Welcome the Money and Wealth with John O'Bryant, a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Hey, Hey, this is John O'Brien. This is Money and Wealth and the Black Effect Network. This is the trending topic for this week. What in the what HBCU FAMU who.
Donation? You call it?
That? Purported donations with two hundred and thirty seven million dollars, Florida A and M University is putting the pause on a purported largest donation to an HBCU in the history of America two hundred and thirty seven plus call it two hundred and thirty four rounded up million dollars donation by a guy that no one's ever heard from or heard of before, in a company no one's ever seen before or done business with before, Gregory Garami and his
so called energy company in Texas, which I won't bother to name because it doesn't matter. It appears it doesn't really exist, not exists in literal sense, but doesn't exist in a sense that is not a traded company. It doesn't have a market cap, market capitalization that is recognized. It doesn't have audited financials, It does not have published income statements. It doesn't have unaudited financials. It does not have a board of directors who are accountable and responsible
and are publicly known. It does not issue annual reports. It does not have a list of clients that can be verified and confirmed. The stock certificates or issue could be like tissue paper. I mean, anybody can say anything is worth it. So this is sad because it speaks to with the best of intentions of the leadership of FAMU.
It speaks to our financial literacy.
It reminds me of the bad deals that we cut, meaning African black leaders in Africa with Chinese investors, which I'll deal with in a separate podcast episode. By the way, if you want me to cover something on this podcast, you can leave me a note on one of the social media platforms where you see promotions for the different podcast episodes. You leave me a note John Brian, please cover this, and I do watch the comments and I will take the best of ideas.
And use them.
So this FAMUE thing just breaks my heart because it does speak to our level of financial literacy, making matters worse. It appears a president when he received this supported purported donation from somebody nobody knew in the company that nobody had heard of. With the client list, it doesn't exist with the stock value, nobody can from. Who was financials of the company? Nobody's ever seen, and no one independent
person is verified. When he got this purported donation and agreed to sign a non disclosure agreement, why would you ever do that with a donor unless you just don't tell anybody who the donation was from, not what the donation is. You can't even to your board of directors, big red flag board of trustees. In addition to that,
the guy wrote a letter. The president of the university wrote a letter two days after he received this sham so called investment, wrote a letter to county governments, the local county governments where they were considering a fifteen million dollar additional allocation of funds to the university before I believe in athletic stadium. It already committed ten million, I believe,
and there was another fifteen million being considered. And the president of the university wrote a letter and said two days or three he received this two hundred and thirty four million dollar piece of tissue paper, I mean purported investment of two hundred and thirty million dollars.
He said, never mind.
He told the local governments, I don't need you fifty million dollars. I'm cool. And because he thought this money was real and ex I think it was one hundred million. It was assigned to the Atlantic Program or something like that. So you know, whenever you make an emotional decision, it's going to be a bad one. You heard it here. Whenever you make an emotional decision, it's a bad decision. This was bad decision times two, actually times six, like
almost everything went wrong here. If they called me, I would have told them that this smells. You know, I'm not trying. I'm not giving shade to this, gentleman. I don't know them from a holding round or you know, I don't know if from the stranger and I've seen in the freeway. I'm just telling you, based on the data that i'm looking at the information that i'm reviewing, and have heard that this smelled from day one. Nothing
about this sound kosher. Nobody with this kind of money is off the grid unless it's inherited or it's criminal, and it's inherented. You can typically reverse engineer to where the inheritance comes from. If it's if it's criminal, you probably don't want the money anyway. But this has just made up like somebody created some stock certificates gave it
some kind of a phantom value. I want to give my brother Roland Martin a lot of credit for tracking this story down and documented online and to go and watch a cold of Rollins videos in this. He's, in my opinion, he's not wrong. This jury is still out on all this. You cannot call the gentleman this greg Greek Garami. You can't call him anything at the moment because you don't know what he is.
You don't know if.
He's you know, legit illegit optimism in his head, a criminal or crook, mentally ill.
And we don't know what he is. But what I know is.
That he does not have He did not present the credentials that back up a two hundred and thirty seven to almost two hundred and thirty eight million dollar donation, In fact, not even a two dollars donation. The stoff was to he put up no cash, stock certific he put up with a marketing value of fifteen dollars or something per share, have no financial basis tied to them, nothing that anybody can confirm they not publicly traded it,
which is the easiest way that is the market. Publicly traded is the stock market, the open market telling you what something's worth because we will boit and sold the stocks giving.
It a value.
This is a private company where somebody decided that something had a value and placed it on it, wrote it down on a piece of paper, and then tried to monetize that for reasons that are still strange to me. I can't figure why he would do this and gave this universe. He tried to give it to another college
of the university. They rejected it. Unfortunately found you accepted it and didn't tell anybody until after the gave a commencement address, and they passed around this fake check and made all these headlines when maybe that's what the guy wanted, which means, if that's the case, he is mentally I don't know.
