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I have to agree. My coworker who is also black like me chastised me for buying an older home in up and coming neighborhood (which has increased a lot since I have been here) instead of buying a huge new McMansion like he did out in ex-urban Waldorf. He also questioned why I was still driving around my old Toyota instead of getting a Benz like him. I told him I like being debt free. I think a lot of black people that grew up not having a lot get a taste of money and go crazy with on the luxury items, but they end up working longer and harder to maintain that "Keep up with the Jones'" lifestyle.
No it’s the truth. At my old real estate office all my black ex co workers were more than willing to fake it before they made it. They were planning to close a first deal just to immediately lease a Benz.
Black folks are seriously materialistic and even worse we will attack and assume our own people are poor if they aren’t wearing or driving something expensive!
Buying high end fashion and expensive cars which are both depreciating assets versus investing in real estate or stocks and bonds is the reason black wealth is still so far behind the wealth of our counterparts from other races. We just can’t get out of our own way even in 2018.....
If African Americans in DC and Atlanta would have held onto the homes they owned in the city instead of selling and moving to the suburbs, we would have real wealth. Look at the real estate markets now.
It’s just sad because African Americans all over the country seem to always be a day late and a dollar short. White flight led wealth out to the suburbs in the 1950s and now wealth is headed back into the city, but we still don’t get it. Here we are selling for a windfall instead of keeping these homes and renting them etc. and go buy these big suburban homes that will not retain their value. The suburban poverty is rising every year and will continue to get worse. These cheap homes in the suburbs will not be worth anything in 20 years and we will once again be wondering what happened.
Black people are no more materialistic than any other color. Expensive cars? I would guess 95% of people I see driving $100k+ cars, are white people, and 0.5% are black. I have a $100k+ car and I very rarely see black people driving such cars. White people are just as materialistic as black people, even more so, but white people are also better at building the wealth that affords them such a lifestyle. Rich white people also generally wear less obvious high-end fashion; I never see black people wearing Brioni or Hermes. Asians are also more materialistic than black people.
Black people are in the game when it comes to entry level luxury, but we generally disappear when it comes to the more upper-echelons of materialism - super luxury hotels, lounging on yachts, helicopter rides to Hamptons, at the casinos in Monte Carlo, in business or first class traveling overseas. I'm generally the only, or one of the very few black people around in these situations. The only overrepresentation I see when it comes to 'luxury' are blacks shopping in Louis Vuitton and Gucci stores. Those items are more attainable to the lower classes since it's not hard to save $800 to buy a pair of shoes.
I agree with you that blacks need to do a better job investing and building wealth, and that these things should come way before spending, but there is nothing wrong with materialism. I'm an unabashed materialist, but am also a property, business owner and come from a well-off family (Nigerian - they're anal about wealth-building and education).
Last edited by globalist; 03-31-2018 at 11:50 PM..
Black people are no more materialistic than any other color. Expensive cars? I would guess 95% of people I see driving $100k+ cars, are white people, and 0.5% are black. I have a $100k+ car and I very rarely see black people driving such cars. White people are just as materialistic as black people, even more so, but white people are also better at building the wealth that affords them such a lifestyle. Rich white people also generally wear less obvious high-end fashion; I never see black people wearing Brioni or Hermes. Asians are also more materialistic than black people.
Black people are in the game when it comes to entry level luxury, but we generally disappear when it comes to the more upper-echelons of materialism - super luxury hotels, lounging on yachts, helicopter rides to Hamptons, at the casinos in Monte Carlo, in business or first class traveling overseas. I'm generally the only, or one of the very few black people around in these situations. The only overrepresentation I see when it comes to 'luxury' are blacks shopping in Louis Vuitton and Gucci stores. Those items are more attainable to the lower classes since it's not hard to save $800 to buy a pair of shoes.
I agree with you that blacks need to do a better job investing and building wealth, and that these things should come way before spending, but there is nothing wrong with materialism. I'm an unabashed materialist, but am also a property, business owner and come from a well-off family (Nigerian - they're anal about wealth-building and education).
Unlike Africans who have immigrated to this country, African Americans are up against systemic ideals that exist in this country because of our unique history. We aren’t born into families with the same historical values in general as African immigrants who have migrated to this country by sheer motivation and initiative.
African Americans generally come from poor uneducated families that have suffered through generations of war ravaged family members with substance abuse issues (1970s-1990s), Jim Crow and Civil Rights (1880s-1960s), and Slavery (1600s-1870s). African Americans have been fighting an uphill battle for generations. When you have never had anything growing up, you want to flaunt nice things once you can afford to get them. We have been competing with each other for centuries out of sheer necessity to survive. We aren’t happy when we see each other become successful instead choosing to hate and resent the success of our peers. This behavior is a result of our history I listed chronologically earlier.
So no, African Americans don’t act or behave like African immigrants, they have very different historical struggles. This vicious cycle is what the current generation is trying to break. Our history is our only obstacle in 2018. We have to get out of our own way to finally break the chains of our past which has systematically tried to label us a permanent underclass.
