I'm going to let you in on a little secret:
Sometimes, I think God talks to me.
No. Really. Like when I heard a little voice tell me, "Put away some money. You're going to need it." I did. The next month? BAM! Hit with major car repairs.
Or when Black Man Not Blogging and I were coming back from a day trip and stopped in a McDonald's in a South Stockton neighborhood. He went in, I stayed in the car. A little voice told me, "You need to get out of here." I called him on his cell phone to tell him to get out of the McDonald's, that we needed to get ghost. He did, and we did. The neighborhood just felt unsafe. If I recall correctly, the next day there was news of shootings that occurred in South Stockton.
When the Charleston shooting occurred, I was at a loss for words. I couldn't believe that someone would gun down church members at a prayer meeting. A PRAYER MEETING! Could there be anything more demonic?
Then, in an act of what can only be called amazing grace, the victims' families started to forgive the shooter.
And that's when I heard the little voice: "If you wait long enough, good things will happen." I smiled.
In what appeared to be a whirlwind of good things happening, people began calling for the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina state house and other government buildings. Ebay, Amazon, Sears, and Wal-Mart pulled Confederate flag merchandise from their shelves or stopped selling them online. Given Wal-Mart's southern roots, that's huge. The cynic in me says that it was the fact that black people were killed in a church by a racist who literally wrapped himself in the Confederate flag that moved people to reconsider the flag, but I'll take this reconsideration no matter how it comes, even if I think it would not have happened but for the murders taking place in a church. It forced white Southerners to choose between heritage and faith. They chose faith.
The Affordable Care Act was upheld, as well as disparate impact analysis for housing discrimination under the Fair Housing Act.
The President found his voice on race, using the n-word to explain that this country's racial atrocities hundreds of years ago are not yet forgotten, the wounds not yet healed. In the eulogy for Reverend Clementa Pinkney, President Obama found his voice on race once again, saying that although those who fought for the Confederacy may have been honorable, the cause for which they fought was not. He then raised his voice in a rousing rendition of "Amazing Grace." And the church said, "Amen."
To top it all off, the Supreme Court declared bans on gay marriage unconstitutional. To some, this may not be a good thing. I don't see how equality under the law can't be. The southern states, and the Ted Cruzes of the nation, will stand in opposition, just as George Wallace stood in the door of the University of Alabama declaring, "Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education. Ted Cruz will be remembered in much the same way as Governor Wallace would have been had he not had a racial epiphany. The work of the LGBT community is not done, but there's just a little less of it to be done.
If you wait long enough, good things will happen. Sometimes you have to wait centuries, sometimes a generation, sometimes a decade. But if you wait long enough, good things will happen.
Amen.
Mad About the Faux Sistah in Spokane? Really, White People? (White Hypocrisy and the Appropriation of Blackness)
I haven't been following closely the story of the Spokane NAACP president who is allegedly passing for black. I'm not bothered by it, not at all. As long as she is working for the greater good of black people in America --- and Lord knows, I wish more people would -- how she identifies is of no moment to me.
What is bothersome is the hype and outrage by the predominantly white media that this white woman is passing for black.
Really?
Here's where the hypocrisy and/or lack of self-awareness comes in: White people have been appropriating blackness for their own for decades, and not necessarily for the betterment and advancement of black people. At least this sistah faux sho' is trying to do something positive with it.
White people, here's a small list of all the blackness that white people have appropriated with little or no benefit to black people:
You appropriate our language. Hell, you even trademark it. You trademarked or appropriated "Let's roll," and "24/7" (talking to you, CNN) and now you're quoting black rappers on the cans of Sprite. I ain't mad, but just be honest about what you stole.
You appropriate our hairstyles. From Bo Derek in cornrows and beads running down the beach in "10" to Kim Kardashian trying to wear braids, you covet what you appear in public to disdain -- the versatility and style with which we go from rocking a 'fro to a bob. Deep down, you, too want to be happy, nappy and versatile with your hairstyle. Just own it.
You appropriate our physical attributes. You inject collagen into your lips, implants into your asses, and spray tanner on your skin.
