PODCAST EPISODE 3: FROM CENTURIES OF VICTIMIZATION TO VICTORY!
$ WEALTH BUILDING POWERS • A podcast on Anchor
Recently there were numerous articles and television specials on the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa riots. You cannot read about the murder of an estimated 300 men, women and children, in Tulsa’s Greenwood District, without being sickened and angered by the pure evil …,
“but black history is about more than victimization at the hands of whites. It’s also about what blacks have achieved notwithstanding that victimization.” WSJ- Jason Riley.
A LONG JOURNEY TO VICTORY
President Lincoln formally ended slavery in 1865. Fifty-six years later, a large number of freed slaves had established the Tulsa Greenwood District. Greenwood was by law segregated from the white sections of Tulsa. The people of Greenwood had transitioned from victimization to victory, and the community was SUCCESSFUL, INDEPENDENT AND VERY WEALTHY! People started referring to the Greenwood District as the “Negro/Black Wall Street.”
Black Wall Street was self-sufficient from the white sections of Tulsa, containing grocery stores, newspapers, movie theaters, nightclubs, churches, well-educated professionals, and Trade Men and more. Black professionals included Physicians, Dentist, Attorneys, Teachers, Accountants, Ministers, etc.
Greenwood was ready to continue prospering and demonstrate Freed Black US citizens could be self-sufficient.
HOW DID SLAVES FREED JUST 56 YEARS EARLIER BECOME SO SUCCESSFUL?
The majority of southern freed slaves were given false promises and only the clothes on their backs.
However, across the country, the freed slaves of five Native American nations received an allotment of land.
Following the Civil War, the U.S. government agreed to grant each adult slave 40 acres as compensation for the 246 years of slave labor. Let that number sink in—two hundred and forty-six years of slave labor costing plantation owners very little (shacks and minimum food, often table scraps). If you break down the promised land allotment, it amounts to 0.16 acre PER YEAR OF THEIR ANCESTORS SLAVE LABOR {for the very few compensated}. However, the United States of America’s Federal Government LIED and quickly reneged on that promise. Instead, the Federal government enforced stricter terms for compensation on the slave-owning Indian nations allied with the Confederacy.
GREENWOOD’S PATH TO FINANCIAL FREEDOM
Indian tribes gave their former slaves some of the worst, rockiest, unfarmable land. However, in many cases, that land was where drillers struck oil. In the early 20th century, Tulsa became the world’s biggest oil producer. The oil wealth gave rise to fortunes for a few Freed people that made headlines around the United States.
The allotments of land gave this small group of freed slaves a source of EARNINGS and upward mobility that most former slaves simply did not have. The land provided EARNINGS from farming and oil reserves, allowing Black families to send their children to new Black colleges to gain EDUCATION. Greenwood Blacks then SAVED and INVESTED in new businesses, farms, etc., and this produced Black Wall Street and FINANCIAL FREEDOM for many. Black Wall Street eventually had over 600 Black-Owned companies.
Unfortunately, little of that remarkable victory and wealth remains today. Investments that SHOULD have built legacy wealth for today’s generations were stolen. Black Wall Street came to a horrendous end on May 31, 1921, when a two-day white mob attacked, murdering ~300 men, women, and children (majority unarmed) while looting and burning almost every business and home. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_massacre
EQUALITY VERSUS EQUITY
BY GUEST CONTRIBUTOR AND FRIEND GEORGE WONG {SEE BIO AT END}
“In California, the recent passage of Proposition 19 decreased further homeownership by families of low income and wealth. Not everyone who inherits a parent’s home is wealthy. For many middle and/or low-income families, the inherited home is rented out for income to pay bills. Prop 19 imposed market rate property taxes in these situations, SEVERELY LIMITING the opportunities for heirs of color: (1) to generate a meaningful income; (2) to increase homeownership; and (3) to build legacy wealth. The market rate property taxes make renting out the homeless profitable or unprofitable, forcing the heirs to sell. This is another example of bad law passed without understanding the effects on people of color who already have the lowest homeownership rates and is another barrier for continuing the American dream into the next generation. Combined with the Biden proposal to end the Step-Up basis for inherited properties, these two laws can be simply called, “modest wealth destruction acts for people of color.”
HOMEOWNERSHIP REMAINS A BARRIER TO AFRICAN AMERICANS ACHIEVING FINANCIAL FREEDOM
Nationwide, the Black-white homeownership gap is more significant than in 1960, when it was still legal in many places to discriminate against Black buyers. The 26.8 percentage gaps that year has widened to 30.1 percentage, according to 2019 census data.
