Black Spending Habits
Brother Making It Rain In the Club! (He says a half-a-million?!)
Why do African-Americans tend to spend their money on some of the most useless s#!+? What I’m calling to attention is black people needing to analyze and scrutinize their spending habits. One major of many components to maintain power as a people is to control both your destiny and collective economic destiny. And a key component to maintain that control is to execute a well organized, thought-out, strategized spending plan.
From Blueprint for Black Power (pp 602-604), which obtained their information from American Demographics (January, 1993) and other sources:
- “Blacks spend over 75% more than Whites on boys’ clothing.”
- “…money spent by Black households on boys’ clothing alone amounts to well above $1 billion.”
- “African Americans are estimated to spend more than $500 million per year on McDonald’s fast food.”
- “African Americans consume 32 percent of all malt liquor products and 20 percent of the scotch whiskey market”
- “African American males between the ages of 13 and 24, who are less than 3 percent of total U.S. population account for 10 percent of the $12 billion athletic shoe market, purchasing more than 1 out of 5 pairs of shoes made by Nike;”
- “African-American females, who equal approximately 6 percent of the total U.S population, purchase 15 percent of the $4 billion cosmetics industry, or $600 million and spend 26 percent more on perfume than any other group of females.”
Now all of these things are not necessarily silly, but many attract a point of interest, provoke deep insight and pique a source of embarrassment.
You can see many silly spending habits of our people just by strolling through some of our heavily populated African American areas. You’ll see things like 20-inch chrome wheels on a 1996 Ford Taurus. Or you’ll see two vehicles owned by one man, a 2009 Pontiac G8 and a 2005 Jaguar who lives in an apartment in the hood. Or you’ll see heavy consumption of alcohol, inside and outside of the clubs. You’ll see a guy who owns 20 New Era caps and 20 pairs of Air Force ones with no plan for the future, but to buy some more hats and shoes and rap about it. You’ll spot people paying $20-$50 dollars for club admission or $500-$1000 to sit at a table in someone’s building to drink their overpriced liquor. And one of the most ignominious things you’ll see, are people making it rain (and glorifying it)! [Excuse] “I’m giving back to the community.” [Response] “Why don’t you go start a school or something?!” The list goes on…
What this type of comportment reflects is a deep mental programming. Something in our environment is influencing us that these items are in fact our aims and goals. Something is affirming this type of behavior as normal and perfectly acceptable. But the first question to ask is, “Who benefits from this pathology?” and secondly, “Where does this message come from?”
Another important question to consider is, “Where is this money going?” Money is energy in motion. It allows you to direct your energy towards a particular purpose. If Blacks remain in dilapidated areas, and are held in a position of suffering and lack compared to other members of this nation, then we must question ourselves, why are we ignoring these ills and squandering our opportunity for self-improvement by misusing our monies?
A general rule of thumb is: wealth resides in the hands of a European elite. When we attend work, we exchange labor for their papers (money). When we make foolish decisions with our money, our money is readily handed back over to the very people that we work for, dominate us and dictate our lives. We repeat the cycle conceiving the Rat Race. This is by design.
Another question Dr. Amos exhorts us to ask is, “What do we get in return for such loyal support of non-Black businesses?” In his book he substantiates information that reveals, what we gain in return is so marginal, it’s an affront. Dr. Amos identifies another phenomenon that hinders our community from effectively supporting ourselves. Black businesses are not only avoided by non-Blacks, but even Blacks do not support each other’s businesses. This exposes a deep level of mental trauma. But, both of these issues are things that need to be addressed by an organized body of African Americans before any effective countermeasures can be implemented.
The spending pattern and desires reflected by African Americans are typically unacceptable and demonstrate backwardness. We have a duty to think of creative, strategic ways to utilize our money—to recycle it within the Black community. After we finish thinking, we need to (actually) perform the stratagem. When that becomes a reality, then we will have (economic) power to dictate our reality, foster into creation change that significantly benefits our people and continues to benefit our people thereafter.
