JOHANNESBURG — Former President Nelson Mandela launched the fifth specialist children's hospital in Africa Friday, saying it was badly needed on a continent where millions who do not live to see their fifth birthday.
Mandela, who turned 91 on July 18, waved and greeted guests but no longer delivers speeches in public.
He said in a video message that African children deserve world-class treatment and the chance at a better future.
"This is not a luxury but a vital necessity that can no longer be delayed," he said.
The Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital will have a minimum of 200 beds and will house centers for the treatment of cancer, heart, liver, kidney and other ailments. Construction of the rands 1 billion (about $800 million) hospital will begin in late 2010 and is expected to be completed in 18 months.
Dr Boyce Watkins and Madeline Hatter discuss Chris Brown, Octomom and other political issues in this episode of “On the Other Hand”. Click the image to watch!
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals knows how to grab attention. And show off its laundry.
The animal rights group, which every year stages a protest at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, had two of its members dress in Ku Klux Klan garb outside Madison Square Garden on Monday.
Their goal, according to a post on the PETA website, was to draw a parallel between the KKK and the American Kennel Club. "Obviously it's an uncomfortable comparison," PETA spokesman Michael McGraw told the Associated Press.
But the AKC is trying to create a "master race" when it comes to pure-bred dogs, he added. "It's a very apt comparison."
The group passed out brochures implying the Klan and AKC have the goal of "pure bloodlines" in common.
"I can't speak for everyone, but the vast majority of the people exhibiting and handling and showing at Westminster are more interested in the health of dogs than anything else," Westminster spokesman David Frei told the AP.
"We want to produce the next generation of healthy and happy dogs," he said, "not just for the show ring but for the couches at home."
Bystander Fatima Walden told the AP the KKK imagery was inappropriate no matter what the message.
"They could have used something else as an example," she said. "You should be considerate to everybody."
Other than a shouting match during the hour-long protest, police said the scene remained calm.
I recently visited students at two outstanding HBCUs: Kentucky State University and The University of North Carolina Central. I wanted to give a big "What up!" to our YBW family members in North Carolina and Kentucky. FYI - if you wish to join our Black Money Advice list (many of you seem to have an interest in money recently) - please click here.
Please also take a peek at our sponsors, GreatBlackSpeakers.com, the #1 Black Speakers Bureau in the world.
Finally, America's Black Celebrity Gossip Diva, Lady Drama, has a new online show. You can sign up for it by clicking here.
The article below clears up exactly how I feel about Bill Cosby. I don't hate the man - I just want to slap him sometimes....just kidding....we just have different ways of seeing the world, and I think it is through diversity of perspective that we find our way to progress. I believe Bill really does love Black people, and that makes me give him my respect.
==================================================================== Judgmental Judges and The Art of Fear: Come On People, Let’s Stop Being So Damn Scared by Dr. Boyce Watkins www.BoyceWatkins.com
“‘White America needs to understand that it is poisoned to its soul by racism’, and that ‘all too many White Americans are horrified not with the conditions of (Black) life but with the product of these conditions-the (Black person) himself’. In a word, they are not horrified by injustice done to us in New York or New Orleans, in the schools, courts, streets, slums or prisons, but are horrified at the righteous anger we express, and the audacity not just to hope but also to resist injustice and oppression in its various forms.” - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
I recently appeared on an episode of Good Morning America about a judge in Atlanta named Marvin Arrington. The show renewed my skepticism of mainstream media, and helped me remember why I love Bill Cosby so much.
Apparently, Judge Arrington was fed up with seeing one black defendant after another in his courtroom, and surely to the liking of Bill Cosby, Arrington took matters into his own hands. Judge Arrington took the unprecedented step of dismissing all of the white attorneys from his courtroom and holding a private session with the black defendants.
During the session, Arrington gave the defendants a piece of his mind, preaching values we can all agree with: hard work, good behavior, and human decency. He topped it off by reminding these men that they are destroying the black community with their behavior and that they just need to stop.
When Good Morning America called to ask me what I thought about Arrington’s actions, they spent more time asking me about Bill Cosby than Arrington. I was confused, since they apparently think I don’t like Bill Cosby. That’s not true. I have a lot of respect for Bill Cosby, but it is my respect for human empathy that leads me to share my point of view, even if Bill Cosby does not agree. I truly believe Bill Cosby cares for black people, even if he has a unique way of showing it.
