on one’s sleeves. The economy doesn’t respect documents that show people that we did well. Recipients of PhD’s, MBA’s and GED’s are all getting foreclosed on and laid off, so it’s time to let go of our usual sight lines of forecasting financial success.