They’ve heard it all before. Set a budget. Avoid high-interest debt. And, oh yes, it sure is smart to get that 401(k) match from your employer.
But for a new generation of Black financial enthusiasts, that’s just not going to cut it.
In the real world and increasingly online, they are pushing their followers to take bolder steps to create wealth. This includes investing in stocks and even cryptocurrencies. Part of their argument is that Black Americans need to make big moves to make up for stolen time.
For over a century after emancipation, institutional policies ranging from Jim Crow segregation to modern-day redlining have disenfranchised Black people from building generational wealth. Today, Black Americans hold just 3.8% of $116 trillion in wealth in the U.S., according to data from the Federal Reserve.
“There is a deep well, a deep sense of longing for opportunities and looking for ways to be successful built into African American history and experience,” says Shennette Garrett-Scott, an associate professor of history and African American studies at the University of Mississippi.
The advocates’ message is not falling on deaf ears. Data show that while fewer Black Americans invest in stocks than White people, they are actually more receptive to holding cryptocurrencies. A recent Harris Poll survey found that in the U.S., 30% of Black and 27% Hispanic investors own cryptocurrency, compared with just 17% of White investors.
The same survey found that over half of Black and Hispanic Americans who had heard of cryptocurrencies believe their decentralized nature is a positive aspect, compared with 44% of all Americans.
Garrett-Scott says a majority of Black Americans do not have access to people within their networks with entrepreneurial knowledge. Instead, many turn to the internet and social media.
Evidence of this is prominent in the Clubhouse app. In the audio-only social-media network—it’s like a cross between a podcast and a call-in radio network—many “clubs” with names such as Black Women Who Invest, Black Wealth Matters and Black Bitcoin Billionaires have sprung up. And in just a few months, they have attracted tens of thousands of followers.
Tani Chambers, 44, runs Black Women Who Invest. Founded in December, it now has over 21,000 followers. The group meets every Saturday for a session called “Investing 101” and every Sunday for a book club. The focus: long-term investment in areas such as retirement accounts, real estate and index funds.
Chambers is motivated in part by her belief that Black Americans need to invest more. In her 20s, for instance, she remembers her mother only telling her she needed to save some of the paychecks from her Madison Avenue job. It wasn’t until five years ago that the daughter of a Jamaican immigrant and a Black American decided she need to do more than save.
“That’s not enough, especially for Black women,” said Chambers, who would go on to found a fintech startup and social-media presence pushing Black women to embrace investing.
Ross Mac, 31, a former Wall Street sales analyst from Chicago founded Black Wealth Matters, also on Clubhouse. The group now has more than 68,000 followers, many of who tune in every Wednesday to chat about a catch-all of personal finance topics, ranging from budgeting to investing.
“This is the new civil rights movement,” he says. Mac, who started making financial literacy videos on Instagram and YouTube in 2019, also hosts a weekly segment called “Maconomics” on cable music network Revolt TV.
Clubhouse is still an invite-only app frequented by billionaires and backed by Silicon Valley insiders. The company says it was founded to “build a social experience that felt more human.” Key to that goal is allowing listeners to chime in and ask questions, often speaking to experts they might not otherwise have had the chance to connect with. The democratized nature of Clubhouse explains some of the appeal to Black listeners.