The reporter asked me if I thought it could be appropriate for a black judge to have a conversation with only the black defendants, excluding everyone else from the court room. I informed the reporter that it’s O.K. for African-Americans to have private conversations, and the nature of the Marvin Arrington’s words would be the ultimate determinant of conversation quality.
Elitist finger wagging at members of an oppressed group is not only counter-productive, it is consistent with how minority groups are dealt with around the world. From the Turkish minority in Germany to the Aboriginal population in Australia, it is always the habit of the elite to presume that minority groups can’t fit in because they are just lazy, stupid and bad. But a conversation from a point of understanding might actually achieve something. The problem is that some judges feel they are only there to talk, not to listen or learn. Also, Bill Cosby has shown Michael Eric Dyson, Marc Lamont Hill and myself that he feels no obligation to listen to anyone.
Apparently, we have not yet created enough episodes of Fat Albert to earn the license of unconditional, single-minded self-righteousness.
I know a judge named Langston McKinney who would also hold the same kinds of private conversations as Judge Arrington. The difference with Judge McKinney, however, is that right after having a private conversation with black defendants, McKinney would be equally bold in having another “tough love” conversation with the very justice system responsible for giving these men longer sentences for the same crimes, inadequate legal counsel, disenfranchisement from voting and employment rights after they’ve been released and a horrifically bad inner city educational system that provides no options.
That’s what a real man does. You don’t just beat up on those who have less power than you, you go after those who might kick your ass.
I have never been one to say that either Bill Cosby or Judge Marvin Arrington hate the black community. I feel they both love African-Americans very much, and that is what distinguishes them from professional black bashers like Juan Williams at Fox News. But one thing Cosby might want to learn is this: given that all human beings are fundamentally equal and equally rational, individuals engaging in behavior that makes no sense to you are probably responding to factors that you have not taken the time to fully understand.
The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Inequality released a report citing that the United States has a horrific habit of incarcerating black men, giving them longer sentences for the same crimes, pushing them out of society and leaving them uneducated. It is hard to earn my respect when you accept rewards for attacking those who respond to the disparities, but you do not have the courage to address the disparities themselves.
If a husband is beating his wife because she talks too much, any man can come into the house and tell his wife to stop talking so the beatings will stop. Many men will not have the courage to confront the husband responsible for the abuse. America, according to the United Nations, has abused black families for the past 400 years and continues to do so until this day. Anyone can tell black people to stop misbehaving so the abuse will stop. But it is fear of losing stature with the oppressive majority that leads us to avoid taking further steps to actually deal with the abuse itself. Black people have survived this long by being AFRAID. There is the added opportunity to gain favor with the majority by allowing oneself to be used as an additional distributor of racial tyranny, hypocrisy and condemnation. That’s how you get invited to Fox News and Meet the Press, Cosby knows this.
Bill Cosby and Judge Marvin Arrington should learn that it’s time to stop being scared. If you are tough enough to yell at a poor single mother about how she raises her kids, then please be strong enough to yell at a court system that incarcerates black men 7 times more than it incarcerates white men. Be strong enough to address a public education system that puts black boys in special education 5 times more than white boys. Be complete with your boldness, and don’t feel that you are strong just because you can continue to pile onto the weakest members of our society. The same is true for any black man who is strong in “the hood” but afraid to go to the other side of town.
I had a friend who grew up in terrible conditions, went to a terrible school, was shot at on the bus stop and had a high school counselor that put her in special education. In spite of all this, she went on to college and had a great life. Her story would surely serve as a source of inspiration for one of Bill Cosby’s speeches. But my question is this: What if this girl had not been strong enough to overcome a situation that would have destroyed 90% of us? What if she’d shot a drug dealer, slept with a strange man to get money or became a prostitute to feed herself? Would that make her a terrible person or simply an individual who responded to a world that the adults around her have not had the courage to confront? Cosby’s argument that the little girl should “just behave herself” is not likely to be enough to help millions of children manage such dramatic racial inequality.
Barack Obama had it right. We must honestly talk about racial inequality, and we must begin the conversation with the correct assumptions. Mathematics teaches us that if you solve a problem using incorrect assumptions, this will lead to incorrect methods and ultimately, an incorrect conclusion. The simple-minded presumption that “black youth are simply screwed up” is not only incorrect, it’s what we’ve been hearing for the past 400 years.
