"When I tried to start bringing in minority clients and they were good clients, that's when I truly started to see that there's still racism in financial services. I was hurt and I was angry."
A regular installment about race and money in America, from the authors of "The Black Dollar"
As authors of the forthcoming book, “The Black Dollar,” we are researching the history of race and money with a focus on Black Americans.
This week, we watched the verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse case with interest, given the racial make-up of the jury. More on that later at the end of the newsletter, where we highlight a few online stories or resources that we think are worth your while.
First, we bring you a regular Q&A that we hope will spur conversations in your household.
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The Q&A.
We are amidst what some people are calling “The Great resignation.”
While there are many reasons people are leaving their jobs, some are looking at the Black-white wealth gap and reacting with career moves.
One such person is Toni Goins-Brockman. She is the regional vice president and director of retail and business development for Missouri and Kansas at Liberty Bank, which is a Black-owned bank with branches in nine states. She works out of Kansas City.
Ebony talked with Toni about the racial economic gap.
Ebony: You joined Liberty Bank from U.S. Bank National Association, the fifth largest bank in the country. Why did you make the move?
Toni: I've been in banking for 20 years. At the height of that Black Lives Matter movement, you know, I said, “I'm now a resource for everyone that doesn't look like me.” And then when I tried to start bringing in minority clients and they were good clients, that's when I truly started to see that there's still racism in financial services. I was hurt and I was angry that my Black clients had done everything that they could to get to the place where they did deserve a higher level of service. But their loans were being scrutinized. I literally woke up to Black Lives Matter, and I said, “I'm going to just put my resume out for a Black bank.”
Ebony: What is the most pressing issue facing Black banks today?
Toni: The most pressing issue facing Black banks today would be lending. I'll split that into two parts. Lending encompasses loans -- the size of loans that we're able to do -- and also scale in lending servicing, which is how many states we can operate in. What is our reach with loans? Typically, Black banks are community-oriented banks or even credit unions. So, it's hard for us to reach scale and reach more minorities that are outside the communities or the regions we serve.
Ebony: In your view, what is the most significant economic issue facing Black Americans?
Toni: Quality banking relationships with banking professionals. Other ethnicities have a team of financial consultants and experts, such as wealth management services, that can help them create strategies and navigate through any financial event. A lot of times, Blacks don't qualify for a financial adviser because we don't have the network or we don't have the required assets or we don't have the required liquidity. I really feel that the most significant economic issue is that Blacks don't have a place where they can meet a quality professional where they can get targeted, customized strategies and advice to navigate where they are right now and where they need to be.
Ebony: What is the minimum amount of money that most banking institutions require to receive free wealth management advice?
Toni: It depends, but the threshold ranges between $25,000 to $50,000 in liquid funds.
Ebony: Ah, so most Black banking customers don’t qualify for advice on managing their wealth. For Black Americans, the median family has less than $25,000 in wealth of any sort, much less liquid assets. What do you do to help your customers manage their money?
Toni: One thing that I have to educate my clients on is their “financials.” I have a lot of clients that are profitable, but they don't have good financials. Their taxes don't show that they are profitable. They don't spend or invest in having a tax strategist or a CPA that will do their balance sheet, their profit & loss cash flow. They're making money and taking advantage of all the write offs, which you should, but not knowing still how to show profit. Or they don't have a business plan. They can't track their inventory. So believe it or not before they get approved, I do a lot of pre-work with them. I have that conversation: “You're not yet ready for a loan. But your business has potential and you've already shown that you can make money.”
Ebony: Can you give an example of how you would explain to a customer that their business can show a profit?
Toni: Profit in its most simplest form is your gross revenue - what's coming into the business - minus your expenses - your overhead or the cost to keep your doors open - and the remaining is your net income. Businesses need to be able to show that there's something left over. That something left over is how we determine as lenders your ability to repay any additional obligations.
Ebony: What do you think about the movement with digital banking? Is it a challenge or an opportunity for Black banks?
Toni: It’s both. It’s an opportunity to allow Black banks to reach minorities across the country. But it's also challenging from a technology cost. A lot of times, Black banks don't have the amount of resources that it takes to leverage or incorporate digital banking into their current structure, maintain it and to train their staff and their employees. Minority banks cannot afford not to engage in digital banking solutions. Digital banking is necessary, especially for our younger market. They are growing up engaged in technology. My two-year-old can send a text message.
