For those of you who continue to think that personal finance isn’t political I’m rolling my eyes at you virtually. Since the beginning of my time in the personal finance space I’ve written articles on and off about that touched on the intersection between social justice and money. This year you’ve seen a lot more content related to this because we’re in a pivotal moment in history where we are having a lot of conversations spanning equality, financial allies, and access. When Ice Cube was outed that he was working with the current administration on developing a financial plan for African-Americans I was shooketh. You mean “Fuck the Police” Ice Cube? There are a number of problematic issues with his collaboration with the administration and I thought I would share my point of view on why Ice Cube now reminds me of the bad ice from the whichever place that never cleans its ice machine. In this episode I will share why Ice Cube working with the president was a misstep and what I would have advised him to do instead.
*In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog. Please read my disclosure here.*
Listen to the Show
Show Notes
- One of the things I’ve realized as an adult and also as an entrepreneur is that there are some tables you don’t need a seat at.
- There have been moments throughout my life when I would be presented with an opportunity to be at the metaphorical table of someone who maybe I noticed was a little suspect in the past. But, maybe they had access to something that I wanted so I would ignore my gut feeling or the problematic nature of their associates. It never ended well and I always looked like a chump and this is definitely the case for Ice Cube/Kanye/and other people who’ve forever hitched their own brands with this administration’s.
- Right now would have been an incredible moment to create our own table focused African-American financial empowerment.
- A non-partisan community of Black/Brown and ally leaders working towards uplifting the community. Why non-partisan? Because bipartisan projects immediately change how we perceive a project like this one. And, by being non-partisan participants are forced to have deeper and more nuanced conversations in order to move forward. Basically, they would have to come to a consensus.
- And, let’s be clear the President isn’t the only person that Ice Cube could have worked with on this project. In fact, working with a person who is quick to promise but may or may not deliver is not a great long-term business strategy. I’m still waiting for Mexico to pay for that wall.
- Here are some of the people that I would have suggested he work with and there are few people who’s politics I don’t love. But, because this would be non-partisan effort, again they would be forced to come to some type of consensus.
- Melody Hobson-President and CEO of Ariel Investments
- Magic Johnson
- Tiffany “The Budgetnista” Aliche-Founder of THE Largest community serving Black women in the financial space
- Bill and Melinda Gates-You know who they are
- The Walmart Family
- Stacy Abrams
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
- Alexis Ohanian of Reddit
- Katie Porter
- Byron Allen
- Robert Johnson-Richest African-American* Yes, I’m really disappointed with the news of his tax evasion fine.
- Michael Steel-Former head of the RNC
- Bernie Sanders
- Andrew Yang-Universal Basic Income conversation
- Colin Kaepernick
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Tim Scott
- John Hickenlooper-Created the #1 economy in the US for years AND invested in programs that lowered teen births by 42% by offering free birth control and implemented Colorado’s vote by mail system one of the best voting systems in the United States.
- Rihanna-On pace to become a billionaire. She understands how to run business and employ people.
- Arian Hamilton founder of Backstage Capital a venture capital fund
- Individuals in the healthcare space looking to create better health outcomes for POC
- US Governors of states with high Black and Brown populations
- Secretary’s of State
- Basically, focusing on making change at the state level.
- This is a pretty big list but I share this list to say that there are a TON of people that Ice Cube could have collaborated with on this. Also, I shared a mix of people because we work with all types of people. Again, forcing the group to create consensus and meet in the middle.
- Here are several factors that Ice Cube didn’t factor in sharing this project.
- Optics matter-It matters that this project was kicked off during the election season. How does working with Ice Cube one BENEFIT the candidates?
- The Biden team wanted to wait until after the election and I can’t speculate why. What I would say is that I don’t believe that delay is indicative of a lack of interest in a project such as this one. But, a nod to the fact that a conversation and project such as this one needs more time instead of a rushed “yes” in-between campaign events. But, I will say optics matter in the Biden team making that decision depending on who you are.
- Know your audience-If Ice-Cube was really serious about this then he would have taken into account that 97% of Black women can’t STAND 45. Can’t stand him and that’s after watching 4 years of his conduct towards Black women.
- Timing-Just like optics, timing is everything. African-Americans have been struggling financially my entire life, my mother’s and my grandmother’s life. How is it that 3 weeks before the most important election in American history in the past 100 years that this project is conveniently shared? Don’t get me wrong, NOW IS THE TIME. But, we can’t allow ourselves to be used by either party to fit an agenda that ultimately won’t serve us.
- $500 Million dollars is chump change or you could call it Trump change. EDITED=It’s $500 Billion Dollars and I STILL stand by the Trump change comment. In fact, recently BET co-founder Bob Johnson noted that reparations for slavery could factor around $14 trillion dollars. In order to truly change African-American’s financial prospects the following has to happen:
- Pay equity and pay transparency-People are consistently being underpaid because they have no idea what other people are starting at.
- Affordable education-going to college and leaving in a financial hole makes NO SENSE. I live in France and attended the Sorbonne for a semester and paid $4,000 for 6 months in France, travel, fun, and a college education overseas.
- Affordable health care embracing transparency in pricing. No One wants Venezuelan style socialism and I’m sick of people always referring to Venezuela. Instead, we want to pull the best of Canadian, Australian, French, Taiwanese, and Scandinavian systems in order to improve the lives of American citizens.
- End Voter Suppression-Have you ever sat down and considered how much money is spent to keep people from voting?
