Juneteenth - Are we equal yet?
It’s been nearly 160 years since slavery ended - so are blacks and whites equal yet?
What is Juneteenth?
June 19th, (June-teenth) 1865 marked the day when all slaves were freed in the United States. Although the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed over two years earlier, granting slaves their freedom, it was not followed in Texas until the Union Army arrived and announced that the enslaved blacks were free.
No matter the color of your skin, Juneteenth is a day worthy of celebration. It turned an important page in American history, and marked the beginning of a new age of equality between blacks and whites, at least in theory.
Although it’s been nearly 160 years, black and white people are far from equal. We don’t need to look any further than the wage gap to know that racial and gender inequalities are still widespread in the United States.
According to the Department of Labor, compared to white men, white women make $0.80 to his $1, black men make $0.76 and black women make $0.69.
Why does this matter?
Imagine Single Mom 1 who works 2 jobs and picks up extra shifts when she can. She makes around $40,000/year and she picks up McDonald’s most nights for dinner because it’s fast and cheap. She has to drive a car to work because the bus route doesn’t pass near her house, but her car is getting old and she doesn’t have money to replace it. The schools in her neighborhood aren’t great, but she can’t afford to send her kids to private school.
Now imagine Single Mom 2 who works remotely from 9-5 and makes $50,000/year. She logs off her computer every night at 5pm, picks up her children from school and cooks dinner. After dinner she helps them with their homework. Her car is making a funny sound, but she has savings to pay for repairs, if necessary. Her children go to public school, but she lives in a nice area where the schools are very good.
Although Single Mom 2 only makes $10,000 more than Single Mom 1, she works less hours and has more time to spend with her children. She has time to cook dinner and help her kids with their homework. She has money to pay for a car repair and she lives in a nice area with good schools.
Which do you think is the black mom, and which is the white mom?
I’m guessing you assumed Single Mom 1 was black and Single Mom 2 was white, simply from the nature of their work, eating habits and schools their children attended.
Money is the foundation for everything in our society. Where you live, where you work, your education, what you eat, the car you drive, and the shoes you wear are all determined by money.
The racial pay gap leads to disparities in basic needs like health care, as well as opportunity costs like quality education and higher paying jobs and careers.
Although closing the wage gap wouldn’t solve all of our social problems, it would solve a lot of them. With more money, black and brown people would have access to:
Making more money could have life-changing implications for black and brown people, leading to better education, jobs, healthcare, investments and generational wealth.
When asked what they want in life, most people say “more freedom and flexibility to do what I want”.
The simple fact is that people with money have more freedom and more flexibility to do what they want.
Single Mom 1 might send her kid to school even though he’s sick, because she can’t afford to miss her shift. Single Mom 2, though, can take paid time off to care for her child or take him to the doctor. Money is flexibility.
Single Mom 1 is stuck in a bad neighborhood even though her house has been robbed multiple times, because she can’t afford rent anywhere else. Single Mom 2 had one break-in and decided to move her family to a new, safer neighborhood. Money is freedom.
If you are an underpaid black or brown person, know that it’s not your fault. The game of life is rigged against you. But, there are choices you can make with your money that will give you more stability, more freedom and more MONEY.
So although money may not solve every racial inequality, it can solve a lot of them.
Do you know that phrase “money speaks”?
When black and brown people have money, they will have louder voices.
Make bank. Then use your voice to change the world.
Ready to make change with your money? Check out these posts:
What types of retirement accounts are available to me?
How to build (or rebuild) credit from zero
Your life may not be perfect, but it is imperfectly yours. The only way to live it is your way.
