This Juneteenth, I’m honored to speak at the Yale Black Alumni event in Times Square, Closing the Black-White Wealth Gap. The panel invitation compelled me to articulate my thoughts on what it would take to permanently close this gap, which is central to my work at NOIR Labs. See the article below, followed by a link to tickets for the event, which is co-hosted by the Yale Alumni Association, Yale Women, Ebony Reed and Louise Story.
Who You With?
True and lasting Liberation for any people is built on their capacity for economic sustenance, economic freedom and thus, intergenerational economic power. The economic power of a people is reflective of their self-identity, their cultural norms, and their “market” structures and systems.
It gives me unease to measure the state of Black wealth against white wealth because it reinforces the key issue facing Black people in America: our self-identification occurs primarily in comparison to whiteness. How much do we make in comparison to them? How strong are our families in comparison to theirs? What are our health outcomes in comparison to theirs?
This thwarts our thinking because it makes it seem as though our bar for success is whiteness. I believe we should be aiming far higher than the performance of a group that has historically exploited and profited from our genius through morally reprehensible means. Rather, we should be focused on reactivating our innate identity as wealth-creators.
To permanently close the wealth gap, we must rewire our thinking for a deep recognition that our wealth comes from within, from a sense of inherent worthiness–not from proximity to whiteness.
Olori Lolade Siyonbola
Free the Psyche
The path to closing the racial wealth gap begins with addressing the wealth gap within the Black psyche. Let’s be honest, most Black people believe that we are less valuable than whites. This leads to our seeking validation from the very cultural and economic system that has impoverished us culturally, socially, emotionally, and economically. This psychic gap cripples our ability to sustain economic growth, as too many of us look to compromised external sources for our sense of value and worth, rather than building economic structures that work for our unique cultural circumstances.
We have been conditioned to think of ourselves as inferior, and this has led to a lack of self-respect and self-love.
Dr. Na’im Akbar, Visions for Black Men
To permanently close the wealth gap, we must rewire our thinking to normalize the deep recognition that our wealth comes from within, from a sense of inherent worthiness–not from proximity to whiteness.
We must do the internal work to understand this, and to heal the material wounds of oppression. By cultivating a disciplined practice in alignment with this awareness–through our educational and cultural structures–we can truly live out the promise of Black genius: staggering, unprecedented wealth creation in all sectors of global Black economies.
The Lucrative Nature of Black Essence
To understand the immense potential for Black economic power, we must first recognize the unbounded value of Black labor and culture. The history of our planet is underpinned by major waves of incredible wealth generation catalyzed by Black genius, labor, culture and talent. Besides Ancient Egypt, the Moors, and global chattel slavery, we can look at the contributions of Black genius to the foundations of the internet, the mineral wealth that has made trillion-dollar companies possible, the entertainment industry and so much more.
Let’s not even talk about the Prison Industrial Complex and low-wage jobs. You can not fairly discuss wealth generation on this planet, without highlighting the immense contributions of Black talent.
It is in this deep and unshakeable understanding of the lucrative nature of Black essence that we can begin to magnetize the respect and appreciation for our contributions that materializes in economic abundance. Imprinting this knowledge of the inherency of Black value on the hearts and minds of Black people will close the psychological wealth gap. Only then can the closing of the material wealth gap be sustained.
“We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves.”
Malcolm X
We have the power to create the world we want to see, but we must first cultivate within ourselves an enduring belief in this power. Tapping into our collective self-trust will empower and embolden us to divorce our past economic traumas and embody a new reality.
Black Wall Street is Alive and Well
An upheaval in the educational system and entertainment industries would be the most impactful way to cement such a change in Black psychology and behavior. These changes can also be cemented through large-scale cooperation between organizations, entities and bodies already approaching mass re-education and entertainment with this premise.
Our contribution at NOIR Labs is to consistently reinforce the belief in Black value and capacity for successful transformation through narratives of success, genius, and thriving. We do this through noirpress, the media platform that you’re reading now and NOIR FEST, the traveling film festival seeking to return within the next year. Portal X, our technology for operationalizing these psychic and behavioral shifts, is currently under development–its framework already benefiting communities through our corporate consulting.
Countless other platforms apply similar thinking, advancing what we like to call the Black Wall Street movement. From Earn Your Leisure, to the Black Economic Alliance, the Gathering Spot, the Brookings Institution, the National Urban League, there is no shortage of organizations working to actively advance Black wealth creation at scale. My estimation is that the ability to cultivate trust and collaboration among such organizations will deliver a faster route to unprecedented economic Liberation in the Black populace than agitating for the white-controlled government or media industries to implement policies that serve our permanent empowerment.