Maybe he was trying to.
Use the promotion and the fame from that to go close business fields with his non existent company that was doing you know, interesting non business in I believe, Texas with no and in the person he said he did business with, I'm told said she never worked for the company. She knew the guy, but was he claimed she was a co founder. And this whole thing to sneak distincts
to high heaven. And I feel bad for the president and the boys, trustees and everybody at this HBCU, and this is going to unfortunately hurt all HBCUs.
For a minute, it's.
A little bit of a laughingstock moment, just so you feel better. I've been there, not like this, but a brother and I was in Africa with a bass reader young twenty years ago and a really really smart brother, much smarter than as Greg. Dude who was selling art sold me some art and it was a hotel where everybody was covered by security because the president of that Juria, was there, and I was so proud to be there,
and I wanted to buy some African arts. I bought this art and I believe it was like nine hundred dollars or something. So I gave the guy a check back in the days when he wrote checks for nine hundred dollars, and he let me take the art. It was really really smart at him, and I put the art in my luggage and I brought that I took it home and about three weeks later this guy sends me an email. This is really really savvy. This con was off the chain savvy. Send me an email. Mister
Bryant's so sorry. The check wouldn't go through my bank, wouldn't cash it. They said, I don't have proper RD. We go to the Western Union where we go to, you know, go and try and cash or someplace else. Well, you know, I don't know how to do that, and can you send me a wire instead? Well sure, so I go to wire him to my office and wire him nine hundred dollars.
It was probably I think a little bit more than that, but I think it's twelvend dollars. But anyway, from saying this conversation say.
Nine hundred dollars, and we wire him nine hundred dollars, this brilliant guy says, sorry, I can't receive it the Western Union where the company says, I don't have the proper ID. What do you mean that, they say, you know, the proper I D Let me talk to these people. Well no, let me see if I can work this out. Now. Mind you, this is now in the second week of the discussion with this guy. But this is three weeks after I've left We're on the fifth week of me
being away. I already got the art, it's in my home. So this guy says, well, maybe you can wire it to my sister. Sure, so I try to wire them. By the way, the first wire did not go through, so I got a confirmation that I try to wire the money again.
To his sister. Success. His sister received the money. He received the money. I'm so happy. I don't hear from him again. My assistant says, by way, did you ever cancel that shit? Nah?
No, no, no, no, no, can't be went back to the bank check cash. This dude got me for two grand I think it was actually twelvehundred dollars, which he got me for twenty four hundred dollars. It was so smooth, though, I couldn't be mad at him. And this is back when twenty four dollars was a lot of money for me. I believe it was twelve hundred dollars was the original number, which means he got me twice. I mean that was
everything for me. Not everything, but it was a lot of money for me, and I couldn't afford to lose it. But I couldn't be mad at him either, because this was brilliant. He got me and got me good. Well, Greg whatever, this dude's name is Garam did not get this university that good. He was not that smooth, this smart and that smart. This was just This is financial literacy. This is why I keep saying financial literacy is a civil rights issue of this generation. We got to know
better so we can do better. This is John Hopebryant. This is the Money and Wealth Podcast. Go get your financial literacy and your civer rights.
Hey, Hey, it's John Hope Bryant.
And I am honored to cover a topic that's going to be quite explosive.
I'm happy to light the.
Fuse and this important conversation because we have to have it. This is something that we have to talk about. Particularly. I'm talking about racism in America. I'm talking about I'm talking about being Black in America. I'm talking about racism and being black in America and twenty twenty four important.
I say twenty twenty four in particular.
And is being African American specifically the end all be all. If you read the comments from a post this weekend that Breakfast Club put up a part of my interview where they put a provocative title, which is not what I said when I understand why they did it, and that wasn't inaccurate where I talk about they say what John Bryant says basically, you know, is racism something like racism? You know, can you overcome racism with banks or you know,
accessing a mortgage something like that? Is it irrelevant? And of course that's not what was said in the interview. Of the interview was in spite of challenges? Is the color really green? In spite of challenge? Is a black and white racial issues? Are you saying, John, the color is really green? Back it up? And I did back it up. I like math as I love to quote. I know the hops and quote get credible credit is due. I like math because it doesn't have an opinion. So
I did back it up. I backed up what I said about the colors really green with data and anybody watching the entire one hour interview on Breakfast Club with Charlemagne and you know the crew there, we'll see we cover it in great detail that in a range of other things. By the way, a teaser I'm going to be doing I covered diversity equity inclusion of that podcast, and I'm doing a series of the business plan of America on my podcast series and on my daily straight
talk series on social media. But getting in detail on my podcast series, I'm gonna break down the entire future of diversity, equity, inclusion and how it is a business plan for America and why I think is going to shut everybody up. So this is a teaser alert letting all your friends know, tell them to subscribe to this podcast and follow the conversation and listen to an intelligent debate about the future of all of us. But back
to this topic. If you looked at the comments, it was quite troubling because this one piece, clearly people didn't watch the whole podcast. Not important the comments themselves or don't bother me. Nothing bothers me. Mostly people were respectful and positive.
