Black people have a nuanced relationship with money, and rightfully so. Anytime we’ve built wealth, it’s been squelched by anti-Black legislation, stolen, destroyed, or exploited. On top of that, we’ve been incorrectly labeled as deliberately financially illiterate. But that’s simply not true.
It’s true we make much less money than other racial groups and have a harder time finding jobs, but contrary to popular belief, we actually save the money we do make. But we don’t stop at savings.
We also invest. Black people are accused of not investing in the stock market, and that’s true. It doesn’t mean we don’t try to make our money work for us. When we do invest, it’s in real estate, which is considered less volatile than stocks. But there’s another reason we’re careful with our finances.
We prioritize our futures. More than any other group, we value building wealth for our children and planning for emergencies. And we’ve done this in spite of enslavement, white terrorism, and economic downturns.
It’s true we have work to do to build wealth. But it’s also true that we have always found ways to survive in a system that keeps coming up with new ways to exploit and rob us. Just remember: we are still here in spite of our finances, and we ain’t going nowhere but up.