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A recent Bloomberg study showed the median value of Black family’s property wealth in the UK is zero. As a black man myself, I found this study not only to be disheartening, but egregious to say the least. This is most particularly shocking because, property is extremely essential to generational wealth building.
Our historic difficulties aside, there are numerous access to knowledge on ways to bridge the wealth gap in this asset class. But, it is unclear whether these information are sought after.
If indeed the black community have every readily available information to succeed, the statistic glaringly shows something is terribly amiss.
Hence I carried out an empirical research to find out why is it, black African and Caribbean are in the bottom of the totem pole of the vast disparity of this wealth divide.
Here is what I discovered to be five of the most inhibited mindsets, that is perpetuating lack of generational wealth among collective black community.
#1- Addiction to Valueless Consumption. You would be amazed how much people spend on worthless things to impress people that they don’t know or like. Designer clothes, luxury cars and other materialistic items of zero value are heavily consumed in the black community.
This conspicuous spending is highly publicized and promoted among many black celebrities. The prevalent herding behaviour is the reason why many black cannot maintain and preserve wealth.
#2- Lack Of Financial Literacy. This is very familiar problem amongst black society, because we have never been taught or guided on the fundamentals of money and how it works. Even though Africans make a significant economic contribution into the society, their financial wellness lags behind that of the rest of the country, particularly that of whites, according to a report from George Washington University.
We have been conditioned to earn and spend, instead of earn and multiply. Financial literacy is about the knowledge of maintaining and preserving wealth, which is severely lacking in black communities.
#3- Too Much Dependence On A Job. A job is a privilege given to an employee which can be taken at any time. One of the rules engrained in a typical black household from birth, is to get a formal education in the hope of securing a good job in future. While there’s nothing wrong with this belief, the only problem with the idea is many that heed to this advice, eventually find their comfort zone in that job.
Once comfortability sets in, it is impossible to dream bigger than the typical middleclass mindset of a “couple of properties and cars” that your salary can afford.
Owning businesses and investments which are necessary for true wealth are rarely encouraged.
#4- Lack Of Family Structure & Unity. The community is the most emasculated in the world. Many underestimate how intricately intertwined a sound family structure is tied to wealth. In 2019, there were about 4.15 million Black families in the United States with a single mother. This is an increase from 1990 levels, when there were about 3.4 million Black families with a single mother. In the UK, there are around 1.8 million single parents – yet they make up nearly a quarter of families with dependent children. Around 90 per cent of single parents (with an average age of 39) are women.
#5- Undervaluing Education. Many misconstrue education to mean mainly going to school when in fact, there’s a difference. Schooling is what people mean most of the time when they talk about “education.” Schooling has little to do with learning, and often times work against it.
Education is constant learning, which is something you do after you leave the domain of a formal school system.
School gets you a job, while education help you attain real wealth.