To Bill Cosby and Judge Marvin Arrington, I say this: Come on people, we’ve got to have more personal responsibility than that. The same courage you command from youth to overcome the system must be the courage you possess when confronting the system. That’s REALLY how you keep it real.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is an Assistant Professor of Finance and author of “What if George Bush were a Black Man?” For more information, please visit www.BoyceWatkins.com. Please join our coalition at www.YourBlackWorld.com
Michelle Obama may be the pride of the South Side, but her undergraduate years at Princeton also helped shape her worldview.
A new biography, Michelle (Simon & Schuster), by Washington Post reporter Liza Mundy, delves into Obama's years at the elite university, in particular Obama's senior thesis, "Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community.''
"The question of what upper-income blacks owe to the less fortunate was a major preoccupation," Mundy writes.
Michelle Obama grew up here as the daughter of a city worker who provided a modest middle-class lifestyle for Michelle, his wife and son. Neither of her parents had a college degree, and Obama grew up speaking, as she put it, "two languages.'' In order not to alienate some of her childhood friends, she said she had to be "smart without acting smart.''
But after graduating from Whitney Young High School in Chicago, Obama seemed to sense that her future promised a more prestigious social position.
For her 1985 thesis research, Obama mailed questionnaires to black Princeton alumni, asking whether they were more comfortable spending time with blacks or with whites, and how they felt about African Americans who weren't doing as well as they were.
Mundy writes that Obama was curious about obligations that educated blacks may feel to help improve the life of the black lower class. In her thesis, Obama asked about "feelings of shame or envy toward the Black lower class."
"When you think of lower-class Black Americans and the life they lead, how true for you personally are the following statements?" she asked.
Among the answers: "I feel proud that I have been strong enough to avoid remaining in, or falling into, that life," and "I feel lucky that I was given opportunities that they are not given." Black Princeton alumni were also asked if they "feel guilty that I may be betraying them in some way," as well as "I feel ashamed of them," and "Their situation is hopeless."
For Obama, who graduated with honors with a degree in sociology and a minor in African-American studies, predominantly white Princeton made her, for the first time, self-conscious about her race, says Mundy.
"My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my Blackness than ever before," Obama wrote in her thesis. "I have found that at Princeton no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my White professors and classmates may try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus, as if I really don't belong. ... It often seems as if, to them, I will always be Black first and a student second."
Mundy says Obama was anticipating that life would put "her further into a white-dominated culture, and did not look forward to it."
Princeton "will likely lead to my further integration and/or assimilation into a White cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant," Obama wrote.
Given that Obama would become first lady, Mundy calls her conclusion "one of the most ironic sentences ever written."
Her thesis found that when African Americans are at Princeton as students, they tended to identify more with their race, but after graduating, less so. Obama, now 44, pledged not to forget the black underclass.
Some commentators such as Christopher Hitchens have suggested that in the thesis, Obama was advocating racial separatism. Mundy said it's difficult to make conclusions because parts of the report are "dense and turgid.''
But Mundy, also a Princeton grad, sympathetically describes the thesis as the work "of a young woman who badly missed her parents" and unaware that it could be manipulated by her future husband's political enemies some day.
Princeton "was a real crossroads of identity for Michelle,'' Charles Ogletree, her adviser at Harvard Law School, tells Mundy.
Obama's question to herself was whether she would retain the identity given to her by her African-American parents, or whether the education from an elite university would transform her into something different, said Ogletree.
"By the time she got to Harvard, she had answered the question,'' said Ogletree. "She could be both brilliant and black."
Lula Cooper expects the tears to flow if Barack Obama becomes the first black president. But she's not breaking out the tissues just yet.
"I cried when I marked my ballot for him. We've had such an incredible journey to this point," said the former civil rights activist, her voice quavering. "I think he's going to win, but I really am very, very cautious."
Like a Hollywood blockbuster whose conclusion feels assured but still sets the heart racing, the endgame of this election has gripped black America with a powerful mixture of emotions.
Obama's potential victory represents a previously unimaginable triumph over centuries of racism. But beneath the hope and pride lies fear: of polling inaccuracy, voting chicanery, or the type of injustice and violence that have historically stymied African-American progress.