- Facebook ads with bots posing as POC
- Television spots
- Twitter/Instragram/Youtube marketing
- The lesson learned-your vote matters.
- Because votes are obstructed no substantial bills get passed.
- Ice Cube could work with Secretary’s of State to empower voters of color and pass policies that create universal mail-in-voting such as in the state of Colorado
- Subsidized childcare-Women are dropping out of the workforce at greater rates than men because they’re unable to afford childcare.
- Universal preschool-This is actually pretty common around the Western world. France has done this apparently since 1830 écoles maternelles
- A standardized system for paid maternity and paternity leave
- Venture capital access to nurture businesses
- Help grow technology based business vs. service based businesses in the Black community-One of the huge issues that killed 40% of African-American businesses during COVID is the type of businesses we had open.
- A massive works project-Employ Americans repairing
- Roads
- Installing additional infrastructure both in underserved communities and updating things that need to be updated. An example is how Denver is updating out of date water pipes and covering the cost for the update.
- Infrastructure would include the following:
- High speed internet
- Roads
- Bridges
- Side-walks
- Parks
- Recreation centers
- Expanded transportation
- Infrastructure would include the following:
- America is one of the wealthiest countries in the world and our infrastructure is crumbling.
- The Works Progress Administration was the last time America did this…during the Depression.
- Fund the Birthright Africa program making it accessible for adults and youth. Similar to the Birthright Israel program.
- Fund short-term programs for overseas travel for POC and other lower-income citizens
- Funding Universal Basic Income-For 8 years I’ve written posts on and off about how technology is changing the way we work and creating job instability. COVID-19 highlighted this concern. And, I’d never thought too deeply about Universal Basic Income until Congress was grappling back in forth about that extra $600 bucks. And, they discovered that how people used that money was different than they expected. And, that money didn’t deter people from wanting to work. It did give people more options. There are programs cropping up across the US that are testing it out and they’ve been incredibly successful. Programs such as:
- The Abundant Birth Project in San Francisco-$1,000 a month to pregnant women for 2 years
- Magnolia Mother’s Trust in Jackson, Mississippi
- San Francisco’s newly proposed artists’ program
- Stockton, California’s 18 month privately funded program for $500 dollars a month
- The key to Universal Basic Income or any program is that they have to be for everyone. That’s the only way you’ll get buy-in.
- Environmental Racism-Not mentioned in the show BUT a huge deal. That’s a different podcast episode.
- My question is if Ice Cube truly cared about the state of Black America did he take the time to really think about all of the issues that I just brought up?
- And my last question to you is this “The president can’t even pay his own bills. How can he help me pay mine?” He owes almost $1 billion dollars to persons unknown. I owe less debt than he does. Let that sink in. I’ve written about paying off debt for 8 years.
- As a formally super indebted person I’ve shared that it’s really scary owing money to people. It’s especially scary owing when you don’t have enough money coming in. At the end of the day neither presidential candidate is in the position to say “yes” to anything because we have no idea what the final outcome will be with this election. That final outcome will change what the candidate will have access to or won’t have access to. And, in this time of quick soundbites, I think a lot of us have forgotten that very important fact.
- The lesson we all should learn from Ice Cube is that we don’t need to sit at every table.
- The next lesson, build our own table so that we have more control over how people perceive our intentions.
- Read the room-It surprises me how Mr. Fuck the Police got this so wrong. For many people, this collaboration was just so out of the blue especially given what he’s said about the president in the past.
Know the Numbers
- 40% of African-American businesses have closed due to the COVID response. This is a policy related issue. In other countries they created fiscal policies to avoid this type of financial outcome.
- 800,000 Americans applied for unemployment in the past week
- 11 million jobs have been lost permanently due to the COVID response.
- 1 in every 1,000 African-Americans has died from COVID-19. Please spend some time on that statistic so that it will sink in. That is an unbelievable statistic and is a direct reflection of the US lack of a cohesive COVID policy from the top down. The President ALWAYS owns the results.
Something You Don’t Know About Me
- I was a long-time Independent voter. I felt and continue to feel that the Democratic party has taken the Black vote for granted. Currently I’m a Democrat and changed my affiliation when Obama became President. Ice Cube’s concerns about the party are legit. But, I’ve been active politically since I was 17 years old. I would love to ask how long Ice-Cube has been politically active? From what I understand not that long and I’ve read some articles alluding to that.
- Now that the state of Colorado allows Independents to participate in every part of the election process I will change back to Independent after the election.
- But, I’m not a fool. I don’t vote against my best interests. EVER. If Ice Cube is sincere about what he’s trying to do, I truly wish he’d worked with more people doing the work before saying yes to a collaboration that ultimately won’t serve him well.
- We DO need to stop talking and start doing for African-Americans and other disenfranchised Americans and this president’s debacle of a presidency has done a fantastic job of highlighting why now is the time to build our OWN table.
- Regardless of your beliefs please vote. Create your plan and do it early. I say vote early because we’ve already seen some shenanigans happening across the country. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
The following two tabs change content below.
I am an obsessive foodie, but not self-righteous with it, love travel, meeting new people, helping you look good, and am freaked out by people who don't enjoying reading...something! Grab a Perrier, read my blog, feel free to drop me a line! Hope to hear from you soon.
Latest posts by Michelle (see all)
- How Work Policies Against Black Women Birthed a Love of the Soft Life - 20 March, 2024
- How Taylor Swift’s IP Victory Could Change the Business of Music - 28 February, 2024
- Why Don’t More Personal Finance Content Creators Talk About Policy - 16 January, 2024
Leave a Reply