Black People Know Nothing About Wealth (But A Lot About Being Poor)

According to the U.S. Census, African American entrepreneurs are five times more likely to fail in business than their white counterparts.

What is wealth? Is it owning a private jet? Owning an island, a mansion in the Hills? Or is it being financially stable and having enough finances to send the future of your family off to college so they can continue the legacy and circulation of education? Wealth can be many things, corporeal and incorporeal, but for many in the Black community it has been what they see on MTV Cribs and in the music videos since the dawn of the Hip Hop Vixen. What is so ironic is that only about 5% of musicians can actually afford what their fans see in their music videos, and the homes they showcase might be foreclosed within the next year or two. Many in the Black community believe that wealth is material commodities that can only be reached by becoming athletes or entertainment puppets. They do not acknowledge that wealth is the amount of knowledge that you withhold and the actions that are executed with that knowledge. It has nothing to do with money.

Let us analyze wealth sans the fiscal factors. First, how do we receive money? By working. The type of profession you do determines the amount of money you receive. We live in the information age, where doctors, lawyers, scientists, business consultants, and computer genii are at the crest of the pyramid. Now ask yourself, how did these people garner these positions? Education, and a lot of it. Through the wealth of the mind they are able to achieve wealth in the bank, but it can never be the other way around. And that is what the Black race has been missing; wealth in the mind. Not that Black people are incompetent but that not many are going out and receiving the education to garner these positions and build financial foundations for them and their families.

“At least 25% of African Americans have no financial assets…. The wealth gap between White and Black families has more than quadrupled over the course of a generation.”

(Essence Magazine, Jan 2011, Stimulus Plan For Black America, Sheryl Hillard Tucker)

The amount of Black people without a college education heavily outweighs the amount of Black people that does have a college education. That being said, there are more Black people that are not qualified for the corporate world than there are, thus eliminating a great portion of the Black community from being elected into boardrooms around the world. More Black people are working proletariat positions with no doors to advancement than working in executive or middle management positions, giving rise to a community that are not prepared to lead a company into the next phase of maturity. If you combine a great portion of the Black community not possessing or aspiring for a higher education with the amount working dead end jobs, than you have a community of suppression. This is not the same suppression as slaves and slave masters but slaves to society. How are you going to elevate your current situation without education? How are you going to find a better and more meaningful CAREER without a higher education? You have to deal with the JOBS that society throws at you because you do not possess the education to establish your own business or take over a directorial chair such as Chief Financial Officer or executive assistant.

If majority of the Black community are not holding wealth garnering positions than there is no money coming into the Black community. If many in the Black community do not have extra to spend and can only concentrate on convenience goods then truly how much are they contributing to the wellbeing of society or even more the Black community, especially if the makers of those goods are not Black owned businesses? There is no circulation of wealth if the money is handed from a white owned company into the Black hands of the worker and then back into the hands of another white owned company. Money is not being put back into the community if you are only making enough to pay the bills.

African American CEO's of Fortune 500 Companies
http://www.blackentrepreneurprofile.com/fortune-500-ceos/

Top 100 black role models  - Europe
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-478012/Top-100-black-role-models-unveiled-new-list.html

Many in the Black community feel that it is strange when they witness a young person driving a nice car, or buying a home, or being left the family business. Why!? That is how life should be! Your duty as a person in society is to contribute to the commonwealth and insure that you and your family are financially, mentally, and physically provided for, now and for the years to come. It is the norm in many cultures to build a financial foundation and leave the windfall to the children so they can continue the legacy. Why is it not that in the Black community? Or has that trait not been taught to the Black community? More Black people are poor than affluent, and if a Black person is opulent than they are envied and ridiculed by their fellow community, especially if they do not give back. But where is the creed that says “I must provide for all?” There is none therefore those who are lethargic in the Black community must get off their assess and go obtain a higher education that way they can enter the corporate world and build a foundation. Many in the Black community expect a handout. They just stand on the street corners of the inner city and gawk at the man/woman who went off and received a college education ride past in their nice vehicle, wishing it was them. How long are you going to stand there and WISH until you actually enroll into school and take the next step to bringing wealth into your community?

What corporeal entities determine wealth? Cars, clothes, houses, and accessories. But what is the main determinant if you possess wealth or not? Location. The suburbs, palisades, hills, and beaches all represent wealth. Anything within the city is considered squalid. And what community has dwelled within the city since the dawn of allocation? The Black community. But why has the Black community always been affiliated with the inner city and its squalor? The answer is simple if you travel through the neighborhoods of South Central, Brooklyn, or Southside Chicago. There is no wealth being brought into the community, and this lack of wealth amalgamated with an anti-education mentality brews a community of people who do not care about their surroundings. Many of the inner city Black communities are dirty, infested with crime, and boiling with despair. And this poverty stricken image is being represented for all Black people that aspire to rise above the doubt and create a foundation for themselves. To bring not only wealth into these communities but also a better outlook on their surroundings the Black community must gather more education where they can compete in the pool of prospective applicants and acquire positions that bring change. The area of Wilshire Blvd./La Brea Blvd. to Crenshaw Blvd./Interstate 105 (Central Los Angeles) is immensely greater than the Wilshire to Sunset Blvd. area (Hollywood), yet more money flocks into the latter area. Also the latter area contains more wealth and opportunity for college graduates. Why is that? Because more people with a higher education are living in the Hollywood area and opening doors for one another. They possess the education to take those upper management positions that pay well, and with those expenditures contribute to the circulation of wealth in their communities by having money left over to shop, invest, and do whatever else they have the freedom to do therefore keeping the community thriving. Also since they know they are contributing to their community, they know they are a stakeholder and therefore will do whatever it takes to keep it clean, crime ridden, and flourishing. The Central Los Angeles area has the population but not the education. If they had the education than the Central Los Angeles area would be a conglomerate of businesses, universities, and affluent neighborhoods that attract the next generation of great business minds. A community needs prosperous businesses to thrive. Without income it will falter, and without a higher education you will not be able to receive the right amount of income to keep it from faltering.

This is the simple formula that every Black community needs to hearken to. Los Angeles is known for Hollywood, but external areas like Santa Monica, Calabasas, and Orange County are teeming with wealth. None of these are Black oriented poleis and they are all dominated by college graduates. The residents who reside in these communities look down on the Compton, Inglewood, and South Central Los Angeles areas, and who can blame them? These areas, even though dominated by Hispanics and African Americans, are moreover replete with uneducated people. No money is coming into these areas because no one possesses the education to stand in a boardroom and raise issues that represent their communities, so like I said in the “in the streets” segment, Blacks are obsolete and have no voice. Out of sight, out of mind. And many of those people who look down on the Hispanic and Black dominated areas do not want a large number of Hispanics and Blacks living in their region because they do not want their neighborhoods to become tainted just like the inner city areas. The more tainted the less affluent the hamlet becomes. So after looking at all these factors, ask yourself, is watching Jay-Z throw money at the screen mean wealth, or having money to invest in your family determine where you stand on the fiscal ladder?