You appropriate our music. Back in the day, you straight out stole it -- robbed creative geniuses of their copyrights. Hell, even the Master of Funk himself, George Clinton, doesn't own his own music. What you couldn't steal, you pimped. You corporatized hip-hop. I ain't mad because at least Jiggaman got paid. But at least admit what you did. And although I'm appreciative that you cashed out Dr. Dre for his Beats empire, I'm getting a little tired of mediocre white singers trying to appear more talented than they are by being backed up by a faux black gospel choir, choir robes and all. Black Man Not Blogging (BMNB) has a big problem with appropriating black religious symbolism for corporate gain. It's the Baptist in him.
You appropriate our achievements. You credit Matthew Henson as sharing in reaching the North Pole first when in fact he got there first. I don't even have the time or the space to chronicle how many black achievements have been claimed by whites.
You appropriate our men. Oh yeah, you're afraid of them on the street, but not between the sheets. I've always believed that love knows no color, but for some of you, let's just say you're just curious, fetishizing, and not loving.
So at least this faux sistah is appropriating black identity for a black purpose. Perhaps she hasn't been honest about it, but the lack of honesty is at least balanced out by her work on behalf of black people, which is more than what I can say about other cases of white appropriation of blackness that did not benefit black people.
What I find really offensive is the question, "Why would someone white want to pass for black?"
Here's why: Because we're awesome. Despite all that has been done to us, we're still here. Battered and bruised, perhaps, but we're still here in our nappy, creative, persistent, undeniable genius in shades from off-white to blue-black. WE'RE STILL HERE. You stand on the economic foundation we laid for this nation, yet you still deny our humanity and question why anybody would want to be us. Really, white people? Really? If you question why anybody would want to be us, you need to do an inventory of all that you copy from us and enjoyed of us.
For those of you in the white media harping on this story, I think you need to have one of those awkward moments of self-awareness and count all the ways white people have and continue to appropriate blackness without any benefit for black people. And then go on ahead and write out a check to the Spokane NAACP.
What is bothersome is the hype and outrage by the predominantly white media that this white woman is passing for black.
Really?
Here's where the hypocrisy and/or lack of self-awareness comes in: White people have been appropriating blackness for their own for decades, and not necessarily for the betterment and advancement of black people. At least this sistah faux sho' is trying to do something positive with it.
White people, here's a small list of all the blackness that white people have appropriated with little or no benefit to black people:
You appropriate our language. Hell, you even trademark it. You trademarked or appropriated "Let's roll," and "24/7" (talking to you, CNN) and now you're quoting black rappers on the cans of Sprite. I ain't mad, but just be honest about what you stole.
You appropriate our hairstyles. From Bo Derek in cornrows and beads running down the beach in "10" to Kim Kardashian trying to wear braids, you covet what you appear in public to disdain -- the versatility and style with which we go from rocking a 'fro to a bob. Deep down, you, too want to be happy, nappy and versatile with your hairstyle. Just own it.
You appropriate our physical attributes. You inject collagen into your lips, implants into your asses, and spray tanner on your skin.
You appropriate our music. Back in the day, you straight out stole it -- robbed creative geniuses of their copyrights. Hell, even the Master of Funk himself, George Clinton, doesn't own his own music. What you couldn't steal, you pimped. You corporatized hip-hop. I ain't mad because at least Jiggaman got paid. But at least admit what you did. And although I'm appreciative that you cashed out Dr. Dre for his Beats empire, I'm getting a little tired of mediocre white singers trying to appear more talented than they are by being backed up by a faux black gospel choir, choir robes and all. Black Man Not Blogging (BMNB) has a big problem with appropriating black religious symbolism for corporate gain. It's the Baptist in him.
You appropriate our achievements. You credit Matthew Henson as sharing in reaching the North Pole first when in fact he got there first. I don't even have the time or the space to chronicle how many black achievements have been claimed by whites.
You appropriate our men. Oh yeah, you're afraid of them on the street, but not between the sheets. I've always believed that love knows no color, but for some of you, let's just say you're just curious, fetishizing, and not loving.
So at least this faux sistah is appropriating black identity for a black purpose. Perhaps she hasn't been honest about it, but the lack of honesty is at least balanced out by her work on behalf of black people, which is more than what I can say about other cases of white appropriation of blackness that did not benefit black people.
What I find really offensive is the question, "Why would someone white want to pass for black?"
