Money Musings 💭 become a financial activist
As our Black History Month takeovers continue, I’m thrilled to have Dasha Kennedy, founder of @thebrokeblackgirl, writing today’s Money Musing. 🤗
DASHA’S REFLECTION
Three years ago, I started going by the title “Financial Activist” and heavily focusing on women’s financial literacy, primarily black women. What is a Financial Activist? A financial activist is a person that campaigns for political and social change centered around financial education and economic development.
Why is this work important? Financial activism bridges the gap between equity and financial education. For decades financial education has been taught from a place of shame, guilt, and judgment, hardly ever considering the systemic issues, past and present, that have made it difficult for minorities to get ahead.
Equity in financial education means providing fair and culturally relevant financial literacy resources and products to those most at risk. Yes, with a click of a button, we can find thousands of financial literacy programs online, but not many cover the reader’s race and socioeconomic status and how those two factors, among many others, impact personal finance and the ability to apply the resources.
As a Black personal finance educator, creator of @TheBrokeBlackGirl, I must cover the basics of personal finance and raise awareness of the economic history and empowerment of Black women through my teaching.
Here are three ways that you can add financial activism to your day-to-day life.
Research, listen, and amplify financial stories that you hear from minorities. One of the easiest ways to build wealth in our country is through real estate, and today Black people rank as one of the lowest demographics to own homes. Mainstream financial educators would say it is because of a lack of information or lousy investment styles but fail to mention practices such as redlining, blockbusting, and racial steering. Practices that were created for the sole purpose of keeping Black people away from real estate and owning homes and those practices have left a damaging impact on the financial progress of many families today.
Demand for diversity and inclusion in your bank’s products and services. This can be as simple as an inquiry. Ask your bank or financial institution what products and services they have available that directly target minorities to provide economic empowerment. Large banks brought in $30 Billion in overdraft fees during the pandemic, and minority families were hit the hardest.
Follow, support, and learn from black personal finance educators. Most black personal financial educators share financial content combined with statistics on black economics and how this is a task that should be the focal point of our entire economy. To amplify financial literacy and economic empowerment for minorities is to secure the financial well-being of minority families, which ultimately uplights our entire economy.
As a result of this, I created The Broke Black Girl, a digital community that provides culturally relevant financial literacy resources to over 70,000 African American women. This community started in 2017 after my own experiences with seeking financial education from educators who failed to see me as a minority and what that means for my finances.
This is a safe space for minority women to discuss personal finance hardships and work through them with a community of their peers. For the first quarter of the year, I created the Budget Bestie Bundle. I bundled 7 of my most popular digital products (topics range from estate planning, budgeting, debt management, and much more) from 2020 into one bundle, and to date, I’ve been able to help an additional 1,000 women.
If you want to learn more about me and follow my work, please connect with me on social media!
Join me as a Financial Activist.
PS It’s Ashley again! I’m teaming up with Cinneah of @flynanced to host a series of free roundtable events for Womxn’s History Month that will foster rich intersectional money conversations. First up, Build a Budget That Loves You Back (sign up here) on March 4th. We’ll also be chatting on Clubhouse (sign up here) the night before.
PPS In honor of Womxn’s History Month in March, we’re going to be doing more newsletter (+ Instagram) takeovers! You’ll be hearing from some of our favorite womxn personal finance experts, starting with Gianna of @FirstGenMoneyMusings. It’s going to be amazing!
PPSS To the experts who did takeovers in February (aren’t they amazing?!), THANK YOU! You and your work are so inspiring and I learn so much from you! 🙏
MONEY MOVE OF THE WEEK
Switch a recurring expense to a BIPOC-owned business. Every time we make a purchase, we’re casting a vote with our dollars. Consider the people and types of businesses you’d like to support.
Think of something you buy regularly (ie. shampoo, takeout, etc) and make the switch to a Black owned business as a way to combat racism and support the Black community.
Tanya Rapley of My Fab Finance, shares some of the household products she now uses in her home. You can also check out our “Black-Owned” highlights. Let us know your favorite Black-owned businesses and we’ll add them to our list.
YOU GOTTA SEE THIS
Equal Pay Day for Asian American Women. Yesterday was Asian American / Pacific Islander Equal Pay Day, the day where the average AAPI woman would have to work until to earn the same amount that a white, non-Hispanic man did in the previous year. AAPI women are paid $0.87 for every $1.00 paid white, non-Hispanic men are, resulting in a loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars over a 40-year career.
It’s important to remember that this isn’t a complete picture of the #AAPIEqualPay story. For certain communities, the wage gap is far greater, with some AAPI ethnic subgroups experiencing some of the widest wage gaps among all women.
Even within high earning fields, Asian women are paid less than their male counterparts. APPI women are hurt by the “model minority” myth that groups AAPI women together as high-achieving and wealthier. You can learn more about that here.
How do your own biases impact how you think about wage gaps among women?