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Reimagining Black Health is a podcast dedicated to advancing Black health equity by exploring critical health topics through the lens of the Eight Dimensions of Well-Being—emotional, physical, occupational, social, spiritual, intellectual, environmental, and financial.
Brought to you by The Council on Black Health, the show highlights experts, advocates, and community members who are reimagining what it means to thrive and live safe, healthy, and happy lives. Through insightful conversations, we amplify the voices of those driving meaningful change in Black health and wellness.
Join us in achieving equity for generations. Donate to help the Council on Black Health drive lasting impact!
https://councilbh.app.neoncrm.com/forms/donate
Sometimes the, the hopelessness and
the the desperation comes from, I'm
in this bad situation and I don't
know how to make it any better.
I don't know who to call.
I don't know what to do, and it just.
Isn't getting any better.
And, and those are the questions that
we as a community need to be answering.
Those are the people in our community
that we need to be reaching out
to, and those are the resources
that we need to be providing.
Welcome to Reimagining Black Health,
a podcast from the Council on Black
Health, where we explore what it
means to thrive in our communities.
Through the lens of the eight
dimensions of wellbeing.
I'm your host, Dr. Militia.
Whit Glover, chief Executive Officer
for the Council on Black Health.
Today's episode is all about financial
wellbeing, a state where an individual has
security and freedom of choice in their
financial life, both present and future.
It's not simply about the amount of
money you have, but rather the ability
to manage it effectively to meet
current and future needs and goals.
Today I'm joined by two incredible guests.
Stephanie Yates is the Executive
Director of the University of Alabama
at Birmingham Regents Institute for
Financial Education, who is passionate
about this work because of the impact
it has on the lives she touches.
We're also joined by Darius Peace.
Darius is a master hairstylist,
author, speaker, and successful
entrepreneur with 20 years of
experience in the beauty industry.
Darius was featured in the October, 2019
issue of the Oprah Magazine and has most
recently been featured in People Magazine,
men's Health Magazine, allure Magazine,
and Money Magazine, just to name a few.
Thank you both for taking time
out of your schedules today to
join us and welcome to the show.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We always start out with asking folks
to define, uh, what we're talking about.
And so as you know, we've been focusing
on achieving optimal health in black
communities and using the wellbeing wheel,
and financial wellbeing is one of those.
And so when you all think about.
Optimal financial wellbeing, not
just income, beyond income, but
thinking about financial wellbeing
and what it looks like to thrive.
What does that, can you
tell us what that means?
What does that look like to you and
Stephanie, we'll start with you.
Sure.
So when I think about thriving
financially, I, I, I first
start by thinking about the
continuum from surviving to
thriving and kind of the steps.
To get from one place to another.
So that means if, if you are working
toward or arrived at the place where
you're thriving financially, that
means that you have stability and
security so that you're able to
meet your basic financial needs.
It means that you don't have any.
Stress or chronic stress
related to your finances.
So you're not worried when there's a
knock on the door or when the phone
rings, that it's going to be someone
wanting something that you can't deliver.
And then as we move a little bit
closer to thriving, it starts to
mean that you're building wealth.
So you.
Everything is handled.
You're stable, your house is in order,
but now you're building wealth and
ideally generational wealth, and you've
got some level of financial freedom
and flexibility, meaning when you have
an unexpected event or expense, you're
not scrambling trying to figure out how
you're going to handle it because that
store of wealth is there to support you.
For those types of needs and all of
that together puts you in a place
where you feel financially confident
and in control of your finances.
And that's what I think of
as financially thriving.
And I, I agree.
I would agree that.
Just having that stability.
I think that the stability is
really that key word in there.
But I would also add flow because the
stability comes from understanding
that there is a flow of money that
will allow you to not experience
the stress, uh, or the worry of, oh,
where's the money gonna come from
to cover these expenses right here?
So knowing that there's a flow and
that there's a, a growing flow,
that the flow is, um, increasing.
So that, because everything around us is
always increasing there, there's always
inflation, there's always something
that's gonna increase the expenses,
and so knowing that the flow is able to
accommodate any of those increases, so
mm-hmm.
Thank you.
That's, that's super helpful to get you.
So now we're, we're gonna talk today
from that definition of, uh, what that
thriving looks like and, and really
be, uh, begin to break down what do
we need to do collectively as people
to be able to help us move toward.
Thriving and not just surviving.
Um, and some of us are not.
We, we are not even surviving.
I think of the Jefferson songs.
We are not keeping our heads
above water, not the Jefferson.
That was good times.
Yeah, that was good times.
Um, we are scratching and surviving,
but so, um, so we're gonna be talking
about it from that perspective
of how we move to thriving.
Um, Stephanie, you teach courses in this.
Tell me, you, you do community
courses or tell me what it is that
you do and how you and Darius met.
'cause I think you all have a
story and you're connected somehow.
So talk a little bit about that.
So I do workshops in personal finance.
Uh, I met Darius when I was leading a
workshop for, um, the Community Leadership
Academy, and Darius was a participant.
And so my, my portion of the
academy was to talk about these
kinds of topics and ways that.
That we as leaders can help
support our community to, on that
continuum, to thriving financially.
And so I think about Stephanie quite
often because of how I met her, because
I'm actually, um, producing an event
right now called the Magic City Expo.
And so one of the, you know,
there were several things that
we learned in her presentation,
of course, organization, and.
