I was walking home from my gym in Harlem last week, when I overheard an African American man say the following to whom I presumed to be his girlfriend on the the other side of the phone: "White women got money, they sure got money. But don't worry, I will never leave my Nubian queens."
My first thought- an article I read in the Huffington Post by my soon to be professor at Dartmouth, Dr. Ella Bell:
"Excluding vehicles, single black women have a median wealth of $100. Hispanic women do a little better at $120. To put it bluntly, the average black woman has only 100 bucks to her name.
Compare this to the median wealth of single white women: $41,500. This is not a typo. Single black and Hispanic women have a tiny fraction of a penny for every dollar of wealth owned by white women.
...The bottom line is the majority of women of color in this country are living paycheck to paycheck with no safety net. Most black and Hispanic women -- and the children and loved ones we take care of -- are one check stub away from financial disaster."
Fruits of long-term race and gender discrimination, as well as lack of generational wealth (wills, estates, other assets that are passed down). But the point is, this is a problem that needs attention. Your attention.
One of my concerns is the implications this has to the ability for women of color to move beyond the poverty that surrounds them, by means of, let's say, a college or master's degree.
Today I was privileged to meet with the principal of The Urban Assembly School for Applied Math and Science, along with other UA staff members and some wonderful colleagues, to explore corporate partnerships to enable the next generation of women of color to seize opportunities in technology. (Please stay tuned for updates!) Although technology is a booming industry, you will find a very small representation of women, blacks and Latinos in it. I'm ready to do my part, how about you?
In the words of Dr. Ella Bell: "Even as all of us climb, we must remember to lift."
