Black People Aren’t Broken. America’s Financial System Is

“There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair.” — Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., April 16, 1963

Even as Dr. King wrote from his Birmingham jail cell, and even as countless Black people were beaten and imprisoned for participating in Dr. King’s non-violent protests, known as The Birmingham Campaign, eight white Alabama clergymen had the audacity to publish an article insidiously named “A Call for Unity.” Beneath their gaslighting rhetoric, the clergymen argued that injustices should be fought politely within public governing systems instead of loudly in the streets, where the injustices so publicly occur.

Dr. King’s response was powerful and unapologetic, “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed… I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was ‘well timed’ in the view of those who have not suffered unduly… For years now I have heard the word, ‘Wait!’ This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’”

Why Waiting For Equality Will Not Work

As the nation still reels from an attempted white supremacist coup and 4 years of hate driven politics, I hope that we are looking into a more just future, but I know this future will only come if America’s melanated communities unite and demand it.

This past summer, as I watched yet another Black man murdered by the police system ostensibly funded to protect him, and heard George Floyd cry for his mother as life departed his body, I thought of my eldest son who could easily find himself in similar circumstances.

Grieving with my friend Donald Hawkins, himself a devoted Black parent, we decided to renew our demands for justice. Having spent most of my career in tech and fintech, I know that Black lives and Black freedom aren’t just stolen in the streets, at the hands of law enforcement. They are stolen fundamentally and foremost by the smiling suits who hold the keys to America’s financial system.

“I know that Black lives and Black freedom aren’t just stolen in the streets, at the hands of law enforcement. They are stolen fundamentally and foremost by the smiling suits who hold the keys to America’s financial system.”

Black poverty leads to Black deaths, and Black poverty is not a coincidence in America. The current financial industry was not built to serve the needs of melanated people, because we were expressly excluded from its construction. It does not reflect our minds nor hearts, our unique joys nor our challenges. Rectifying a system such as this, fixing it from the inside, would take generations. Rewriting centuries of racist banking history to truly honor the worth of melanated people would be impossible to do within my lifetime.

“Rewriting centuries of racist banking history to truly honor the worth of melanated people would be impossible to do within my lifetime.”

Why Melanated Communities Are Wary Of The Current Financial System

Time and again our communities have seen what happens when we trust white men with our financial wellbeing and advancement.

In 1619 when chattel slavery was officially declared legal, white men traded Black bodies for free labor, literally building white economic successes upon the backs of Black men, women and children. In 1865, after more than two centuries of economic and civil oppression, Black men were offered accounts at the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company, whose subsequent collapse only confirmed that Blacks had no reason to entrust their hard-earned finances to white-built systems.

In racial terms, today’s banking system looks scarcely altered since 1865, and melanated people continue to suffer the economic and existential consequences of a financial system not built for them. Studies have shown that when it comes to overdraft fees, Black people pay twice as much as their white counterparts. Likewise, minimum balance requirements tend to be higher in predominantly Black neighborhoods. This is important when you think about how difficult it may be for a Black individual to gather $750 to open a bank account in their own neighborhood as opposed to a white individual getting together $500 to open a bank account in theirs.

“The current financial industry was not built to serve the needs of melanated people, because we were expressly excluded from its construction.”

Of course, many melanated people who beat the biased minimum balance odds are nonetheless denied entry through the banking doors. As an ideological pillar, Know Your Customer (KYC) is critical to the fight against money laundering and financial crime. In practice, KYC is often antiquated, discriminating against the most vulnerable while failing to keep broader society safe. As a Pakistani immigrant, when I entered the US, it was antiquated KYC that made me persona non grata to the US financial system. Despite being a business owner with sufficient starting capital and a substantial international credit and investment history, it took years of patience and bureaucratic navigation to open an account and build usable US credit. Building credit is difficult enough, but with a system that punishes immigrants and melanated people, it can feel impossible.

“Building credit is difficult enough, but with a system that punishes immigrants and melanated people, it can feel impossible.”

A New World Of Equal Banking

Imagine a world where those millions of dollars invested in the Freedman’s Bank weren’t stolen. What would things look like if these ancestors’ financial futures had not been overwhelmingly devastated and they’d actually been allowed to build their wealth and thrive? Imagine a world where the tragic events of Black Wall Street had not occurred. What if white violence had not been allowed to rob Black families of their homes and businesses meant to sustain the existing generation and bolster the next? White people knew what they were doing, acting on ingrained feelings of privilege for their families and the worthlessness of those unlike them.

“For generations, we have been told that Black people don’t financially succeed because they won’t take ownership. But the reality is that America’s financial system is broken, not Black people.”

Imagine a world where Black excellence is not systemically suppressed, and the melanated community unites to celebrate the obviousness of this excellence. For generations, we have been told that Black people don’t financially succeed because they won’t take ownership. But the reality is that America’s financial system is broken, not Black people.

And because America’s financial system is broken, we lay the pavers for First Boulevard, an unapologetically Black neobank and the cornerstone to a new financial system, standing strong on the foundation of equality and in defiance of the colonialism, imperialism, and white supremacy of America’s current financial system. Black financial freedom must be demanded by the oppressed. Black financial freedom is our demand and mission here at First Boulevard.