Here's why: Because we're awesome. Despite all that has been done to us, we're still here. Battered and bruised, perhaps, but we're still here in our nappy, creative, persistent, undeniable genius in shades from off-white to blue-black. WE'RE STILL HERE. You stand on the economic foundation we laid for this nation, yet you still deny our humanity and question why anybody would want to be us. Really, white people? Really? If you question why anybody would want to be us, you need to do an inventory of all that you copy from us and enjoyed of us.
For those of you in the white media harping on this story, I think you need to have one of those awkward moments of self-awareness and count all the ways white people have and continue to appropriate blackness without any benefit for black people. And then go on ahead and write out a check to the Spokane NAACP.
Fear of a Growing Black and Brown Renter Class (On the Power of Ownership)
As an African-American woman, there are some things I fear more than police brutality.
Like a growing Black and brown renter class.
There's a relationship here. Bear with me.
My office is the across the hall from a realty. There's a Latina realtor there who I speak with occasionally in the hallway. I can tell she works hard. We started talking about home ownership among black and brown folks. She's scared, too.
She's scared that the foreclosure crisis, and the intentional targeting of black and brown people for subprime mortgages by Wells Fargo, Countrywide/Bank of America and other major mortgage lenders, will permanently scare off black and brown folks from home ownership.
She's scared, as I am, that if our people stay away from home ownership, the wealth gap that currently exists between whites and black and brown people will widen even more.
She's scared, as I am, that if our people stay away from home ownership, the harder it will be for them to get into home ownership once they see the error of their ways.
And trust me, folks of any color who dismiss home ownership as "something only white people do," (and yes, I've heard that), are condemning themselves to another form of slavery: Renting.
Investors at home and abroad are COUNTING on this black and brown growing renter class. I saw a story on the news a while back about foreign investors buying up tracts of brand new houses in Atlanta for the sole purposes of renting to folks who had lost their homes but still wanted to live in quality neighborhoods. We all know that black and brown people disproportionately lost their homes in Atlanta during the Great Recession. And instead of starting over and starting with what they can afford, the siren song of renting in an area where you can't afford will lead black and brown folks back down the path of rental slavery.
Investors from China are buying up Detroit homes on the cheap for rental property. We all know that black and brown people disproportionately lost their homes in Detroit in the Great Recession.
Get the picture?
Allow me to digress again. I recently had the pleasure of meeting an elderly, white retired U.S. Army colonel while on vacation with Black Man Not Blogging. We started a conversation with the colonel because he was wearing a Red Tails Society hat and was surprised that we knew about the Tuskegee Airmen and the red tails on their planes. He mentioned that he was a former Army aviator who was committed to preserving the memory and history of the Tuskegee Airman. "We're losing them more and more each day," he lamented.
We got on the subject of home ownership. He said he had been married for 61 years before he lost his wife, and they bought their home in a California coastal town for $126,000 a long time ago, and it is now worth way more than that. He talked about how he inherited his brother's estate and, with that inheritance, was able to put "5 and a half" of his grandchildren through college without debt. The half? "One of my grandkids was stubborn about attending a private college, so we couldn't pay all of her costs." He then mentioned that his late wife had inherited shares of stock in Caterpillar from her great-grandfather, who bought them when the company first went public. The shares continued to split over time, and now he gets a check for $5,000 a year in dividends. He mentioned helping one of his children buy a house in East Menlo Park at a time when no one wanted to live there. They bought it for thousands, sold it for millions. The appreciation in the price of his late wife's stock didn't impress him nearly as much as the appreciation in land that he and his family had experienced. He chuckled, "Some people are paper people; some are land people. We're land people."
Because of the power of ownership, the Colonel was not only able to put "5 and a half" of his grandchildren through college, but to live a comfortable life in his later years.
I can personally attest to the power of ownership in my own family. My parents owned their home. Both sets of my grandparents owned their homes. Almost all of the aunts and uncle on both sides of the family owned their homes.
With the house that my parents paid off, my father was able to take out equity and buy a new house when he remarried after my mother's death. He then quitclaimed the house to my sister. When the real estate boom happened, she sold the house at the top of the market to my brother, took the profits, and went in with my other sister on a brand new HUGE house in a gated neighborhood. Not bad for two government workers who had been livin' in the hood. And it all sprang from my mom and dad paying off their mortgage on their $19,000 house, $133 a month at a time, over twenty years (Remember the twenty-year fixed, anyone?)
