By: Zach Fulwood
I remember hearing Tupac Shakur say in an interview with Ed Gordon that, every Black man becomes angry by the time they receive their first three paychecks. Ten years ago, this statement sounded cool but had little meaning to me outside of another quotable Tupac line. Ten years later, this statement resonates in a whole new way.
For the longest time, I’ve always wanted to own something. Like most people, I wanted to be able to create, curate, and control something of my own. More importantly, I wanted something that nobody could take from me. It’s an added bonus if that thing also happened to make me money. However, when I look around my family and my social circle, there aren’t too many examples of ownership going on. Or if there is, it’s not of anything that appreciates in value and can create any level of generational wealth. And here in lies a bit of a problem within the Black community as a whole.
When I think about ownership, I’m often reminded of a scene from the movie Baby Boy where Jodie (played by Tyrese Gibson) asks his friend, “how many millionaires you got on,”. In this life, everything you buy is owned by someone. Every piece of land you walk on is owned by someone or some entity. As Black consumers, we’re usually responsible for adding to the generational wealth of somebody else. How great would it be to be able to create some of that same generational wealth for ourselves and those who look like us? What if words like “trust fund” and “inheritance” became synonymous with Black people?
The good news is, we have been able to own businesses and create wealth for ourselves throughout past and recent history. The bad news is, it hasn’t been enough. Although we can point to the era of ‘Black Wall Street’ during the early 1900’s where not only were Black businesses booming but, a consistent recycling of the ‘Black dollar’ existed, there aren’t too many examples of Black ownership within Black communities. It’s not that it doesn’t exist, it’s just not as prevalent as we would like.
Though there are a number of socioeconomic reasons as to why Black ownership isn’t a main cog in American society, there’s also the issue of ownership not being something that is talked and preached about in our households growing up. To an extent this is understandable because there are typically more pressing needs to attend to at the present moment in time but, there’s something to be said about championing your children to go to school and get an education in order to get a job rather than starting a business.
In an interview with The Breakfast Club a couple years ago, Damon Dash preached the importance of ownership and not having to be in positions of having to ask for money. While I didn’t agree with the concept of having a boss being akin to calling another man “daddy”, I did agree with his overall message of financial empowerment and being self-made.
Financial empowerment isn’t just about having a lot of money. It’s about being able to afford to make a difference for yourself and your community. This is why Tyler Perry building his own production studio is so huge and why what Nipsey Hussle was able to do with his Marathon Clothing store and owning his masters was so impactful. These men along with the Byron Allen’s, Jay-Z’s and the LeBron James’ of the world found a way to build empires and create the type of financial empowerment for themselves that can and will change the economic landscape of their communities for generations to come.
So when we look back at what Tupac was saying in his interview with Ed Gordon, Black men aren’t mad at being able to cash three consecutive paychecks. They’re upset because they see how far they have to go in order to help their community. They’re upset because getting a paycheck is no longer enough. They’re upset because they realize this likely isn’t going to offer them the financial freedom necessary to create the generational wealth that their employers have.
In the end, everybody isn’t cut out for being a boss or the CEO of their own company. Our society isn’t set up that way and quite frankly, the world isn’t set up that way. There will always be a place for employees and employers. That said, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to start preparing ourselves to have more Black employers.
Categories: Culture
Culturally Biased 
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