Why Politics and Race Need Discussion in Personal Finance

You might have noticed I’m not writing as much this month. Some of that has to do with the We Want Guac song coming out, but it’s mostly from doing a lot of reading, listening, and outreach about the underlying police brutality protests’ issues. There isn’t enough discussion on politics and race in personal finance, and it took time to read up on it. I talked a little bit about this already with the racial wealth gap; that article inspired a question I was surprised to get:

This is a needed point in today’s climate, does this have a place on a finance blog?

My immediate response, of course, was yes. But after diving right back into the research and statistics surrounding race, politics, and personal finance, I changed my mind. I realized the answer was actually hell freaking yes.

How Race Impacts Your Finances

Look, money is power in the United States. If you’re an evil shitbird and want to take power away from a group of people, it’s simple enough. You’d obviously do so by taking both their money, and as many of the avenues they have to making money as possible. This is done through several measures; it can be subtle, like using property taxes to determine the quality of public education. Public education is NOT equal across town lines. You can see that easily by comparing, say, Weston MA (one of the richest towns in Massachusetts) with Lawrence MA (one of the poorest).

Lawrence, by the way, has a population that’s over 80% people of color; Weston is 80% white. One has a Wikipedia page stuffed with accolades for their local high school, with rankings galore and several sub sections. The other’s is as bare bones as you can get. Nobody can convince me that these are mere coincidences. Nobody can convince me that it’s so easy to just move to better opportunity; the average Weston home price is almost 4x higher than those in Lawrence, which is pretty high already.

Just one comparison highlighting the disparities within my own state.

Race also impacts your financial well-being in more direct ways, but not so direct that you can win a lawsuit over it. It’s things like an all-white company determining you’re “not a good fit” for a new job or promotion; the same company enthusiastic about you joining until you arrived to the interview with dark skin and curly hair.

It’s also like having no one sit you down to go over financial basics; leaving you to know nothing about what finance tools are out there besides credit card commercials and monthly car payment offers.

Or being forced to navigate job politics much more carefully than your white counterparts. Your new ideas are brushed aside more often than they’re praised; your pointing out flaws becomes “causing trouble” because you’re “angry,” instead of being constructive criticism because you care.

How Politics Impacts Your Finances

Speaking of politics, that’s another subject in dire need of further discussion. I’ve touched on how much politics shapes your financial prospects in the past, and today is no different. Voting the right people into office can mean having a job, enjoying free trade, having safety standards in the workplace, and guaranteeing your pay is above a certain threshold.

Politics is what also brings you things the finance world loves like IRAs, HSAs, and Social Security. Most people don’t like politics on principle because it’s filled with corrupt, greedy people bent on sucking as many tax dollars from you as possible. Or, at least, that’s the perception.

This is definitely seen in communities with public officials that misallocate public funds, doing god knows what with the money while leaving the roads filled with potholes and local programs understaffed. Politics absolutely has an impact on your finances, as politics both affects your job prospects and your quality of life. You can be an absolute wizard at money, but that won’t make you happy when your home’s surrounded by misery.

In America our tradition is to push the narrative of the self-made man, the individualist whose freedoms mean full control over the life given to you. But politics means that life can be helped along the way, in the case of the retirement accounts mentioned above. Politics can also hinder your way, which we have countless examples of. This includes the historic suppression of black progress, to silencing native voices, to specifics like refusing statehood to Puerto Rico. Voting in every election you can is the most simple part of being an American citizen that is routinely denied to the disadvantaged; voter suppression is one of the most direct tactics to concentrating money and power to the groups at the top.

Discussing It More

There is only so much I can say in a blog post without turning it into a novel. There’s also only so much I can say as a white woman who’s never been treated negatively in America due to skin color. There is a fear around discussing race and politics in personal finance like it’s a taboo subject; as if some waiting mob is going to jump out from your computer screen if you try to bring it up.

There certainly are folks out there that will hate any discussion about it, but for society to progress those folks cannot win. Those people are against the progression of society, specifically because that progression will make everyone equal and they can’t have that. I’ve got enough empathy to desire less suffering for my peers of color.

I’ve also got enough selfishness to be outraged at how many of their contributions to the world have failed to make it to reality, solely because they were not granted the opportunities to pursue them. Imagine the diseases we could have cured, the technological advancements we would enjoy, or the worldwide issues we could have solved had society not limited education to a small subset of the population. Whatever your reason, you should be pissed. And you should maintain awareness of how much race and politics affects your money and power.

There’s some great ways to do that no matter your race or class. Start Googling your questions and read up on these topics. Consume media that specifically addresses this matter, whether it’s other blogs or speeches or Netflix documentaries. Share what you’ve learned and put it into action by helping give some sliver of power back to disadvantaged communities.

Educate, engage, and empower. This is the path to our greatest financial future.