Cooper, 75, experienced the oppression of the 1950s and '60s as she was dragged off to jail for protesting segregation in Wilmington, Del., where her husband was DuPont's first black chemist. Now living in the Southwest, she said she experienced modern politics when her husband lost a recent bid to become their city's first black mayor after the election was switched to mail-in ballots rather that polling-place voting.
So when it comes to Obama, Cooper is "optimistic and hopeful — but experience plays a big part."
"With my generation, in the '60s every leader that we had was killed," she said. "Then it's almost like a plate over your heart. Once you've been hurt — King, Kennedy, Medgar Evers — you dare not put that much emotion out there again."
With even some Republicans using the word "miracle" to characterize the prospect of a victory by GOP candidate John McCain, given his lagging poll numbers, the shock of an Obama loss would be almost incalculable for many blacks. So people are protecting themselves.
"I can't tell you how much fear, but at the same time joy and expectation I have," said James Lowry, a management consultant from Chicago. "It revolves around every five minutes. I have hope, I read the polls, I get excited, then I say, 'Anything can happen.'"
Michael Cornwell, a surgeon from Atlanta, checks poll numbers daily online and fully expects Obama to win. Still, "you can't shake the tension," he said.
"We're expecting something to come out, some closing of the polls," Cornwell said on Thursday. "I see these Republican-driven articles saying the polls are tightening. Are they correct, or are they just a combination of Republicans wanting to make it look good and the media wanting it to be a tight race so more of the population will be engaged or buying copy?"
Paul Durr of Guys, Tenn., voted early last week. "I was jumping up and down," he said. "The other people in line thought I was crazy."
"If Obama wins, and I know he's going to win, it will pull this country together in terms of race relations," said Durr, who owns a cemetery monument company and is mayor of Guys, pop. 500.
"He has to win," Durr said. "If he doesn't, I think you'll see this country — I'm afraid to say what I think would happen the next day. I don't even want to think that way."
Even if the polls do prove accurate and Obama does win, some of his enthusiastic supporters still have concerns about what lies beyond the mountaintop.
"The empire is in decline, the culture is in decay, the democracy is in trouble, financial markets near collapse," said Princeton professor Cornel West. "It's almost Biblical. And you can imagine what the black brothers and sisters in the barbershops and beauty salons say: 'Right when the thing is about to go under, they hand it over to the black man.'"
"If people think Obama being elected is the crescendo, they'll be disappointed," said talk show host Tavis Smiley. "That's when the real work begins."
"I'm not sure people have considered, in the euphoria and jubilation and excitement, the fishbowl Obama will be in," Smiley said. "How everything he does for black people, he runs the risk of being accused of being tribal."
That sentiment is not lost on Leomia Dyches, a sometimes-employed hospital worker and single mother from Philadelphia with one son at home, an older son locked up, and several grandchildren to help look after.
"I think it's great, but I'm not looking for no miracle anytime soon," she said. "Hopes are really raised too high now because they're looking for a quick fix, and that's not going to happen."
Then something wells up inside her. "But I know while he's in office, before he leaves he can put some good things in place for poor people."
"My 16-year-old son, he sees hope," she continued. "A lot of these kids have no hope, it's day in, day out, same thing. They can't look forward to anything different. But a lot of these kids are excited. I have a 6-year-old grandson, and that's all he talks about, 'Obama, vote for Obama, don't vote for John McCain.' My 4-year-old granddaughter told me last night, 'Not John McCain.'
"It's always been said that you can do anything, but now we can see it. My parents have always said it, but it was like, 'Yeah, right.' But now it's here and it's facing you and it can be done. It can be done. These kids have to know, whatever they have in mind for their future, it can be done."