That is the power of ownership. But it starts small, like buying a house in a bad neighborhood to get your feet in the real estate market.
Renters, unless they are investing actively and wisely in the stock market, will have nothing to leave to their children. No hedge against rental inflation when their incomes are fixed and limited in old age. Nothing to help pay for their children's or grandchildren's college educations. And it is higher education that positions people, especially people of color, to take up leadership positions in business, government and society in general. To solve social ills.
Like police brutality.
Because if you're not in a position of power, you're not at the table where the decisions are made. And as one of my attorney colleagues once said, "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu."
What black and brown people who swear off home ownership because of their past experiences don't understand is this:
1) A fixed rate mortgage freezes your housing costs over time. As your salary increases, your mortgage doesn't, increasing your disposable income. Rents always go up. If you retire as a renter, your fixed income will always be chipped away by higher rents.
2) Your first home won't be your dream home -- it's your equity building home. As my Latina realtor friend said, "Buy what you can afford, whether it's the best house in the worst neighborhood or the worst house in the best neighborhood. If the neighborhood schools are bad, send your child to a charter school. Live in the house for a while and if you don't like the neighborhood, rent it out and live elsewhere. At least you're building equity."
3) Most people don't invest well enough so that they don't have to buy a house. Although stocks have a higher rate of return on investment over time, real estate tends to be safer, especially if you buy and hold. Shortly after BMNB and I bought our home in 2008, we were $100,000 under water. Now we have a lot of equity because the market has bounced back and houses in our neighborhood aren't staying on the market very long. As I said to BMNB when we were under water on our mortgage, "It's a good thing we like our house, because we're definitely not going anywhere." I'm glad we couldn't.
4) Never, ever buy more than what you can afford, and don't let anyone tell you what you can afford. During the height of the real estate boom, mortgage lenders were willing to finance BMNB and I for more than $1 million. We knew we couldn't afford it. We bought a foreclosure that we could safely afford.
5) If you rent, you are at the mercy of your landlord. BMNB and I have the experience of being on both ends of the landlord/tenant stick. When we were renting in Elk Grove, we received a 60-day notice for no reason other than that the landlord lost one of her houses and wanted to move back into the one we were renting. On the other end, the tenant in our Colorado property is about to get a $200 per month rent increase when the lease expires in August. Why? Because she purposefully jacked up our kitchen countertops and DEMANDED granite countertops to replace the laminate -- WTF? -- and because the market has gone gangbusters and we can easily charge and get $200 a month more to pay off the mortgage faster. THAT is the power of ownership. I would be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying getting revenge on the tenant, especially since all the while I lived there BMNB wouldn't buy me granite countertops, and I was sleeping with him.
6) Get in where you fit, in however you can get in. My sisters went in together to buy a house that neither could have afforded on their own. My niece and nephew-in-law bought in the 'hood until they could trade up to the suburbs. BMNB's first property, now our rental, was a townhome, because that was all he could afford. Be creative. If you can't afford a house, buy a condo or a townhome. If you're handy, buy something you can fix up and put sweat equity into. Our neighbors next door are the second generation to own their house. When their father died, their mother bought a new house and gave the house to them, her sons. However you get in the ownership game, just get in. Heck, start a down payment sou-sou.
7) Home ownership takes sacrifice, but it's worth it. When you're trying to get your credit together and save money for the down payment, you forego things. You shouldn't buy unless you know you're going to stay in the area for at least three years. And once you buy, you need to keep a steady job - even if you don't like it -- so you can keep your mortgage paid. The benefit? The tax write off for mortgage interest (which has saved us a HUGE amount of money); improvement of your credit -- the first thing that credit applications ask after your job is whether you rent or own; stability for your children, because they won't have to leave their friends or school just because the landlord says so. There are credit cards with credit limits that I couldn't dream of getting ten years ago before BMNB and I bought our house that are offered to me like crack. My new relationship to credit card issuers is best summed up by rapper Mike Jones: "First you didn't know me, now you all up on me."
8) Even if you lose your home, you can pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and try again. My parents lost a home before I was born. They rented until the children of one of my mother's friends taunted my siblings, saying, "You ain't got no place to live." That spurred my dad on to take on extra work to get his family back into their own home.
Wealth grows over generations, with each generation making it a little easier for the next generation -- if they are wise -- to get an education and a toehold in American society. Wealth buys freedom.