Action Hero's Sports Car
Closet of Jordans
Sponge Bob Car on 20s
So why I agree with the overall spirit of this piece, I do take issue with a number of points. While I’ll concede that there are particularly troubling spending pathologies that occur within communities of color (the last time I checked, Brooklyn streets were filled with Latinos & Asians rocking skinny jeans, Nike’s and oversized fitted caps), I’d offer that consummerism is a virus that has affected the whole of America (and “westernized” countries as a whole), not just Black folk. A suburban girl’s obsession with Prada pumps and Gucci sunglasses is no less troubling than a urban chicks obsession with Dereon jeans and Coach bags. I’m indiffernt to how consummerism is expressed.
There’s also an argument to make about the affordability of McDonald’s and the availability of fresh produce/foods in urban centers as they related to the amount of money people of coor spend in this fast food establishment and others. I personally live in a Black & Brown neighborhood in Brooklyn and have to travel 30 to 40 minutes by bus or train get to get a grocery store stock with fresh foods.
I don’t totally disagree with your point and I appreciate tha it was pointed out. I’d only urge that we broaden the conversation beyond one strictly tied to race–people in general are obsessed with this consumer culture..and it’s spreading.
True but trying to better our race …. we working on black community.
Wow…I am sick of misinformed African-Americans always talking about “we need to broaden the conversation to more than one race.” Well while you keep broadening the conversation to multiculturalism, everyone else’s culture will be concerned about their own race, while African-Americans fade to the background and continue to stay at the bottom of the totem pole.
It is that exact type of thinking that “We shouldn’t talk about just blacks” that is the sick pathology that keeps the cycle of black poverty going. SOMEONE HAS GOT TO STAND UP AND TALK ABOUT THE REASONS BEHIND BLACK POVERTY AND A WAY TO ATTACK IT. SOMEONE HAS TO. AND IT OBVIOUSLY ISN’T GOING TO BE A PERSON OF ANOTHER RACE BECAUSE THEY ARE OUT TENDING TO THEIR OWN RACE MAKING SURE THAT IT PROSPERS WHILE BLACK FOLKS WORRY ABOUT EVERYONE ELSE. So don’t tell a black person to talk about another race, they need to be fixing their own. White people should see the black American problem as an American problem and they should be trying to fix it too. (Especially since white American slavery is what created the pathology in what we now know as the American black, that they did not have before being enslaved). For whites to help would work well according to their false ideals of “American opportunity.” But whites are NOT going to look out for blacks, they never have, and never will, and that is why WE AS A PEOPLE must do it.
You made a comment about how Asians and Latinos are sporting skinny jeans and fitted hats. WELL DUH, to be unpolitically correct, where the hell do you think that came from???????? BLACK CULTURE. THEY ARE COPYING US. Therefore it goes back to the same psychosis of materialism. I am tired of everyone lumping blacks in with every other race. WE DO NOT HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM AS EVERYONE ELSE. YES THE WHOLE AMERICAN CULUTRE IS MATERIALISTIC BECAUSE IT IS A CAPITALIST CONSUMERIST CULTURE. HOWEVER, AFRICAN AMERICANS SEEM ARE FACING THE BIGGEST DOWNSIDE OF ITS EFFECTS. BLACKS HAVE A PROBLEM SPECIFIC TO OUR RACE WHEN IT COMES TO MATERIALISM IN THAT we are the only group who are completely stagnated by that. Can’t you see that?? Or are you too wrapped up in your ideals of diversity. A diversity that does not exist. Every race is out for itself, and if you understood that then you would see why Asian nationalism is what has made Asians so powerful as a group. You don’t see Asians saying “let’s look at every race.” No…they make sure that their race has economic, spiritual, and mental power.
African Americans were they only group to ever face the American system of degrading chattel slavery. AND OUR DEEP materialism is a REFLECTION of the self respect that we lost during being degraded, whipped, torn down, and separated by a massive group of white European devil-worshipers. We lost who we were. We don’t even know who we are anymore, and that is why we are searching for material items to FIX that. If you can’t see that then I suggest you open up your eyes and get to researching. No other group is trying to heal that deep wound of slavery to make themselves collectively feel better by brushing up on the outside. And oh yeah, when other groups go crazy on material items, at least they have the cash to back it up. WE DON’T. A white suburban girl may buy Prada shoes and can AFFORD THEM. A black urban girl on the other hand may buy a coach bag, and not have any money left over to feed her children. THAT IS THE PROBLEM. (For every dollar in wealth held by a white household, the typical black household has just 10 cents…so while you look at all races, I’m going to look at the numbers because numbers don’t lie.)