By the way.
What bothered me was how backwards some of our thinking is. And we're brilliant people. I went to out wave African Americans. We are brilliant, We are amazing. We've been doing so much with so little for so long. We can almost do anything with nothing right. You know, my grandmother was a domestic and had a shotgun shot in East Saint Louis. You know, my mother was early on domestic and worked an hourly job. My grandfather on my father's side was
a sharecropper. My great grandfather, my second great grandfather, was fought in the Union cause the Black troops during the Emancipation Proclamation in Memphis, Tennessee. He was a slave. Clearly, I understand our challenges. I understand racism is real. I'm not debating any of that. The debate wasn't about racism, Okay, so I finally got into it. The debate was not about race. It was a I didn't mention racism. Was
charlemagn didn' mission racism, dj nvy didn't meension racism. The issue was was perseverance and strategy and Israel way around issues of discrimination and race when they come up and are you do you think you're correct John in saying that green is a way around racism of blacks and brands, and I said, yes, if you get your credit score right, and you get it high enough, you can go over around and through any challenge that faces you.
Your credit score, you adaptedly can't come of course.
And I even went down to say that if you come to Operation and hope we will put up our balance sheet, that Operation hope, and if you follow our criteria, if the bank turns you down, we'll fund your loan. So it was not complicated, but it sparked. And I've already said, if you make a decision emotionally, it's going to be the wrong decision. So it sparked an emotional back and forth conversation that I happily engaged in on comments.
I used comment responses sometimes to educate. It wasn't upsetting me at all, you know, I went out to my self esteem depends on somebody's acceptance of me. And I am the best selling author in economics now globally at the moment, number one on Amazon three categories, and before that published weekly in the USA. Today the book that just came out, Financial Literacy for All. You should all
get a copy. We have built, you know, delivered for to have big dogs with the capital to underserved neighborhoods, black and brown neighborhoods and struggling white neighborhoods and Latino neighborhoods by the way, through operation Hope. I think I know a little bit about a capital. I know I'm the only nonprofit allowed to operate inside of a bank branch in U it's history. I think I know something about banking. I'm an advisor to federal regulators, banking regulators.
I think I understand something. I know something about banking regulation. I think I know a little bit about history. I'm the only African.
American, sorry, the only American citizen ever to trigger a renaming of the building on the White House campus, the Treasury Annicts Building now called the Freedoman's Bank Building, renamed in honor of former slaves who put every dollar they had in the bank that Abraham Lincoln stood up with freer after the Civil War. UH. And we went and got the our federal government secretary Jack lou to be specific, UH and my friend while the Adiyamo and others helped
me to get the building renamed. This was during the Obama administration. It's now called the Freedoman's Bank Building. And we had Operation Oprink. We believe continuing that work today three hundred offices across the country. So there's my credibility. That and a bunch of others I've advised through US Presidence. I think I understand history. I understand the government, I understand banking, understand money, and I think I understand racism money.
You know, I just said it had nothing to do with the conversation.
The conversation was about how do you succeed irrespective of racism. But let's deal with this because I mean this was people were citing this lawsuit and that lawsuit in John, how do you say racism doesn't exist against black people? Because this happened to me subjective. That happened to me subjective and subjective, meaning it was about this subject It was about this person and this experience that they had, and their life experience is defined by that or this
lawsuit with this company. And I'm going to break down banking on a separate podcast. I promise to do that and dedicate our white banks quote unquote white banks racist. I'm gonna enjoy doing that podcast, but I'm gonna stay focused on this issue today of racism and my belief that if you do a class, you get race for free.
Today.
Yes, I said it, but I want you to just follow me on this and let's have an intelligent conversation. So again, the themes of the comments you go on my Instagram page in response to this particular post by the Breakfast Club was you know, racism is so bad against black people. How could you ever think about recommending that we access capital or race creative scores, or why
should we have any hope? Essentially, why should we try anything? Essentially, because no matter how hard we try, no matter what we do, racism against black people and it's so bad and it's so document and John, you should know better.
Then why shouldn't we ever try to do anything? But we're just gonna sit here.
