We've Got To Do Better For Ourselves, For Our Future

I just read in Jet Magazine (June 14/21, 2010) that "Whites Are Four Times Wealthier Than Blacks." This article states that "middle-income White households own more wealth than high-income African American families." Keyword: WEALTH! There is a significant difference between being rich and being wealthy. When you are rich, you are still working for your money; when you are wealthy, your money is working for you. In other words, investments lead to wealthiness.

Have you ever noticed that the most wealthy people wear the simplest clothes? That often times you cannot even tell that person's Socioeconomic Status (SES) by looking at them? That is because they don't need to prove to anyone that they have money. On the contrary, black people in particular, tend to show off what they have financially, at that moment... if only for that moment. This leads me to the concept of being "hood rich." This is when you have people buying Escaldes and Hummers, shoes and bling when they can barely afford clothes for their child, or a decent place to live. Now, I am all for people enjoying their hard earned money, but a common trend in the African American community is a lack of investing. The difference between buying a house and a car is that as soon as you drive a car off the lot, it's worth less than you just paid for it, whereas, investing in land and property produces interest, thus, you make money off of a single purchase.

While lack of investing and money management is a problem in our community, and our country as a whole, this article also states some other unfortunate discriminations. For example, "Blacks are often charged higher interest rates than Whites when securing a loan for education, housing, or a vehicle." As a black college student with loans, this statement vexes me. I consider education to be an investment, regardless of the cost and regardless of the skin color of the individual receiving the intellectual benefits.

While they may be habitual and unintentional, the inequalities that are noted "coincidentally" between Blacks and Whites are unnerving. Call me naive, but I like to believe that we as a nation are making consistent progress in the land of racial inequality. At the same time, this is just more evidence against those who still believe that the election of a Black President has magically erased all injustice, inequality, and racism in America. Erroneous! Mankind has never been on a level playing field, even from the days of Jesus Christ himself. And in my opinion, He is the only individual man that can change anything instantaneously...not Obama, not Clinton, not McCain.

At the end of the day, the only advice for change and the advancement of our people, any people, that I have to offer is education, Education , EDUCATION! An individual without education becomes a slave to his/her own ignorance, as well as those who are educated around him/her. We must educate ourselves so that we can educate and encourage the education of future generations.

...but what do I know?

For now, I leave you with this:

When asked how much educated men were superior to those uneducated, Aristotle answered, 'As much as the living are to the dead.'
Diogenes Laetius