LOOK AT THE ISSUES PEOPLE.
BLACK PEOPLE GET IT TOGETHER! NO MORE EXCUSES AND NO MORE SUGAR COATING!!!!!!!!!
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FACTS TO PONDER UPON:
“In 1994 the median white family held assets worth more than seven times those of the median nonwhite family. Even when black and white families are compared at the same income level, whites enjoy a huge advantage in wealth. An African American family with an income of less than $15,000 a year had no assets, while an equivalent white family held $10,000 worth of equity.”
“At the upper income levels, white families with incomes greater than $75,000 a year had a median net worth of $308,000, almost three times the median net worth of $114,000 of an African American family at that income level.”
“In 1997, the unemployment rate for whites was 4 percent; for blacks it was triple that rate, at 11%. In the thirty-four years from 1960 to 1993, the black-to-white unemployment ratio dipped below two-to-one in only six of those years. Conley argues that ‘this unemployment gap is not explained by difference in education levels; in fact, it is among male college graduates that the unemployment gap is the greatest.”
“Middle class households–whether they are black, Mexican, Italian, Jewish, or Polish–always try to escape the poor. But only blacks must attempt their escape within a highly segregated, racially segmented housing market. Because of segregation, middle-class blacks are less able to escape than other groups, and as a result are exposed to more poverty. At the same time, because of segregation, no one will move into a poor black neighborhood except other blacks. Thus, both middle-class and poor blacks lose compared with the poor and middle-class of other groups: poor blacks live under unrivaled concentrations of poverty and affluent blacks live in neighborhoods that are far less advantageous than those experienced by the middle class of other groups.” (1993, 52, American Apartheid by Massey and Nancy Denton)
“By 1969, 41.2% of black children were living in poverty, compared with only 9.9% of white children”
“While young African Americans may have the opportunity to obtain the same education, income, and wealth as whites, in actuality, they are on a slippery slope for the discrimination their parents faced in the housing and credit markets sets the stage for perpetual economic disadvantage”
(from: “Learning While Black: Creating Educational Excellence in African American Children” by: Janice E Hale, Johns Hopkins University Press)
“After World War II, GIs received government-subsidized home mortgages, but there was no oversight to ensure that soldiers of color got their fair share.” Citing Ira Katznelson’s “When Affirmative Action Was White,” the Post reports that “of the 67,000 mortgages issued under the GI Bill in New York and northern New Jersey, 66,900 went to [W]hite veterans.” (THE GI BILL WAS ONE OF THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT BILLS IN U.S. HISTORY THAT ESTABLISHED WHAT IS NOW KNOWN AS “THE MIDDLE CLASS”. It established homes, businesses, land, and education for returning military men. Black men who were veterans were left out of that equation that spent billions on white men and their families. What implications does that leave for black men and their families? How has that effected black wealth, or black NON-wealth today? TREMENDOUSLY)
(from: http://www.bet.com/NR/exeres/89577A6A-4F63-449B-B339-3FE911E95F65.htm??Referrer={0471DDF0-D0D8-48A8-9E30-ADD40CBE0269 and “When Affirmative Action was White”)
Uh oh! I knew it was coming and here I am, unprepared. The angry Af-Am major with all the problems and no solutions. Damn, I was hoping you’d come around next week–not @ my best and short on time, but here I go just the same.
Honestly, I’m willing to concede a lot of points. No, I’m not out to save Black America. That goal is too small to me–too paltry an endeavor in which to celebrate its success. I support the succes of everyone, Black, White, Asian, Latino, Purple, Green and Blue. If that means the revocation of my “revolutionary card” and banishment to the world of useless utopianistic idealists, so be it. I’ll gladly hand it over and proceed to where I am loved.
I never suggested that we lump “blacks in with every other race.” On the complete contrary, I believe multiple modes of attack to addressing any problem and that intra-race/intra-community solution oriented work is critical to the progression of every race. Blacks used to be much better at it, but we’ve allowed to ourselves to end the sharing of ideas and opportunities for inclusion in favor these types of diatribes where everyone feels better about what was said then goes home and forgets the problems. Me, I’m solution oriented, I don’t care where the solutions come from.