And complain about how bad things are because why try? We all know this system is stacked against us. If you're black, you've got no chance of succeeding in this country. When you get up in the morning, people are conspiring against you. John, you should know better. Again, look at this lawsuit, that lawsuit, This situation is racism real. Let me start here. Yes, racism is like rain is either
fall in someplace or its gathering. So you might as well get out an umbrella and a color you're light and starts strolling through it because it's not going to change, so you must over a round and through it. We're gonna have to get to it. So it's racism real. Absolutely, it's real. Of course, my friend Stevie Wonder can see it's real. He won't mind me using making that phrase
to see what there's a great sense of humor. But I mean the point is anybody can see that racism is real, and it's been real for a long time, not just for us, for a whole bunch of people. And what's the point. Now here's a second pivot on this conversation. Okay, racism is real? Then how do you how can you possibly say, John, that we should believe in this system when clearly racism against black people is uniform and we can't succeed no matter how hard we try.
The first premise is that black is black. In other words, when you're black, you're off the grid economically, you're going to be discriminated against. That's right, right, No, it's not right. The Boston Globe did a report in concert with I believe. I know it was Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, but I think it was also a Duke University look it up front page.
Several years ago.
They did a study of net worth in Boston area and they found that white people had a net worth of you know, one hundred and some thousand dollars I recall, and that black Caribbean people had a networth of I believe it was twelve hundred dollars, give or take, and that African Americans in Boston had net worth of eight bucks.
And it was so bad, yes, eight bucks, and it was so bad, it was so terrifying of a study that the headline in the Boston Globe actually said that the black networth in Boston was eight bucks.
And this is not a typo.
The headline literally said, this is not a typo as in topographical error, that the networth of African Americans was eight dollars, while the net worth of African Caribbeans, hello, they're black, it was twelve hundred dollars. Now, the networth of whites was you know, multiple times that of over one hundred thousand dollars.
So clearly there's disparities there.
But if all black people were in the same bucket, everybody would have a networth of either twelve hundred dollars in this one example or eight bucks.
But clearly there is a difference.
I said in another podcast episode that and I've been one hundred countries, I've been to almost half of all African countries. I've been to a great deal of the Caribbean I've said that, and this is a generalization, and this is what if people want to argue with me, I guess you can argue about this point. The rest of it is literally fact based and non refutable. Anybody likes statistics, facts and data. But this is just my opinion.
But I don't think it's off the mark. If you're in Africa the Caribbean, you tend to have high self esteem in lower levels of confidence. High self esteem because you grew up well, normal mother and father. Generally speaking, you see the dentists, who's black, what looks like you. You see the architect who's black, the lawyer who's black, the mayor is black. The police who are protecting you, and the police were abusing you all black, So it's sort of and you weren't dealing with slavery for the
majority of your ancestral life. It was a short period of time, but it went away. So I'm to America with high self esteem. You esteem yourself, you love yourself, but you have high low levels of confidence because you're not quite sure you can succeed even though you're really smart in a leading market economy, because you come from someplace that may be you know, several steps behind the best economies, the bigger economies in the world, but over time,
your confidence increases. Confidence is based on confidence applied in the market economy. In this example, Africa is the same thing. Africans and African Caribbeans tend to have high self esteem and low levels of confidence or lower levels of confidence self African Americans tend to have high levels of confidence and lower levels of self esteem. This is why it's This gets into why we fight with each other. By the way, if I don't like me, I'm not gonna
like you. If I don't feel good about me, I'm not gonna feel good about you. I don't respect me. I don't have a clue how to respect you. If I don't love me, I have no idea how to love you. I don't have a purpose in my life. Make your life a living hell. Whatever goes around comes around. But I've gotten too farlane. We come back, so we have higher confidence because we're competent and we've applied that confidence or that competence.
I'm sorry.
In a market economy, the biggest economy in the world, the United States of America, we have killed it. In professional sports, the arts, entertainment, music, c faith, religion, politics, public service, government rules are published, are playing through this level. We are extraordinarily smart. We hustle, we work hard, We're hyper intelligent. We're hardworking. We succeeded. That competence created success and gave us confidence because we've succeeded in the largest
economy in the world. But our history of being enslaved and dealt with with discrimination in jim Crow for most of our existence in this country, more than three hundred years, three hundred and fifty years, give or take, has to damn which our self esteem. That's why you have African American ghettos in America. You don't have African ghettos in America. You don't have African Caribbean ghettos in America. I know
this is getting deep in off the topic. I'm going to get back to the economics here in the moment. It's a very powerful statement. If I want to lay the groundwork, we're gonna have a conversation about this. But again, you don't see African Ghaneian ghettos in America. I don't mean where African Ghaneans live. I don't remember where I'm saying where African. Jamaicans live in a community. Are African, Zimbabweans are African, Nigerians are African.
You know Brazilians. Did you get the point?
They live in communities, just like everybody lives in communities, but they don't have ghettos.
You have African American ghettos in America. Hello.
Because they depressed our spirit and repressed our ambition and aspiration and tried to break us as human beings. So they just wanted this to be a human machinery, human doings, not human beings. And mindset matters, as you heard me say. I've got a book called the Memo I've got that It tries to work on your mindset. I've got the book up from nothing, the five pillars of success, your mindset,
your your you know is a surviving mindset? Is that the writing of mindsets are winning mindset, Towny, many of us are in a surviving mindset.