Leaders in the space have shown that beyond psychological re-alignment, closing the racial wealth gap requires a diversification of the paths to wealth creation. We must divorce our minds from the idea that sustainable wealth creation is limited to certain fields or that Black success must be sanctioned by white institutions and systems to be worthwhile.
Unlocking Infinite Paths to Collective Prosperity
We each embody a unique constellation of gifts and talents. By understanding this, by accessing and cultivating these gifts, we open untapped, infinite paths to wealth creation on the individual level. Education and socialization of Black people today does not achieve this, but rather puts most of us on a conveyor belt towards an uncertain economic future, particularly within an economic system that has historically been hostile towards our plans for self-determination.
There is something that each of us can do better than anyone else in the world. The sooner we discover and cultivate these unique abilities, the more we stand to profit from them. Support for this process is critical to maximizing our individual success, which will naturally scale to our families, communities, nations, and world.
“Education must inspire a vision of self and community that engenders in its members a commitment to collective advancement and empowerment.”
Amos Wilson
Gaining access to educational structures that effectively support this purpose fulfillment process would be game-changing for the roughly 13 million Black Americans facing severe economic vulnerability (as characterized by living at or below the poverty line, or working in a low-wage job). Even for those of us in more secure employment, structures that help us to make a healthy living from our gifts and passions will contribute significantly to our psychosocial wellbeing and other markers of success.
New Algorithms for Black Abundance
Imagine a world in which each Black child has a digitized, iterative roadmap to the fulfillment of their highest purpose. A roadmap with time-tested strategies for building the most prosperous life possible from their gifts. This is the sort of Ai use we should all be clamoring for, and this is what Portal X will do.
By developing supportive systems and communities that deeply cultivate our innate Black genius, we can build permanent pipelines to profit that extend far beyond the classroom. The resulting ripple effect of success and abundance across our neighborhoods, networks, generations would be staggering.
I want to encourage those of us who are working to close the racial wealth gap to seriously consider this possibility. What would it take to create a world in which every single Black person is empowered to cultivate and profit from their in-born gifts, passions, desires? What structures would it take to make that possible? What cultural practices? What actions can similarly-minded Black organizations take to find the points of sustained agreement, trust and collaboration that can deliver this reality?
“The place in which I’ll fit will not exist until I make it.”
James Baldwin
The path to closing the racial wealth gap is not an easy one, but it is essential to ending the cycle of suffering and violence that has for too long been associated with Blackness. Our value does not come from external validation or proximity to whiteness. It comes from the divine spark within each of us, the unique gifts and talents that we bring to the world.
When we tap into the power within and recognize our inherent value, we become unstoppable forces for change and prosperity.
By addressing the psychological wealth gap, reinforcing our inherent worthiness, and strategically cultivating our individual gifts at scale, we can truly experience the reality we desire: a world in which Black people are safe, valued, respected, and abundant. A world in which we have the freedom and resources to live out our dreams, creating lasting legacies of sustained intergenerational wealth, security and success.
“In the final analysis, the Black community must assume full responsibility for its own economic, political, and social destiny. We must recognize that only by taking control of our institutions and using them to build and sustain power can we secure our freedom and ensure our survival.”
Amos Wilson, Blueprint for Black Power
Want to contribute to closing the racial wealth gap? Join us for the Juneteenth event! Tickets here. You can also contribute to any of the organizations listed above or to our organization, NOIR Labs!
References
- Akbar, N. (1991). Visions for Black Men. Tallahassee, FL: Mind Productions & Associates.
- Fouché, R. (2003). Black Inventors in the Age of Segregation: Granville T. Woods, Lewis H. Latimer, and Shelby J. Davidson. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
- McKinsey & Company. (2019). The economic impact of closing the racial wealth gap. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/the-economic-impact-of-closing-the-racial-wealth-gap
- Messer, C. M. (2013). The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921: Toward an Integrative Theory of Collective Violence. Journal of Social History, 44(4), 1217-1232.
- Swinton, D. H. (2018). The Economic Impact of the Black Experience in America. The Review of Black Political Economy, 45(1), 1-3.
- U.S. Census Bureau. (2020). Current Population Survey, 2020 Annual Social and Economic Supplement. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2020/demo/income-poverty/p60-270.html
- Wilson, A. (1998). Blueprint for Black Power: A Moral, Political, and Economic Imperative for the Twenty-First Century. New York: Afrikan World InfoSystems.
