Happy Juneteenth! I’m proud of my country for ending slavery and I’m glad we have a holiday to celebrate it. I believe there’s nothing more American and freedom loving than ending slavery.
Sometimes I talk about wealth inequality in the US. Both the extreme nature of it (a few extremely rich people hold more wealth than most other people combined) and how it relates to race. Currently the median wealth of black families ($24,520) is about one-tenth that of white families ($250,400).
I WISH I could believe that everything is currently fair and equal and there simply is no explanation for that, but we know that can’t be true (unless you believe that having darker skin makes you less likely to be wealthy, which is racism). When you zoom out a bit, it’s easy to see slavery, and especially segregation weren’t that long ago. To break down these dates a bit:
1619: Arrival of enslaved Africans to Virginia
1865: Freeing of the last southern slaves in Texas (Juneteenth) and ratification of the 13th Amendment
1964: Passage of the civil rights act outlawing segregation
While I’m immensely proud of my country for the progress we have made I also hope for an even brighter future where looking up statistics based on skin color produce nothing but statistically insignificant results.
Credit to @zerflin for the idea and original design for the timeline and @webravelygo for sharing.
As always, reminding you to build wealth by following the two PFC rules: 1.) Live below your means and 2.) Invest early and often.
-Jeremy