We're experts in.
What we're against, racism by discrimination, not what we're for. Hello, So we double down on this trauma, this PTSD that overtakes us. And if you whether you believe you can or whether you believe you can't, you're absolutely right. Is the glass half full or is it half inb depends who's looking at the glass. So basiar dger Young would say, to live in a system of free enterprise, he's on the balcony with doctor King when he was assassinated.
To live in the system of.
Free enterprise and not to understand the rules of free enterprise must be the very definition of slavery. And that's why I connect this with credit scores. Uh, And that's why I said that Charlemagne show Breakfast Club, get your critical above seven hundred. My mother's credit score was eight fifty four when she first when she last access credit.
People were even.
Arguing, being about that, Oh man, that your mother's credit score wasn't eight fifty four. It doesn't even go beyond eight point fifty. See, gotcha? I'm like, hello, My mother last access credit in nineteen twenty, nineteen twenty eighteen or thereabouts, maybe even before that, her credit score was fifty four.
It was a vantage score.
Hello, Bichael also went up to nine hundred, and vanta score went up to nine hundred. They changed it in twenty twenty during the pandemic. But why is this an argument? Why are we arguing? Why were re arranging the deck chairs and the Titanic the ship is sinking and we're picking drapes. Why must you convince me that I'm wrong? Why must you make me wrong? What's your point? My mother's credit score? God addressed her. So Winnia Smith was eight fifty four. Why would I lie about that? She
had an hourly income. She made fifteen to eighteen dollars an hour at McDonald Dougla's aircraft, worked there for thirty two years, bought one home and comped in one five five oh too South frankly, a broken marriage over money with my dad, Johnny Smith, who worked very hard but was not very financially literate, and so on and so forth, And tell that story in another podcast episode. And my point was, I can relate to the struggle and the hustle and the challenges. And we came and we had
to live with people and all that stuff. And my mother bought and sold seven homes and built a million dollar networks when she passed away September tenth, twenty and twenty three.
Well would I lie about that? That's crazy?
Just takes the story as a source of aspiration, applaud it and try to replicate it. But then folks undermining that story. No, man, that didn't happen, and John don't understand, and what the and then my mother they bought and sold seven homes. I owned seven hundred through the Promise Homes Company I, and it was on government assistance per se. In other words, there was no government program I used. I I was financially in literally access capital the market economy.
I mastered the game of capitalism. So my grandmother was owned the shotgun check. My great grandmother on my mother's side was a slave. My mother owned seven homes with a high school education, and I owned seven hundred and the largest minority owner of single family rental homes in America. And I access the credit markets and got prime rates
and ultimately got non recourse debts. I'll cover terms of loans, debts and financial instruments in another podcast, but non recourse debt means, in this Triger example, not personally guaranteed, institutionally guaranteed. So I became an institutional borrower. And I'm from the hood less of my check. I'm black. So people are telling me this is not possible. But not only did I do it for myself and did my mother do it. But we've done it for four billion dollars worth of capital.
We deployed two people of color and struggling people everywhere clean non blacks and browns meaning poor white suit which is the largest population of poverty in America.
By the way, I'll get to that in a moment.
Through Operation Hope by doing the same thing I'm saying, raising credit scores, lowering dead increasing savings, making you bankable. So your color is not black or white, it's green, so we can get you approved. But these arguments were almost, like again, traumatic because they could not accept a different narrative than the one they had in their head. That's modern day slavery is mindset, crushed, mindset, a cynical mindset.
Don't be skeptical, but don't be cynical, because when you're cynical, that means you have no hope that they're Andrew Young quote. So, as Malcolm X said, we've been bamboozo we've been tricked, We've been fooled.
Now here's the data.
Here's a drop the mic of this podcast for those who say still saying listening to this, saying I love what John Bryan says, and all this kind of stuff. But you know, I just can't buy this. This is not true. Racism is so bad that why should I have hope. Here's the data. Friend of mine sent me this graph and it's very powerful. Actually, i'll tell you what the friend was. That's a great guy named Charlemagne, who I think is underrated as an intellect, an intellectual.
He sent me this graph. Here you go. This just confirms what I've been saying, income by ethnicity, medium household income by ethnicity in the United States of America. Okay, so here we go Indian Americans, not white people. By the way, that's not a racial comment. It's just that people say it's white and it's black, like white people
are rich and white white people are poor. White people are elitists and where, and they're repressively into black people who are being oppressed and where you know they got a foot an whatever the phrase is, right, So I want you to write this down, have this conversation with people. Let them repeat this podcast in a conversation. Have a weekly conversation with your posse in your neighborhood, and go to the barber shop, open this up, play it for them.