But you don't accumulate wealth by renting. That is why I fear a growing black and brown renter class.
But my Latina realtor friend is undaunted. She said she continues to work to get her people into homes. She said, "It's a lot of work, getting first-time buyers into a home. It doesn't pay a lot. But boy is it worth it to me."
Like a growing Black and brown renter class.
There's a relationship here. Bear with me.
My office is the across the hall from a realty. There's a Latina realtor there who I speak with occasionally in the hallway. I can tell she works hard. We started talking about home ownership among black and brown folks. She's scared, too.
She's scared that the foreclosure crisis, and the intentional targeting of black and brown people for subprime mortgages by Wells Fargo, Countrywide/Bank of America and other major mortgage lenders, will permanently scare off black and brown folks from home ownership.
She's scared, as I am, that if our people stay away from home ownership, the wealth gap that currently exists between whites and black and brown people will widen even more.
She's scared, as I am, that if our people stay away from home ownership, the harder it will be for them to get into home ownership once they see the error of their ways.
And trust me, folks of any color who dismiss home ownership as "something only white people do," (and yes, I've heard that), are condemning themselves to another form of slavery: Renting.
Investors at home and abroad are COUNTING on this black and brown growing renter class. I saw a story on the news a while back about foreign investors buying up tracts of brand new houses in Atlanta for the sole purposes of renting to folks who had lost their homes but still wanted to live in quality neighborhoods. We all know that black and brown people disproportionately lost their homes in Atlanta during the Great Recession. And instead of starting over and starting with what they can afford, the siren song of renting in an area where you can't afford will lead black and brown folks back down the path of rental slavery.
Investors from China are buying up Detroit homes on the cheap for rental property. We all know that black and brown people disproportionately lost their homes in Detroit in the Great Recession.
Get the picture?
Allow me to digress again. I recently had the pleasure of meeting an elderly, white retired U.S. Army colonel while on vacation with Black Man Not Blogging. We started a conversation with the colonel because he was wearing a Red Tails Society hat and was surprised that we knew about the Tuskegee Airmen and the red tails on their planes. He mentioned that he was a former Army aviator who was committed to preserving the memory and history of the Tuskegee Airman. "We're losing them more and more each day," he lamented.
We got on the subject of home ownership. He said he had been married for 61 years before he lost his wife, and they bought their home in a California coastal town for $126,000 a long time ago, and it is now worth way more than that. He talked about how he inherited his brother's estate and, with that inheritance, was able to put "5 and a half" of his grandchildren through college without debt. The half? "One of my grandkids was stubborn about attending a private college, so we couldn't pay all of her costs." He then mentioned that his late wife had inherited shares of stock in Caterpillar from her great-grandfather, who bought them when the company first went public. The shares continued to split over time, and now he gets a check for $5,000 a year in dividends. He mentioned helping one of his children buy a house in East Menlo Park at a time when no one wanted to live there. They bought it for thousands, sold it for millions. The appreciation in the price of his late wife's stock didn't impress him nearly as much as the appreciation in land that he and his family had experienced. He chuckled, "Some people are paper people; some are land people. We're land people."
Because of the power of ownership, the Colonel was not only able to put "5 and a half" of his grandchildren through college, but to live a comfortable life in his later years.
I can personally attest to the power of ownership in my own family. My parents owned their home. Both sets of my grandparents owned their homes. Almost all of the aunts and uncle on both sides of the family owned their homes.
With the house that my parents paid off, my father was able to take out equity and buy a new house when he remarried after my mother's death. He then quitclaimed the house to my sister. When the real estate boom happened, she sold the house at the top of the market to my brother, took the profits, and went in with my other sister on a brand new HUGE house in a gated neighborhood. Not bad for two government workers who had been livin' in the hood. And it all sprang from my mom and dad paying off their mortgage on their $19,000 house, $133 a month at a time, over twenty years (Remember the twenty-year fixed, anyone?)
That is the power of ownership. But it starts small, like buying a house in a bad neighborhood to get your feet in the real estate market.
Renters, unless they are investing actively and wisely in the stock market, will have nothing to leave to their children. No hedge against rental inflation when their incomes are fixed and limited in old age. Nothing to help pay for their children's or grandchildren's college educations. And it is higher education that positions people, especially people of color, to take up leadership positions in business, government and society in general. To solve social ills.