To that point, despite your belief that all Whites care only about their race, some of the most impressive social entrepreneurs doing work in domestic communities of color, doing work in Africa and doing work in other parts of the diaspora are lilly White. I’d encourage you to read up on the EchoGreen fellows–particularly this year. Notice the lack of Black faces, then notice where the White faces are working. This 1960’s mentality of them versus us is as much an impediment to success as are the lack of movement on the challenges that face us.
And even if I were to accept your argument that everyone is out for themselves, that doesn’t make it right. Playing into that sick pathology, as you described, where people only protect and assist others when the look, act, and feel like them is foolish on your end, and I sincerely pray you can see that. You’re damned right I believe in diversity and multiculturalism. You want to see a world where Black poverty is unacceptable? You want to see a world where Africa is no longer a resource raped land of poverty and despair? You want to see a world where Black no longer have to fight at the bottom of the totem pole? Create a world where one’s skin color is solely the measure of how much sunscreen someone should use.
I refuse, absolutely refuse, to participate in the social device of race in the way that we have to date. I want to address poverty, not Black poverty…just poverty. I want to address broken education systems, not just urban education systems, but their rural counterparts as well. Along the way, I pray (I mean sincerely pray) that the work I approach helps to raise those young men and women who look like me out of the depths of poverty and despair. That said, I sincerely pray the same for my redneck counterpats.
Call me what you want, but until such time that we all become our brother’s keeper we will continually be lost. Passing on the opportunity to develop true cross-cultural relationships ONLY because it hasn’t worked the way we’d like in the past is simply foolish.
I am white and I came from slavery. The most enslaved people in the world are not whites, nor blacks – they are asians. And it is still happening today. I’m not complaining about my background nor making excuses for any failures in my life – i truly overcame them all with hard work and determination.
I worked 80 hours a week while some non-white friends were clubbing, drinking, partying, smoking rocks, spending all their money on the latest Nikes. Now look at me compared to them – they had fun for the last 15 years and I worked and studied. Now i’m a millionaire and they are worth nothing because they didn’t invest their money but rather spent it in clubs and wasting it on clothes and shoes.
Now they/you are complaining that I didn’t earn it myself? Are you kidding? I EARNED it…it wasn’t given to me. When I was in college working 3 jobs to pay my way through, there was this black basketball player who got paid to watch the grass grow 40 hours a week. That was a “job” that was given to him. He didn’t EARN that money…it was a form of welfare. He knew it, so did I.
You have to stop this crap about the white establishment keeping the non-whites down. How do you explain the history of Liberia – where former black slaves were freed, started their own country in Africa, and started IMMEDIATELY owning slaves. Why do you not talk about that?
Why is it that White men earn the highest average wage, then black women are 2nd, then white women are third, then black men are a distant 4th? If it was PURELY race based then black women would earn less than white women. How do you explain that?
Why is it that THE predictor (regardless of race) for success in life is if your parents were married when you were born. People – regardless of race – who do not come from married parents, earn about 1/2 of their married counterparts – regardless of race. This means if a black chile is born from a married couple, he will certainly earn twice what a white child from a single parent will earn.
It’s not about race…not at all.
Just be honest – we are all good people trying to do what is best for ourselves and our children. I could care less about how much maletonin you have in your skin. And I’m smart enough to know that you should feel the same way about me. I bet I have struggled WAY more than 99% of Americans. Do you think I am attacking the “black establishement”? Of course not.
Work hard, Save your money, Invest it don’t spend it. And your life will be great. This is America – the land of the free. Not like Liberia.