Let's have a conversation about what's the game here, because I really believe slavery was actually about money, not repressing black people. It's about bad capitalism. There's good capitalism and bad capitalism. Good capitalism is where I benefit and you benefit more. Bad capitalism is where I benefit and you pay a price for it. Here's the large economy in the world. This is the United States of America. Please listen.
Income by ethnicity in this country. Indian Americans one hundred and fifty two thousand, three hundred and forty one dollars.
Indians are discriminated against. Maybe not as bad as African Americans, but they have been.
Filipino American one hundred and nine thousand, ninety dollars a year. This is everybody. Now, you don't seen me, you've heard white American. That's why I keep saying the business plan for America. This country needs everybody to succeed to continue to be the biggest economy in the world. Asian American one hundred and six thousand, nine hundred and fifty four. Chinese American, which is different from Asian American by the way, one hundred and one thousand, seven undred and twenty eight.
Russian American ninety eight thousand, nine hundred and forty six dollars a year, European American. Okay, here we go. Caucasians. So now you've got somebody to pick on. Maybe they're in ninety six thousand, seven hundred and forty five dollars.
But they are fifth on this list. There was a time when there was just them.
And I keep saying there's not enough college educated, successful white man to grow GDP gross domestic product for this country for the next thirty years. It's not a racial comment, it's just math. Go to LinkedIn and read my business plan for America and again you'll see what I'm saying that this country, for the first time in the history of God, has a sense of humor. If you want to make God lab tell me your plan, you're racist. Racism is bad for business. The lowest credit score state
in America is Mississippi. The least diverse promoting Satan the country probably is Mississippi. They're still arguing about whether they want to take down the Confederate flag or something.
Again, so it's just crazy discussions. Right, I'm not judging somebody. I'm saying the decision making is bad. I'm not judging as a person. I'm saying your decision making is antiquated, is bad.
That diverse and inclusive economies are growing economies in America is the most diverse place in the world, one of the most It is the biggest economy in the world. Okay, back to the data, so okay, in nineteen fifty, America was one hundred woman, ninety percent white. Nineteen fifty, nineteen fifty five. That's not the reality today. So it was racism the biggest issue in nineteen fifty probably are one
of the biggest issues. And Jim Crow certainly would suggest that in the early twentieth century it would slam the door on any prosperity. Simply what happened in Tosa, Oklahoma, where they burned down a whole city because people became prosperous and with a threat, was absolutely a shut.
Down based on race. What happened.
After reconstruction or during reconstruction, after Lincoln's assassination, shut down the Freemans Bay and all the progress of those becoming black elected officials, et cetera, et cetera, and the reversal of forty years in the Meal failed Action fifteen that was clearly white racist forces, racially motivated forces, or black control. I'm sorry, white control. Sorry I say black white controlling interest because they are again poor whites too at the same time, So I'll.
Get to that in a minute.
Who saw black majorities as a threat, not because first and foremost because of race, was because they wanted to keep the wealth and the power and the money for themselves, and they didn't want other folks out voting them, out numbering them and out smart them and outthinking them and
out doing them. So keep them, keep them back, keep them down, don't educate them, don't let them farm proper families, don't let them understand financial litter to see the freedoms bank, don't give them, let them have rebuild or have self esteem and confidence, don't have them have proper role models, and then blame failure their own failure on them. So, yes, that was a business plan for a long time. But this is twenty twenty four. I'm grading your software over
the round and through it. We're gonna get to it. Back to the example. I actually think COVID was the Noah's Art moment. God said, Okay, knock it off, everybody. You guys have gone a bridge too far with all this messiness, craziness. Let me get you guys refocused and reset everything. And within a year you had the largest pandemic since the Spanish flu one hundred and twenty five
years ago. You had a pointed year old reckoning of social justice for black America George Floyd, where everybody's watching TV because of COVID the news. Otherwise we wouldn't have been all watching the news black, white, rich, poor Republican Democrat, oh and young. And then you had an attack on our capital, all in the same year, and it reset everything so that we might grow through legitimate's suffering. Back to the examples again, Indian Americans number one, Filipino Americans
number two. That's one hundred and fifty two thousand, one hundred and nine thousand a year, respectively of income. Number three, Asian American one hundred and six thousand, Chinese American one hundred and one thousand, Russian Americans ninety eight thousand, European Americans ninety six thousand, seventy forty five dollars a year. Australian America is ninety five thousand dollars a year. Japanese Americans ninety four thousand, three hundred and nineteen dollars a year,
British Americans ninety thousand, eight hundred and nine dollars. To see that's different from European Americans. In case that you want to start getting real specific, all right, and I'll explained why this is different. In the second Italian Americans ninety thousand and forty eighty seven. You want to see some people who are discriminated against, go back to the early nineteen hundreds and see how Italians were treated.
They were treating horrible in this country. Horrible.