Black people are no more materialistic than any other color. Expensive cars? I would guess 95% of people I see driving $100k+ cars, are white people, and 0.5% are black. I have a $100k+ car and I very rarely see black people driving such cars. White people are just as materialistic as black people, even more so, but white people are also better at building the wealth that affords them such a lifestyle. Rich white people also generally wear less obvious high-end fashion; I never see black people wearing Brioni or Hermes. Asians are also more materialistic than black people.
Black people are in the game when it comes to entry level luxury, but we generally disappear when it comes to the more upper-echelons of materialism - super luxury hotels, lounging on yachts, helicopter rides to Hamptons, at the casinos in Monte Carlo, in business or first class traveling overseas. I'm generally the only, or one of the very few black people around in these situations. The only overrepresentation I see when it comes to 'luxury' are blacks shopping in Louis Vuitton and Gucci stores. Those items are more attainable to the lower classes since it's not hard to save $800 to buy a pair of shoes.
I agree with you that blacks need to do a better job investing and building wealth, and that these things should come way before spending, but there is nothing wrong with materialism. I'm an unabashed materialist, but am also a property, business owner and come from a well-off family (Nigerian - they're anal about wealth-building and education).
There are way more white people than black people so yes you’ll see more whites driving more fancy cars. But you sort of answered your question. Whites build wealth while black folks throw it all away!
There are way more white people than black people so yes you’ll see more whites driving more fancy cars. But you sort of answered your question. Whites build wealth while black folks throw it all away!
That's not really how it works. In the U.S., the primary means of building wealth has been through home ownership. Due to all kinds of discriminatory practices (redlining, blockbusting, failure to extend low-interest government-backed housing loans, etc.), Black people were shut out of the wealth-building process in the mid-20th century and that has had ripple effects that we feel in the present. Even today, homes in affluent Black neighborhoods typically have less value than those in similar predominantly White neighborhoods and let's not even talk about the Great Recession and how Blacks were explicitly targeted for these shoddy home loans which wiped out a great deal of the little wealth we did have.
That's not really how it works. In the U.S., the primary means of building wealth has been through home ownership. Due to all kinds of discriminatory practices (redlining, blockbusting, failure to extend low-interest government-backed housing loans, etc.), Black people were shut out of the wealth-building process in the mid-20th century and that has had ripple effects that we feel in the present. Even today, homes in affluent Black neighborhoods typically have less value than those in similar predominantly White neighborhoods and let's not even talk about the Great Recession and how Blacks were explicitly targeted for these shoddy home loans which wiped out a great deal of the little wealth we did have.
There’s no arguing about the systematic failures of the housing market on black folks but building wealth has options that black folks don’t participate enough in.
One of my friends in high school, young black male like me, recently bought a home in NJ just off all his investment tools. And part of the reason he was able to focus on his investments was because he let go of the materials and used the money to invest instead. In a matter of 8 years he was able to buy a multi family home with his investments earnings without having to spend a penny on his income earned from his job!
Black people are no more materialistic than any other color. Expensive cars? I would guess 95% of people I see driving $100k+ cars, are white people, and 0.5% are black. I have a $100k+ car and I very rarely see black people driving such cars. White people are just as materialistic as black people, even more so, but white people are also better at building the wealth that affords them such a lifestyle. Rich white people also generally wear less obvious high-end fashion; I never see black people wearing Brioni or Hermes. Asians are also more materialistic than black people.
Black people are in the game when it comes to entry level luxury, but we generally disappear when it comes to the more upper-echelons of materialism - super luxury hotels, lounging on yachts, helicopter rides to Hamptons, at the casinos in Monte Carlo, in business or first class traveling overseas. I'm generally the only, or one of the very few black people around in these situations. The only overrepresentation I see when it comes to 'luxury' are blacks shopping in Louis Vuitton and Gucci stores. Those items are more attainable to the lower classes since it's not hard to save $800 to buy a pair of shoes.
I agree with you that blacks need to do a better job investing and building wealth, and that these things should come way before spending, but there is nothing wrong with materialism. I'm an unabashed materialist, but am also a property, business owner and come from a well-off family (Nigerian - they're anal about wealth-building and education).
I'll have to disagree that black people are no more materialistic than other races. We are definitely more materialistic. Our people can live in poverty, yet can find money to waste to clothes, hair and partying, popping bottles...etc.
We definitely need to get better when it comes to money.
There’s no arguing about the systematic failures of the housing market on black folks but building wealth has options that black folks don’t participate enough in.
One of my friends in high school, young black male like me, recently bought a home in NJ just off all his investment tools. And part of the reason he was able to focus on his investments was because he let go of the materials and used the money to invest instead. In a matter of 8 years he was able to buy a multi family home with his investments earnings without having to spend a penny on his income earned from his job!
It's somewhat understandable why Blacks don't invest as much as Whites; we tend to be risk-averse since we don't have much of a cushion to fall back on if things go belly up. However, things are starting to change on that front: https://www.investopedia.com/article...e-changing.asp
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