Another white guy denying the benefits of his racist forefathers. I can care less how hard you as an individual worked. You’re still granted privileged in this society based on the color of your skin. You have a much more enhanced network. Your people have put themselves in the position that they are in by murdering people throughout the world. Your people practice the miseducation of our people. They do so intentionally to maintain their position of domination. How can you compare America to Liberia? Have you lost your mind. America has built its infrastructure by using the labor of thousands of slaves amongst numerous generations. They have stole the intellectual products of black people. They have leveraged the products of their mind to produce all sorts of weapons to destroy people. They rule the world by enforcing their fear tactics. They reduce the appearance of their evil by creating vast numbers of psychologies to and other apparatuses to box oppressed people in boxes. They devise social phenomenas and belief systems to further enslave those into mental dysfunctions so that the the appearance of freedom is skewed to believe that they are in fact free. They enforce wickedness on people. They create secret knowledge bases who they only allow in based on series of interviews. Behind these masks of racist Europeans in cahoots they agree to various nefarious forms of activity in the name of sworn secrecy and mutual benefits. They poison people’s food. They fuck with the water supply. They harass African Americans even to the point of murder. You benefit wildly from your racist power structure that has set itself on a course to permanently dominate the world. Where do you think enables you to become a millionaire. Who cooks your food. Where does their food come from. Where does the worlds riches come from. Do you understand the banking system that is designed to extract the labor of groups of people by disguising behind a system of imaginary dollars behind some fictitious numbers represented on some balance sheet that is leveraged schemes of usury that compound these numbers into frivolous meaninglessness. Please don’t ever come on this blog talking about your struggles. I could really careless. And no I don’t wanna hear you disrespecting my ANCESTORS! by bringing up some bullshit about enslaved Asians! My ancestors were stripped of their heritage their pride their families and my ancestors that existed on this continent were stripped of their very existence. So please do shove it up your ass & kick rocks!
Dude, you need a hug…
No one believes you’re a millionaire. Your name is Buck. You’re from Lexington, TN and you make the 30 minute drive to Jackson when you need to go to the big city. You have “Obamacare,” “Bush/Cheney 2000,” “Ted Kennedy’s car has killed more people than my gun,” and “WWJD” bumper stickers on your 1995 Ford F-150. You named yourself Black Cracka after purchasing your first Lil’ Wayne album on iTunes, but disguise its use as a political statement.
It’s clear you have issues with race, so I won’t pretend that I’m trying to create a dialogue with you. You undoubtedly based your rambling on the three Black guys who bullied you in high school and the basketball player with whom your college girlfriend cheated. But just in case you are who you say you are, here’s a quick economics lesson:
Your stats are garbage and so is your logic. Anyone foolish enough to blatantly state that Black women make more than White women has lost all credibility.
Very True! A Strong point… but some of these habits people have runs deeper then what some people may not think is reality.Some may look at it as hey! I grew up poor never had money to do anything and now i have it… I’m living it up! or poor money managements or don’t care attitude and at the same time they may have that money to spend to live… Read More a luxury life but just! not putting it into a positive source to generate more capital. If we started doing positivily moves with our capital we can get ahead of the bullshit! so everyone needs help on this and need to be further educated on The New Black world order.
Remember with all further knowledge you must have Wisdom.
peace!
This is a very good post and it does in fact touch on various points. I love the exchange it brought forth. Nothing to add really other than poverty is a byproduct of an ultra plutocratic dare I say capitalist society. The bottom line, and I think I understand what one commenter was getting at, was that the issue of poverty or people being taken advantage of – since it actually costs more to be poor – is a human issue. But hey, when you frame it from the Black perspective, I’m kinda cautious because what in effect we’re doing is highlighting and holding to certain stereotypes.
Of course numbers don’t lie so there must be some truth to what is said in this post. Actually, there is nothing but the truth in this post. While we talk about supporting Black businesses – something that should be encouraged and I appreciate being highlighted in this post – we must also remember that part of the problem is that access to capital or the ability to secure business loans therein of itself is a problem. If you think about it, most of what is marketed to us is not done by or for us specifically.
But hey, in a society where in our culture we place a premium on respect and value. I guess it’s only natural being the lowest on the totem pole and feeling the need to validate oneself through material possesions or purchases. You’re right, there is definitely social programming at play here. And what’s sad, is that it’s not to our benefit.
You a some what glib in you approuch to a very humilicating situation with my fellow black American’s and their forest/tree, i would like you to also look at how you laps into the street lanuage as you type. Another part of our failure is speach, personal conduct and how we wear these shoes and clothing. Lets start with parent accountablity and end with, “i can’t find a good man”; but have a number of kids? What would their call the man/ or men, that they seem to continually have sex with?
When one pretends to be rich, one is doomed to be so! There is a story about a man that stated to me “I could be rich if my neighbor stop buying a new truck every year”!