In fact, they were treated in many cases similar to blacks. German Americans eighty three thousand, nine hundred and eighty nine dollars a year. Canadian Americans eighty two thousand.
They're white. Right.
I'm not giving you the exact numbers of each of these. I'm giving you rounding it out in some cases, but it's eighty thousand, five hundred and twenty one dollars Comadian Americans, White American hello, seventy nine thousand, nine hundred and thirty three. It will be interesting to find out what describes a white American versus European American. Probably European American somebody who came here from Europe. So white Americans are actually in
the middle of this graph. Now watch this. White Americans seventy nine thousand, seven nine hundred and thirty three dollars. Nigerian Americans seventy eight thousand and five dollars a year right next to white American.
Did you get that?
Brazilian Americans seventy three thousand, two hundred and eighty five dollars a year. Mexican American sixty six thousand, forta eighty
one dollars a year. Yes, Mexican Americans. Everybody's talking mess about the folks who came here honestly got their credentials and worked hard or making sixty six thousand for to eighty one dollars a year for their median household income and contributing Hispanic Latin American sixty five thousand, hundred eighty two dollars a year, the average American sixty three thousand,
eight hundred and twenty two. I guess if you average all everybody out on a graph, Native Americans fifty eight thousand, eighty two dollars. Hello, Hold on, African Americans fifty one thousand, three hundred and seventy four dollars a year. That's the end of the graph. Did you get it? That then aligns with what I just told you about Boston, and
we're brilliant, Like I'm African American, We're brilliant. And then the average fan worth of African Americans and scheduled by twenty fifty two to twenty fifty three to be about to see bro because we don't own homes forty one to thirty three percent of us own homes. We're not involved in the free prizes, the capitalist system. Beyond professional sports, the arts, and a few other categories, we're debating things
that are stupid, like is our banks racism? I mean, we're spending wasting our time on all these ridiculous conversations that don't pay any money and they're not building any Well, we need to get over and get on with and we need to move on and move on. And this graph makes it clear that you can be white. And by the way, this white American category is seventy nine thousand. My guess is it also factors in poor whites. And if you if you pulled out poor whites, poor whites
will probably be lower than African Americans. And what happens is you have a most people who are white American making one hundred and I'm making this up one hundred two thousand dollars a year, and then you have poor whites making thirty thousands a year. The average might be something like seventy nine thousand dollars a year, and the same would be afric American gym somebody like me who's part of the one percent, and you have you are
part of the one percent. But that's not enough to offset people making ten thousand and fifteen thousands a year. You average that out and you have fifty one thousand dollars a year. So these are averages again median household actually it's a median household income that's just not even the average and median household income by ethnicity in the
United States of America. So this is complicated people, Right, And that doesn't mean that racism is not is not real, doesn't mean that somebody's not trying to wake up and hurt you, doesn't mean that the bank officer you talk to isn't racist. But that doesn't mean the bank is racist. The bank wants to make some money, right, They don't make money, they go broke. And if they're not lending you in money, they may think they're not that lending
you money is going to make them go broke. Maybe maybe they have a bad image of you as a person or us as a race.
Is that image incorrect? Maybe? Maybe not.
The average credit score for African Americans and six point twenty, which is pretty low, actually the lowest in the country, and we have to fix it. And it's something we can fix. By the way, I can't fix how you treat me or how you feel about me. I can fix my credit score, and we're doing it at Operation Hope. Now, let me wrap this up by talking about the largest group of poverty in this country, just to put a nail in this coffin, which are poor whites, not African Americans.
The number one group of poverty in this country are poor whites, right, And the number one group dying are lasting my check, well, high school educated white men dying of depression through opioid addiction and other things, but basically is depression and poor whites and African Americans we're friends.
Did you know that that's right?
In sixteen early sixteen, hundreds African Americans and poor whites came here as and dented servants, and they worked together and became friends and ran away together. And when they got called, the overseers were like, hey, boss, we got a problem. These folks are getting along and they like each other. And the boss was like, what's the problem with that. The overseer was like, well, we can have a race problem, but we cannot have a class problem,
because we're the class. They got to attack us, and they figured this thing out. So they took the whites and said, look, you ran away. You can't do that. You need two more years of attention servitude. Don't do that again. And by the way, you know you're white like us. That word was by the way, the word was made up. The racial word white is a made up word.
That's right.
In five billion years of the world history, four billion years of organism life in this world, two hundred million years of quote end quote human life Neanderthal, etc. One hundred thousand givers take years of modern life, human life and recorded history is we know it. You know, from the biblical period a few thousand years and there's eight big people on the planet day. By the way, but somehow the word white did not get created to the sixteen hundreds in America.
Come on, that's right.