Dr. Boyce Watkins www.BoyceWatkins.com Hey peeps! The response I received from you guys on the new CNN show, “DL Hughley Breaks the News” was overwhelming. Within 20 minutes of sending out the email statement, we had an entire inbox full of messages expressing extreme disappointment in CNN and this offensive new show. This helped me realize that we need to do something about it. Our goal is to present an intelligent, dignified and firm response to CNN, letting them know that programming based on racial stereotypes is not acceptable. Political satire can be quite funny, but it must be intelligent, balanced and conscientious. This is not the brand of humor presented in “DL Hughley Breaks the News”, which went back to the same degrading media stereotypes and disturbing images that scholars and consumers have been upset about for decades. Senator Obama opened the door for us to see ourselves as educated, enlightened and empowered, so the last thing we need is to be readmitted to the asylum of pimps, thugs, criminals and buffoons. A sample letter you can use to contact CNN is presented below. You can get the contact information at this link. You can also forward this link and email to anyone you believe to share your sentiments regarding how our community should respond to this painful and disappointing new show. If you wish to hear my personal comments on the topic, please click here. Finally, don’t forget that we are going to “Get our paper straight in 2008”, so if you wish to join our group for Dr. Boyce Financial Advice, please click here. The sample letter is below. You can get contact information for key decision-makers at CNN by clicking here. Remember: Change won’t start with Obama or McCain. Meaningful change is going to start with US. To CNN and its key decision-makers, As a member of the Your Black World coalition, I am writing to inform you that I found your recently released show, “DL Hughley Breaks the News” to be a tremendous disappointment. While I certainly respect CNN’s effort to develop itself as “The most trusted name in news”, I did not find the new DL Hughley show to be consistent with the degree of trust that CNN has worked to obtain with the American public. The 2008 Presidential campaign represents an amazing landmark for change within our country by allowing an African American male to present himself to the world as a dignified and educated member of our society, an image which lies in stark contrast to media representations confining Black men to being criminals, rappers, athletes and entertainers. I found it disheartening that this progress was reversed by CNN’s decision to create a show which relied on the very same stereotypes to build a consistent stream of laughs at the expense of African Americans everywhere. The show was also degrading to those in the broader community who support the candidacy of Senator Barack Obama, and who wish to see our great country move past the deep and painful wounds created by our nation’s legacy of racial inequality. We ask that you discontinue the show, “DL Hughley Breaks the News”, and consider a brand of political humor that is respectful to all ethnicities and shows greater appreciation for the tremendous gains made in the 2008 Presidential election. Perhaps then, CNN can regain its status as “The most trusted name in news”. Sincerely, The Your Black World Coalition
As I work to do my part toward the fair treatment of African Americans, I can't recall how many emails I've received from well-intended, yet uninformed individuals who presume that my words are nothing more than "divisive hate speech". It doesn't matter what I say, or how I say it. As long as I bring up the impact that slavery and oppression has on the present, I am accused of using "divisive hate speech". When I bring up the fact that slavery, oppression and economic exclusion have created the massive wealth gap between blacks and whites in America, I am accused of using "divisive hate speech". When I mention the disproportionate black male prison population (an artifact of Jim Crow and slavery) or the lack of tenured faculty at majority universities, I am again accused of using "divisive hate speech".
I now ignore that line in any email I receive. To use that term in response to being confronted with slavery is like an irresponsible father getting angry every time his child's mother reminds him to pay child support. Reconciliation for extraordinary damage and devastation comes with a price. You can't just wish it away.
I know how to look past the critics, they don't bother me. But for some reason, that term (divisive hate speech) was in my brain when I woke up this morning, and I wanted to share some thoughts with those who are bothered by such criticism. Part of the price of admission for African Americans into so-called "mainstream America" is that we must do our ancestors a huge disservice by remaining quiet about the atrocities they've experienced. If you spend just one day thoroughly studying the impact of slavery and the experience of some of the slaves, you wouldn't think for one second that it is ok to forget what they went through.
The reason the term "divisive hate speech" is silly in response to any African American who speaks up on racism is because it is reflective of the lack of personal responsibility that our country teaches when it comes to dealing with the impact of slavery and discrimination. If I am wealthy because my father raped my best friend's mother and stole her belongings, it would be irresponsible for me to say "that's divisive hate speech!" whenever my friend attempts to have my family held accountable for the actions of my father. If I am forcing my friend to remain silent about what happened to his mother as a condition for our friendship, then the truth is that he is not my friend at all. The secondary truth is that I do not respect my friend nor love him enough to make things right after what my family has done.
African Americans are in the same situation. My precondition for being accepted by my colleagues in the academy is for me to remain silent about the raping, castration, murder, robbery and torture of my own historical family members during slavery. Engage in this mental exercise with me (close your eyes and really imagine this), picture having your siblings taken away forever at the age of 6, seeing your mother raped in front of you or watching your father beaten and eventually killed. That gives you a tiny glimpse into the lives of African Americans during slavery and Jim Crow.