Like police brutality.
Because if you're not in a position of power, you're not at the table where the decisions are made. And as one of my attorney colleagues once said, "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu."
What black and brown people who swear off home ownership because of their past experiences don't understand is this:
1) A fixed rate mortgage freezes your housing costs over time. As your salary increases, your mortgage doesn't, increasing your disposable income. Rents always go up. If you retire as a renter, your fixed income will always be chipped away by higher rents.
2) Your first home won't be your dream home -- it's your equity building home. As my Latina realtor friend said, "Buy what you can afford, whether it's the best house in the worst neighborhood or the worst house in the best neighborhood. If the neighborhood schools are bad, send your child to a charter school. Live in the house for a while and if you don't like the neighborhood, rent it out and live elsewhere. At least you're building equity."
3) Most people don't invest well enough so that they don't have to buy a house. Although stocks have a higher rate of return on investment over time, real estate tends to be safer, especially if you buy and hold. Shortly after BMNB and I bought our home in 2008, we were $100,000 under water. Now we have a lot of equity because the market has bounced back and houses in our neighborhood aren't staying on the market very long. As I said to BMNB when we were under water on our mortgage, "It's a good thing we like our house, because we're definitely not going anywhere." I'm glad we couldn't.
4) Never, ever buy more than what you can afford, and don't let anyone tell you what you can afford. During the height of the real estate boom, mortgage lenders were willing to finance BMNB and I for more than $1 million. We knew we couldn't afford it. We bought a foreclosure that we could safely afford.
5) If you rent, you are at the mercy of your landlord. BMNB and I have the experience of being on both ends of the landlord/tenant stick. When we were renting in Elk Grove, we received a 60-day notice for no reason other than that the landlord lost one of her houses and wanted to move back into the one we were renting. On the other end, the tenant in our Colorado property is about to get a $200 per month rent increase when the lease expires in August. Why? Because she purposefully jacked up our kitchen countertops and DEMANDED granite countertops to replace the laminate -- WTF? -- and because the market has gone gangbusters and we can easily charge and get $200 a month more to pay off the mortgage faster. THAT is the power of ownership. I would be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying getting revenge on the tenant, especially since all the while I lived there BMNB wouldn't buy me granite countertops, and I was sleeping with him.
6) Get in where you fit, in however you can get in. My sisters went in together to buy a house that neither could have afforded on their own. My niece and nephew-in-law bought in the 'hood until they could trade up to the suburbs. BMNB's first property, now our rental, was a townhome, because that was all he could afford. Be creative. If you can't afford a house, buy a condo or a townhome. If you're handy, buy something you can fix up and put sweat equity into. Our neighbors next door are the second generation to own their house. When their father died, their mother bought a new house and gave the house to them, her sons. However you get in the ownership game, just get in. Heck, start a down payment sou-sou.
7) Home ownership takes sacrifice, but it's worth it. When you're trying to get your credit together and save money for the down payment, you forego things. You shouldn't buy unless you know you're going to stay in the area for at least three years. And once you buy, you need to keep a steady job - even if you don't like it -- so you can keep your mortgage paid. The benefit? The tax write off for mortgage interest (which has saved us a HUGE amount of money); improvement of your credit -- the first thing that credit applications ask after your job is whether you rent or own; stability for your children, because they won't have to leave their friends or school just because the landlord says so. There are credit cards with credit limits that I couldn't dream of getting ten years ago before BMNB and I bought our house that are offered to me like crack. My new relationship to credit card issuers is best summed up by rapper Mike Jones: "First you didn't know me, now you all up on me."
8) Even if you lose your home, you can pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and try again. My parents lost a home before I was born. They rented until the children of one of my mother's friends taunted my siblings, saying, "You ain't got no place to live." That spurred my dad on to take on extra work to get his family back into their own home.
Wealth grows over generations, with each generation making it a little easier for the next generation -- if they are wise -- to get an education and a toehold in American society. Wealth buys freedom.
But you don't accumulate wealth by renting. That is why I fear a growing black and brown renter class.
But my Latina realtor friend is undaunted. She said she continues to work to get her people into homes. She said, "It's a lot of work, getting first-time buyers into a home. It doesn't pay a lot. But boy is it worth it to me."
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