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Why Black Futures matter and how financial education can help
Black people care about our futures. It’s why our lives matter today, so that we can fulfil our dreams tomorrow.
The whole world is waking up to the reality that racism and anti-blackness are real. Not only are they real, but they are ugly and pervasive. And we’ve seen that they can have lethal consequences. While the shock and horror of seeing a black man killed at the hands of law enforcement officers has propelled the world into righteous outrage, protests and demands for change, another reality has become very clear.
People of colour, and in most cases black people, live hugely unequal lives to those lived by their white counterparts. By now we should all be familiar with the fact that black people tend to get paid less, are affected by unemployment more and generally have less wealth than their whites and other ethnic groups. To see it on paper is shocking.
According to a 2017 survey by the Center for American Progress, black people have one-tenth the wealth of white Americans. The study found that while white families on average had a net worth of $171,000, black families owned about $17,600 in assets on average. This is just a staggering number, not simply by comparison, but because of what it means. When a family’s wealth is limited, then it is less able to deal with unexpected job…