The secondary reality that comes from treating another group of people like this for 400 years (that's nearly half a millennium, a very long time to form cultural habits) is that the dominant group is going to gain a sense of comfort and habit in their perpetual attempts to oppress the minority group. The minority group is going to feel comfortable being oppressed and victimized. I refuse to be a victim, so I am fighting back. Fighting back and refusing to be victimized is what leads to rejection by the group that is comfortable oppressing minorities. It also leads to conflicts with other minorities who have grown comfortable remaining silent about the truth (i.e. the “Administrative Negro” – Modern day overseers). That partially explains the term "divisive hate speech" or the use of inaccurate terms like “militant” to describe individuals like myself, who’ve never picked up arms against another human being. In fact, I recall hearing an esteemed black colleague of mine politely tell his superior that "racism doesn't exist in this organization", when privately, he knows that his company has not promoted a black man in 100 years. That is the kind of sick, twisted lie that many African Americans are forced to live, all in the name of "not appearing divisive".
Another reason it is irresponsible to use a term like "divisive hate speech" to describe any man or woman's desire to discuss the impact of slavery is that the truth MUST BE CONFRONTED IF YOU ARE TO MOVE FORWARD. A fat man who is challenged to exercise might want to say "Exercise is painful and unfair!" But he should understand that without exercise, he is going to remain fat. America is that fat man. Every time the term "divisive hate speech" is used as an attempt to silence those who speak out on race, Americans are behaving like the fat man who doesn't have the discipline to exercise. He should realize that confronting his weight problem is the only way he is going to get healthy. There is no way around it.
For the overweight man in my example above to think that he can achieve the gain without enduring a period of discomfort and sacrifice would be both weak and irresponsible. That is what many Americans want. They want racial harmony without the responsibility of true reconciliation and accountability. That is something I refuse to accept. So, from this point on, the term "divisive hate speech" is officially deemed silly and counterproductive. If you want to criticize me, you have to come at me with something better than that. But then again, I don’t pay much attention to the haters. Malcolm, Martin and Muhammad Ali taught us that the world will never reward an intelligent Black man for speaking his mind. I encourage all of you to reinforce your commitment to truth.
Interview with Financial Literacy Expert, Portfolio Manager and Author, Bill Thomason, by Tolu Olorunda.
William Thomason is a finance expert with nearly 20 years worth of experience. In his tenure as a financial-analyst, he has been quoted by well-known publications, such as, the Wall Street Journal, Barrons, Smart Money, CNBC, and other financial press. He was once named by Ebony Magazine, as "One of the Nation's 50 Leaders of the Future." His 2006 book entitled, "Make Money Work for You – Money Lessons from a Portfolio Manager," lays out patterns and examples worth following, in favor of accomplishing financial-liberation. Of all his acquisitions and feats, Thomason favors his dedication to the education of Black and Brown kids as most essential. He founded a program called, "Wall Street Wizards." Wall Street Wizards was primarily founded to be "a non-profit organization established to bring career opportunities and financial literacy to urban youth." I had the pleasure of speaking with Bill Thomason on his background, the concept and impact of financial illiteracy, the lessons of the recent Subprime mortgage crisis, financial-empowerment, and much more:
Thanks for joining us, Bill Thomason. Can you describe your path toward becoming a Financial Literacy Expert, and why you decided to pursue a career in finance?
Well, I’ve been in the investment business for close to 20 years. Within those years, I’ve been an investment manager, a portfolio manager, author of a book, and I also worked in private equity. It came down to me realizing that I am a Black man in an environment where there aren’t many people of color. I’m from an environment where people struggle financially every day. I was talking to a guy today, and he told me of how he went to a car dealership to buy a car, and he asked the salesman why he was advertising on a Black radio show. The salesman replied saying, “Those are the people who are dumb enough to come in and I can sell them whatever I want.” When you look at the Subprime mortgage crisis, that’s a result of people signing their name on something they had no idea about. That is financial illiteracy. They paid for houses they knew they couldn’t afford. So why am I doing this? That’s why. The Black and Brown people are the ones who get taken advantage of. I am about trying to create and teach Black and Brown people the ethics of money, investing and finance, so they can better take care of themselves.
As a result of that, do you think most African-Americans are financially illiterate?
