We continue our celebration of Black
History Month with an important
discussion about the racial wealth gap.
We spoke to. Veteran financial
journalists Rodney A Brooks about
how the gap became so wide and what
must be done to fix it overtime.
Rodney, thank you so much for joining us.
This is such an important topic
talking about fixing the wealth gap.
The racial wealth gap that
we have here in America.
This is something I've been
talking about for a long time.
Yes, and and people have been
urging me to write a book.
Basically personal finance
for African Americans.
So I thought it was a good
idea to marry the two subjects.
And that's what I did in my book.
Give us a sense of what the
gap is like. Where are we?
Well, the the average wealth of a
black family in America is $17,000
compared to 171,000 for white family.
The homeownership rate among
black families is 43% compared to
72% for white Americans and you
could go on the median balance in
the in the retirement fund is.
30 for $35,000 for black Americans,
and about $80,000 for white Americans.
How do we go about fixing that?
Like where do you even begin
when you hear numbers like that?
Well, well, well. Like I said the
basically after I had stab Liszt,
you know talk about the statistics
ioffer a financial basic financial
planning advice and number one
on that list for for African
Americans is too particularly high.
Array is basically let's start with
financial literacy and part of that
would be looking for a financial advisor.
Many, many Americans,
not just black Americans,
think you have to be rich to have
a financial advisor the early
the earlier you start saving,
the better and the financial
advisor is is kind of key.
In in urging people to do that and
helping them manage their money.
Where do you think this?
If somebody was to say why is
why is this such a large gap?
Why is it such a large gap?
What could you pinpoint?
Or is there something that really
stands out to you of why this has
become more of a chasm, really?
Actually, it's you know it's an
important question because because it
comes up and people don't realize.
You know, during the Black Lives Matter,
protest last year there was a lot of
talk about Tulsa and the Black business
district and the Black middle class that
was destroyed during the riots in Tulsa.
But Tulsa was not only was Tulsa
repeated all over the country and
cities all over the country where
where mobs basically burned down,
black businesses burned down black homes and
chase black folks out of their cities and.
Out of their homes you have history
of things such as you know the
GI's coming back after World War,
World War Two there was the GI Bill,
but basically the way it was administered,
the black veterans did not get the
benefits because they are they
basically the federal government
Christian administration of that
down to to the state levels and
and some of these racist white.
States in the South refused to
give black veterans benefits,
so that means that they were
not able to buy homes so sickly.
Even if you look at Levittown,
which was which was basically
built for veterans,
black veterans could not
even live in Levittown,
they were they were banned from
living in cities like Levittown.
So when you look at something like that
where a basically a white family is
able to build a house with GI benefits.
And over these years,
that's that's that's turns into
generational wealth,
which which black families did not have.
So I mean, I have many there.
There are many examples like that.
I mean black farmers in the USDA.
Particularly,
they eventually sued because they were
not getting the help that they needed.
So you know this case,
after case history of of of things like that.
Month to be bringing this up right?
Black History Month to look back and say OK,
this is where the problem started.
Now we gotta look for the solution
so thank you for educating us today
and coming on to share this with us.
OK, thank you for inviting me.
You can check out Brooke's latest book.
It is called fixing the racial wealth gap,
racism and discrimination.
Put us here, but this is how we
can save future generations.