You had black royalty, you had blacks in positions and forwork. It's because for hundreds of years, it's about power and position in the world about your race. You're dark in Africa because the sun is direct, and you're white in Europe because the sun's indirect. Anyway, back to the topic, right, that whites and blacks were friends, and they were. It was a conspire and conspiracy to move them away from each other. And they told the whites, you're white like us.
Now you're in charge of the black people. Now, these were poor whites who are not highly educated, so they did not ask, well, Boston might wealthy like you do, I have titles like you do, I have land like you do, I have positions like you, then I could be white like you. They didn't ask that question. They just said, okay, I'm white like you. And then they told the blacks, now you're you don't wait anymore because you're going to have lifetime enslavement, lifetime of work. That's
with the beginning of what we call slavery. So now you have a two tiered system, and I guess they also said to the white, poor whites, you work hard up your own some of the blacks. So now that goes to friendship, there goes the kinship, that goes to bond.
That's where.
And you've heard of the rebellion that happened in the I believe it was the late sixteen hundreds, where whites and blacks webelled against her overseers together. This is documented. And somehow poor whites and poor blacks government opposite ends of each other. And we're still in this stupid argument today. And in many ways, poor whites who were left who succeeded a little bit during the Industrial Revolution, no one taught them free erprise or capitalism either. Three groups never
taught free or prize capitalism, economics, ownership, and opportunity. Poor whites, American Indians, and African Americans intentionally on like that out of hundreds of ethnic groups in this country.
So no one taught them that economic peace.
But the Industrial Revolution manufacturing saved this group and they got a toe hold into jobs. And with a high school education, we're able to get a decent job working in a factory or whatever and have a pickup truck or a you know, vacation home or you know, the pickle truck was not pejorative, just saying, you know, the pickup truck or you know, a second car or vacation, not vacation home. But if they took a vacation, maybe get a boat or whatever, and they were happy, and
so they weren't. And then the industrial revolution walked away, the economy evolved, and no one gave them a business plan for their future. And they were really for fifty years, no one more than fifty years, sixty years plus, no one paid them any attention whatsoever. And now they're riding at the ballot box because they're upset and frustrated. Black folks may ride on the streets, My poor white brothers and sisters are riding at the ballot box. Neither one
of them is gonna work. That bleasant plan. Anger is not a business plan. Is this graph? I just shows you work in detail. It's about your mindset. It's about your education. It's about you understanding how the system works. It's about you focusing on things that are productive and then getting And if you hang around nine grow people, you'll be the tenth. So watching you hang around, watch the toxicity in your life. I need you to focus, John,
how do you stay so clearheaded? I walk through life consciously oblivious and most things around me because it just doesn't matter. So we've covered a lot of ground on this podcast. Let's have a conversation. Yes, racism is real, of course it is. But your aspiration can outshine somebody else's racism. I'll put it another way, My rich frenzy, my poor friends do better if only to stay rich, I'll put it. I'll put it in another way or
an additional way. Even the racist needs a black person to succeed because we all need GDP gross domestic product to rise. And when GDP rises, everybody prospers. And racism is a bad business plan wherever you find it. It's just stupid for business, and it won't create wealth or opportunity beyond an individual case here or there, But as
a group of people, it is a losing proposition. And I'll cover that, break that out in detail in my series The Business Plan for America that you'll hear on this podcast.
So enjoy the rest of your.
Day and week and be inspired and know that yes, in spider racism over the rounded, through it, you can get to what you can succeed because the color ultimately is not black or white, or red or blue as a race in politics, the color actually is green. Hey, Hey, John O'Brien, this is a fan question. What is the best investment you can make at this time? What it appears you already did it. You guess such a unique name. You clearly understand that your best investment as you. We're
not human doings or human beings. God never gave anybody else the same fingerprints he gave you anybody else in the world. You're unique, So you're the investment. You're the brand. Invest in yourself. Get educated as much education that you
can shove down your throat. It's one of my principles of the five pillars success that I put in my whole approach to living The Pillars also Up from Nothing and the memo book that I wrote in my new books Financial Literacy for All, you are the primary product. Get educated and then invest in conservative Well four one k. If you work for somebody else, you want to that at matching money because it's free money. Get the ear income task credit. Well, that's not an investment. Let me
back up. Four oh one K. If you work for somebody in the have a matching program. That's found money's free money. If you start a business, that's an investment in yourself. Buy some stocks, but make them conservative stocks by doing investment in the mutual fund even starts investing in the stock market, but do it conservatively with sort of best in class. Easy to get, easy to you, manage you know, actually I'm a professional manager. Manage your stocks when you first get in it. Don't try to
do it yourself until you're comfortable with it. And or buy a home. You got to listen where if you are of adult age, so why renference might like me, you'd buy something for yourself and see your appreciation happen right in front of you. There are other things you can do, but here these are some easy ones. And essentially all these are versions of me saying, invest in yourself.
John O'Brien Love.
And Life, Money and Wealth with John O'Brien is a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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