Yep; and I say that because the statistics bear it out. We have high bankruptcy, 'jacked-up' credits, and all other symptoms that classify financial illiteracy. The symptoms of financial illiteracy are bad credit, stress, untimely deaths etc – and we have them. A lot of times, you can’t get a job if you have poor credit, and that breeds the stress which leads to the untimely deaths.
Can you explain the value of investing, and how one can begin investing, even at the lowest increment of income?
Well, I think we need to start putting money into investment vehicles; and there are plenty of them, such as stocks, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and real estate. Historically, stock markets have done well; so history is on the side of the investor.
At what age can one realistically begin the investing procedure?
The truth is that the parent should start before the children are even before. But realistically, as soon as a child is old enough to ask for gifts, the child is equally old enough to learn about financial-literacy. We already have a lot of challenges in front of us as Black and Brown people; so we have to learn how to invest and put money aside -- just to survive.
You founded the program "Wall Street Wizards." What is its objective?
Well, it’s to teach inner-city kids about mathematics, finance, economics, investing and money-management; and to bring financial literacy to our community, so our kids can learn how to be financial stewards. We’re also giving them a lot of other skills in this program; I like to say it’s ‘a life-skill program disguised as a financial literacy program.’ We‘ve got about 60 kids total, in San Francisco and New York. We have two programs operating in both San Francisco and New York. We try to expose them to career opportunities such as, investment bankers, portfolio managers, venture capitalists and private equity.
Your 2006 book was “Make Money Work for You – Money Lessons from a Portfolio Manager." How can the meager wage earned by the majority of our people work for them?
Well, that’s why I wrote that book. In the very last chapter, I tell the story of a woman who started when she was 40 yrs old, and put away portions of her income till she was 80 yrs old. At 80 yrs old, she had amassed $23 million buying stocks. She bought stocks that she knew, and invested in them on a regular basis. There is something called dividend-reinvestment, that shows you can buy stocks without ever paying a commission, and then, the dividends become reinvested to buy the investor more stocks. The woman in particular had a 1-bedroom apartment in New York. She was making a decent living, but wasn’t rich. So putting away $10, $15, $50 or $100 a month would go a long way.
Do you profoundly believe that if Black people took the route you delineate, they can actually liberate themselves from financial-disempowerment?
Yes. The front page of my website says “creating financially empowered individuals and communities." When you’re financially empowered, you can help uplift your community. The statistics, according to 21cf, prove that the Black Community - on an individual basis - is more philanthropic than any other ethnic group. We are philanthropic by nature, but we don’t invest wisely.
Was this financial illiteracy you speak of, revealed in the calamity of Hurricane Katrina and the inability of Black people to rescue their own kinfolk?
That’s such a deep question, and just like in the tragedy of 911, there wasn’t much financial-stewardship and accountability to ensure the donations reached the victims. A lot of people received the funds allocated to them, but a lot of people also didn’t get nothing. My family is from New Orleans, and so, I’m well aware of this reality. When you watch some of the documentaries that were filmed after the flood, and the gross-mistreatment of the New Orleans residents, you’re startled. Financial literacy is an all encompassing value that must be taught to those who intend to manage their financial lives, and put their financial life together. Our community predominantly goes to check-cashing venues to cash their checks, but those places take out a percentage of their earnings.
You spoke earlier about the shortage of Black and Brown financial experts. Can that be looked upon as indicative in the recent financial mortgage meltdown?
Well, I think there is a shortage. I say, go to Wall Street and find out how many Black people are walking up and down the aisle; and that’s just an example. So yes, I think it played a part.
How can the recent mortgage meltdown be avoided next time?
Read. Unfortunately, the old saying goes, “If you want to hide something from a Black person, put it in a book.” We need to read; study and educate ourselves. If you’re well educated, you don’t listen to someone who tells you to put your name on a document you know you can’t afford. We also need to pay our bills on time, and live within our means.
Lastly, what is the most important advice that you hope to extend to the Black Community at-large?
In the 1960s, we realized it was about our Civil Rights – we needed to be able to vote, live where we wanted, and receive equitable wage vis-à-vis our white counterparts – and now we have to fight for our Economic Rights. With Economic Rights, we would become confident enough to own companies. Every kid in my program – Wall Street Wizards – owns stock in Coca Cola. They also go to Shareholder meetings. We now have the right to invest, own stocks and build businesses, and we have to claim that Right.
