Support Black Generational Wealth

Closing the gaping wealth gap between white and Black people is not charity. It’s economic justice.

Exclusions, evictions, redlining, theft, segregation, and the enslavement of Africans are primary reasons the wealth gap between Black and white people is vast and deep. It’s been this way for centuries, and the intentionally designed system of whiteness continues to steal life, liberty, sovereignty, and wealth from Black people in America.

So how can Black people gain an economic foundation, prosper, and build generational wealth? Grassroots community organizing like this campaign. Contributing to this fund is not a handout; it’s reparations, as we cannot wait on the system that wants Black people to fail to do the right thing.

Education is one key to gaining economic advancement, but most people need to take out loans from a discriminatory lending industry. Creating and passing on generational wealth also requires financial planning, investments, business development, and estate planning. Industries that Black folks are often left out of or not privy to, on purpose because the goal of systemic whiteness is to keep Black people poor and uneducated.

Here's an opportunity to support a young Black man, husband and father who will be one of the first in his family to build generational wealth for his family and descendants. This fund will be used for informal and formal education related to business development, financial planning, investment, and estate planning. Additionally, the money raised will be used to purchase equipment and supplies required for learning and pay for self-directed learning opportunities, mentorship, and business start-up capital.

Let’s help break the cycle of systemic racial barriers to create opportunities for Black people to prosper and thrive. This young man has people around him that can support his dream, lead him in the right direction and encourage him to thrive by leaving a legacy of generational wealth for his family and descendants. Together we can make this dream a reality. Let’s get it done.

Please contribute a monetary gift generously and frequently. Please invite your friends to support this campaign and share it widely.

Please note that Go Fund Me takes out a percentage of your gift contribution for fees. Consider adding $5.00 to your gift. Thanks for your support.

PLEASE READ THE INFORMATION BELOW to understand better why this fund is critical to closing the racial wealth gap and why economic justice is urgent and paramount.

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Black Households Face Systematic Obstacles in Buil ding Wealth

“The persistent Black-white wealth gap is the result of a discriminatory economic system that keeps Black households from achieving the American dream. This system has always made it difficult for Black households to acquire and keep capital, and this lack of capital has created a persistently large racial wealth disparity, as African Americans have had less wealth to pass on to the next generation than white households. There are several other obstacles to building wealth:”

• Black workers often face labor market discrimination, including being steered toward occupations that are less secure, lower paying, and have fewer benefits and career advancement opportunities. These systematic obstacles to gaining access to good jobs are especially prevalent in the private sector.

• Opportunities to contribute to and benefit from innovation and advancements in technologies—and thus building wealth in high value-added industries and occupations—are also limited for African American innovators and entrepreneurs, as federal government research funding regularly excludes them.5 Black households end up with lower incomes and less wealth than white households as a result.

• The financial system strips Black households of their wealth by denying them access to the same investment opportunities and affordable credit that white households have. This systematic bias makes it more difficult for Black households to participate in the stock market, to start and grow their own business, and to put away a rainy-day fund, while they carry more costly debt such as car loans, credit card balances, and payday loans at the same time.

• Black households continue to face housing market discrimination, which makes it harder for them to own a home in the first place, and their houses appreciate less in value than those of white households.

• Additional factors such as systematically worse treatment in education, health care, and in the criminal justice system also feed into the persistent Black-white wealth gap.

“White families are better situated to pass on wealth from one generation to the next. White households first benefited from the dehumanizing system of slavery—directly, in this case, as a white slaveholding plantation class— but also from the discriminatory institutions that emerged and persisted after the Civil War. White households have been able to build wealth for themselves and their descendants, while whatever wealth Black families could amass was regularly stripped away. Private businesses and governments institutionalized racism and discrimination. They also encouraged and sanctioned violence targeting Black lives and property. The destruction of Black Wall Street in the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921 serves as one of many horrid and systematic examples.”

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

Black Americans need to make big moves to make up for stolen financial time and crypto investing could help. Institutional policies ranging from Jim Crow segregation to modern-day redlining have disenfranchised Black people from building generational wealth. In fact, Black people hold just 3.8% of $116 trillion in wealth in the U.S., according to data from the Federal Reserve.

There’s a solid argument for why cryptocurrencies are more popular among Black investors, even with their immense volatility at times. Author of Bitcoin & Black America, Isaiah Jackson wrote that by continuing to deposit money into banks, Black people continue to feed a system that does not have our best interests at heart.