“Homeownership is the primary tool Americans use to build wealth and transfer it between generations, and divergent rates have helped WORSEN the net-worth gap between Black and white families.” The Federal Reserve.
The average white U.S. family’s net worth is now ten times that of the moderate Black families.
CONCLUSION – FROM CENTURIES OF VICTIMIZATION TO VICTORY!
Our country’s history is full of horrible incidents, including 263 years of slavery and the slaughter of innocent men, women and children in Tulsa 100 years ago. Whatever anger you may feel, use it to energize yourself and move forward.
YOU CANNOT WAIT FOR THE GOVERNMENT
The U.S. government has been promising to right the wrongs since “40 Acres and a Mule.” They LIED! President Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty, and by my calculations, since then, the Federal and States have spent over $40 Trillion. THEY LOST THE WAR!
THE IMPORTANCE OF DADS!
For blacks to close the Education, Health, and Wealth gaps, listen to President Barrack Obama.
President Biden can waste more Trillions of dollars. It will change NOTHING for the black community.
We do not need the mind of Albert Einstein or Elon Musk to solve this problem!
REAL AND ACHIEVABLE SOLUTIONS
- FATHERS PRESENT IN THE LIVES OF THEIR CHILDREN
- COMPLETE HIGH SCHOOL AND SEEK FURTHER EDUCATION (TRADES, COMMUNITY COLLEGE, PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATIONS, UNIVERSITY)
- GET A JOB – EARNINGS
- SAVE – TARGET BUILDING UP TO 20% OR MORE ANNUALLY
- BUILD YOUR FINANCIAL LITERACY/MONEY MANAGEMENT COMPETENCIES
- INVEST YOUR HARD-EARNED MONEY WITHIN YOUR RISK TOLERANCE
FINANCIAL FREEDOM WILL BE YOURS – EARN IT!
GEORGE WONG’S BIO
George Wong is semi-retired and continues to work as Senior Advisor to two companies, is the owner-manager of the family’s commercial and multifamily real estate, board member in two non-profit educational organizations, and manager of several stock and bond portfolios for extended family. His professional career included stints at Price Waterhouse Coopers as a management consultant, a commercial real estate firm as developer/portfolio manager, a commercial printing company as COO, a legal document management systems start-up as V.P. Operations, RR Donnelley Financial Print as Plant Manager, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage as Finance Manager, Intex Plastics Division as Senior Advisor, and Shark Wheel Inc as co-founder-CFO-Senior Advisor. Out of college, he was a middle school teacher at Inglewood Unified Schools, and he worked for two federally funded organizations advising minority-owned businesses. His previous community involvement included the turnaround of a Pasadena unit of the National Urban Coalition, board membership in the Pasadena chapter of the Urban League, and Advisor to the California Senate Select Committee on Small Business Enterprises. George was raised in South Central Los Angeles, where his entire education from elementary school through graduate school was obtained within a three-mile stretch on one street. He remains active in South Los Angeles as a board member at a state-funded child-care center for low-income parents that he help found 40+ years ago and working with the tenants at the family’s commercial buildings to keep the tenants (all people of color and immigrants) in business. He is married 40+ years and has two highly successful sons in business, following degrees at two ivy-league schools as well as the University of Michigan. George has degrees in Aerospace Engineering, Education, and the MBA, all from the University of Southern California. George still competes in the 50 Meter and 100 Meter Dashes. He is very proud to say that his understanding of the business world and finance comes from reading the Wall Street Journal every day since he was 15.
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ABOUT ME
I am a proud nerd (as my beautiful wife and daughter have told me) investment and finance blogger with an N.C. State, Chemical Engineering, University Rutgers, MBA and Harvard University, Advanced Management education.
I left a corporate career because I desired to make a difference as a speaker and writer. I was blessed to be coached and mentored by strong women and men in my family and professional life. It is my time to serve and give back.
DISCLAIMER
I started my first business at ~13 years of age (a small but brilliantly created plant nursery). I am a successful investor in stocks, options, real estate and happy to share my finance and investment lessons. I am NOT a licensed financial advisor. Please do not construe my suggestions on this blog as recommendations for your situation.As an investor, you must establish your risk/loss tolerance. Investment in any asset involves risk, including complete loss.
Please seek your licensed CPA or fiduciary financial advisors for individual financial advice.
I write this weekly blog to make an impact by reaching an audience and demonstrating the need for financial literacy. I will help you get there.
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