The Impact of Non-Black Financial Figures on Black Financial Wellness

Exploring the role of cultural incompetence in shaping the financial beliefs and experiences of Black people

I had a conversation this week where I was given the biggest compliment:

“I LOVE how you talk about race in finances!”

I went on to explain how at the beginning of my journey as a financial educator I would often recite what I learned from the likes of Dave Ramsey, Robert Kiyosaki, and Grant Cardone as a sort of financial gospel. I would pick the pieces that were helpful and feed it through the lens of my lived experience. I would evangelize the book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” often stating that the book “changed my life”—and it did. But when I look at the context of the information being shared I noticed two things:

1. That it preyed on the hopes and dreams of those plagued by poverty for an escape

2. It often came from a messenger who didn’t look like me.

And while that’s not entirely problematic in and of itself, I knew that there was a need for representation in financial education that looked like me. So I set off to create my own content, share my own story, write my own book to fill in the missing pieces.

Thus “Financially Irresponsible” was born and then later this newsletter and podcast where I can discuss financial empowerment and financial trauma for people who look like me.

I have to admit however that I thought I was going to lose people in the deliberate niching down. That by expressing my Blackness I would alienate my non-Black audience.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

See, what’s missing from the financial space are the various experiences that we have when it comes to money from the perspectives of race, culture, spirituality, and whatever unique beliefs we hold on to that act as an accelerant or a barrier to financial success.

Absent of these factors, we allow others to define our financial success through the lens of their experiences and because their experiences differ, there is easy internal dissonance around what you should be doing, could be doing, or haven’t done financially and how that directly impacts how you feel about yourself and money.

Additionally these mix-matched experiences result in marketing tactics that take generational and financial traumas and monetizes them. Unfortunately it’s not just non-Black financial figures who do it either. It’s become a culture of sales and marketing tactics that even “people who look like me” use because like me, they came up under the same instruction and influence— and likely have fallen for the same tactics that

• ignore cultural nuances

• prey on limiting beliefs

• and dangles the golden carrot

To say “I have what you need, you just need to show me how bad you want it.”

It’s taking the outliers who experience success under these models and giving them a pass to rub elbows with these public figures in exchange for them praising the program and sanitizing their own experiences.

We can’t control how the Kiyosaki’s, Cardone’s, or Ramsey’s think or feel about their Black audiences. We don’t know their intent other than by what they put out verbally or in written format. But we can certainly control how we elevate them and make them richer. We can use our experiences and the education we gain from them to create our own curriculum that tells our own stories about how to achieve success financially while also acknowledging the obstacles we may have faced to get there.

We can in their stead, elevate creators and educators who have done the leg work mentioned above so that they can serve a greater audience with respect to cultural nuances that encompass different aspects of our lived experiences.

And if you’re a non-Black reader of this content you can take this information and better inform how you target and curate your own content so not to inflict traumas onto an audience that has a different set of values or culture than you do.

So I caught up with Andre Jean-Pierre, founder of Aces Advisors, a Black owned Wallstreet RIA for Black and Brown people. I asked him his thoughts on the whole Cardone debacle and what the impact of non-Black financial figures were on the ideas and beliefs Black people have about wealth building and money management and here’s what he had to say:

“I think it’s known that it’s good business to keep the Black community hopeful via the dangling of a carrot over a traumatized community by a non-Black messenger,” he says. These messengers come with both a beacon of hope and “the magic pill to cure the ailments of the community”. Jean-Pierre alludes to the financial woes of Kiyosaki, Ramsey, and Cardone existing before their popularity and states that it’s “no accident” that they were able to “accumulate a following based on the dangling of hope in the community.”

I then asked him how does this contribute to financial trauma?

“Sometimes we’re looking for the quick magic pill that will solve our issues in the community, ” he said. Jean-Pierre alluded to a willingness in the Black community to accept that solution “from a messenger from outside of the community that is heralded as a savior”. This then contributes to trauma in that these “saviors” recognize the situations of want and desperation and capitalize on that to bring them into their audiences.

He mentioned however that he does believe “there is a place for people who can galvanize and spark the curiosity of the people”. His hope is that the people outside of the community who can do this are ok with sharing insights, and profit without trying to take advantage of Black people because he’s “afraid that in an era where we’re in an attention economy they are able to deliver messages that sound too good to be true, but appear too good to ignore.” He makes reference to the 5 and 6 figure price tags on courses from the likes of Kiyosaki and Cardone of which I’ve personally fallen victim to in my early 20’s.

Long story long, I think that the voices of the spectrum of Black experiences need to be told, not sold to which is a delicate tightrope to walk as a content creator who often talks about the traumatic experiences of poverty. I like to think of myself as acting as a beacon in a sense to a changing mindset and the navigation of obstacles. It’s my hope that the sharing of my thoughts and experiences inspire all people to set on a path for defining and achieving financial success for themselves.

What are your thoughts on this?

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As a Certified Financial Education Instructor (CFEI®), and Accredited Financial Counselor (AFC®) I have the skills you need to improve your knowledge, relationship, and behaviors around money. Feel free to reach out with inquiries regarding 1x1 or group bundle sessions or have me speak at your organization. Rahkim@rahkimsabree.com

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Rahkim