Ebony: You have a company called Rich Girl Consulting. Tell me about it.
Toni: Rich Girl Consulting was founded out of my experience with a banker. At 19, I found out I was pregnant. I had two jobs and I was in college. I wanted advice, so I went to a bank and a banker looked at me in disgust. He asked me a series of questions. He said because I didn’t have assets he couldn’t help me, but I could open a savings account. So, I left feeling very defeated, saying, “One day, I’ll be the person on the other side of the desk, and I will not discount anyone.” Through Rich Girl Consulting I try to bridge that gap. I help families and women become bankable. Through Rich Girl Consulting, I teach about savings, getting approved for home loans and to qualify for banking products. I started it in North Carolina and it spread by word of mouth. I get a lot of referrals. I offer the same services as a wealth adviser and my fee is based on discretionary income, how many times we meet and there are also grants to help those who can’t afford it. I never turn a family away.
Ebony: Thank you, Toni.
The Latest Highlights... Scams, Covenants, 1619 and More.
Race and Money Factor into Jury Selection: Like many Americans, we watched with interest on Friday as Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted this week after shooting and killing two people in August 2020 at a protest over the police shooting of a Black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin named Jacob Blake.
There are some points we’d like to make about possible reasons the initial group of 20 jurors selected in the Rittenhouse jury pool included only one Black person: (1) Most states prohibit people who are on probation or parole from serving on a jury, and all states but Maine place restrictions on people guilty of felonies. (2) In many places, juries are recruited using things like voter registration, drivers’ licenses and utility bills, and so jurisdictions often miss out on people who are more transient or who are living in shared residences. And (3) People of different economic levels and races may feel more or less able to miss work to serve on a jury. You can read more on these reasons and others in a smart Time Magazine interview by Janell Ross with Tufts professor Samuel Sommers.
Renting to Own: As we’ve interviewed Black Americans for our book project, “The Black Dollar,” a recurring theme continues to emerge. We are hearing from people who have been involved in the rent-to-own housing market and had bad experiences. In this Outlier Media/NBC News article, Detroit resident June Walker learned after making the final payment on her rent-to-own lease that the home she’d sunken money into repairs was actually not hers. Two months after she thought it was paid off, her eviction notice came. Her lawyers, according to the article, say Walker is the victim of a scam, which may affect as many as 10 percent of tenants facing eviction.
Property Covenants, Still Around Today: Racial covenants, a relic of the past, are still on the books across the country in metropolitan areas including Kansas City, NPR recently reported. Many covenants throughout the United States were written to keep Blacks from moving into certain neighborhoods — unless they were servants — many, also targeted other ethnic and religious groups, such as Asian Americans and Jews, NPR’s reporting showed. And to remove the covenants can be time consuming, expensive and sometimes not even possible.
What’s New in the “1619” Book: SLATE’s review of the just-released “1619” book explains how The New York Times magazine project, led by Nikole Hannah-Jones, is different and even better in book form. “The new book is much, much longer than the magazine version, and easier to read, despite its heft,” writes Rebecca Onion. “Timeline pages provide a necessary chronological anchor for the essays, which move backward and forward in time. The magazine issue had some timeline elements, but in the book the cards have proliferated, with many new key events added: the Virginia House of Burgesses’ passage of the law that established the doctrine of partus sequitur ventrem, 1662; Lord Dunmore’s proclamation, 1775; the first gathering of Black activists that would become known as the Colored Conventions, 1830.” There’s also a companion children’s book worth checking out.
Your White Friends as a Front in Your Real Estate transaction: “They were motivated by Martin Luther King’s vision for America,” Laural Richie, former head of the WNBA said about her parents in an interview this week, “and so they went and found property in an all-White neighborhood and attempted to buy it, but the owners wouldn’t sell it to them because we were Black. Then some friends of theirs who were White bought the property and sold it to my parents at cost, and that’s where I grew up. There were no other Black students in my elementary school until I was in sixth grade.”
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-Ebony and Louise