Just organization and networking and
really understanding how to glue it
all together to create something big.
And so that's, that's what's happened.
So it's so interesting that we're doing
this because I think about Stephanie
quite often because I am organized,
because I've been reminded over and
over again about these are the steps
that you need in order to do that.
And this is an event that really
does impact, you know, the
greater Birmingham area, both on
the consumer end as well as the.
Small business owner in.
So it's been really fantastic with that.
So that's how we met, you know, but
it's, it's a very ongoing thing.
There was a, a pouring when we met,
and I'm able to use, um, the tools that
she shared to keep everything going and
to contribute to what we just said, a
flow of, um, economic opportunity for.
Everybody, you know, helping to
create those channels so that
people can experience a thriving,
um, just thrive experience.
Thrive in their financial wellbeing.
So, Darius, where were you?
So how you all met, how long ago
This was?
Um, a few months ago actually
with the earlier, like mid this
year, maybe March, I think.
April, sometime during that time,
like March, April, but it was with
the Community Leadership Academy.
And so I started, um, volunteering with my
community and was offered the opportunity
to participate in a cohort with
community leadership all, uh, Alabama and
mm-hmm.
Yes.
So it's, it is funny 'cause I, I feel
like this is gonna come up later.
I, I bet you it's gonna come up.
But, um, as we have talked about
all the different elements of
the wellbeing wheel from, um,
emotional wellness to spiritual, um.
To financial.
This theme of connection and
connectedness and being in community
with each other keeps coming up.
And now I'm hearing it again.
Like you connected, you were a cohort,
you're moving, you're thriving together.
And the thing that I think if we
don't hear anything else from this
series of podcasts, what we're
going to get from this is, uh, a
key to us thriving as people is
coming back together as community.
Moving together and supporting each other.
Um, so, so appreciate you sharing that.
Stephanie.
As we think about, um, the history of,
of black folks in America and we think
about surviving and, and thriving, we
know that there are some historical and,
and underlying systemic factors that are,
are impacting us, and in particular that
we know that there's a racial wealth gap.
Can you.
Talk a little bit about what those
historical and systemic factors are
and how they've contributed to that
racial wealth wealth gap, both in the
past and even how that's continuing.
Oh, absolutely.
I could probably go on all day
on that topic, but when you think
about the history of African
Americans in this country.
There's always been a, a divide in
terms of equality and that absolutely
trickles down into finances.
You know, you think about, um,
coming to this country, ens, slave
as enslaved people and virtually
having no rights and no ability to
build wealth, build, build that.
Financial foundation and then moving,
moving on after, um, the civil
rights era era into the Jim Crow
era and the various Jim Crow laws
that perpetuated economic exclusion.
And you, you think about, um,
financial inclusion and financial
exclusion, and that, I think is
the thing that marks the history of
African Americans in this country.
Is that they have been
systematically excluded from, um.
Financial markets and financial
opportunities, and that led particularly
early on in the history of this
country that has led to this, this,
uh, racial wealth gap moving forward.
We have redlining and housing
discrimination, which impacted the
ability of certain groups of people to
purchase homes and, and build wealth in
that way, um, in the manner that they
chose in the areas that they chose.
When you think about housing as
being the primary store of wealth.
For most people in this country and to
have an entire group of people excluded
from that opportunity that again, um,
adds to the racial wealth have then when
there were times that we tried to, we as
a country tried to help people move on
this continuum from surviving to thriving.
We still tended to exclude certain people.
So when you think about, um, the GI bill
and post-war benefits, black people were
often excluded from certain policies.
And, and so again, that, that add to
the divide and made it very difficult
for, um, blacks to build wealth.
This just continued through segregation.
You think about education
and education as a means to
opportunity to better paying jobs.
Um, built wealth, wealth building, and
when you don't have access to education,
that again adds to those issues.
Um, we've got tremendous examples
of employment discrimination.
And then, um, once blacks were able
to access housing loans, personal
loans, small business loans, they were
subject often to predatory lending.
So they, so maybe we will lend
to you, but we're not gonna
give you the same terms mm-hmm.
That we give to other groups.
And so that means that I'm borrowing
at a much higher rate and it's gonna
cost me more for the same thing that
my, my counterparts are able to get.
And so all of this.
Leads to, um, this, this racial
wealth gap and the difficulty that
African Americans face when it comes
to building generational wealth.
Mm-hmm.
So not just for me, but for
mine and theirs and so on.
And that is something that, uh.
The majority have not had the same issue
with, because, you know, you think about
the, the beginnings of this country.
Many came as very wealthy people or
became very wealthy as um, when we had
the agrarian society as planters and
farmers and so on, and they were able
to leave land and money and property.
Um, and other assets to their, their
future generations that African
Americans just weren't able to do.
So I apologize.
Very long-winded answer, but
there's just so much packed in there
that that's really helpful.
And you did, you, you said
a lot and provided a lot
of, of really great context.
Um, so one of the things that
the Council in Black Health, uh.
Uh, did in April of 2021 is we
released the Nation's first Black
Health Bill of Rights, and it
has, um, seven articles in it.
And it's, it's, it's our, uh,
the, the, uh, the framework that
drives the way that we do our work.
One of the articles says that, um,
it's article six, we have the right to
honor and incorporate lessons from our
past, present, and future as a pathway
to restoring our, our, our health.
And I, and I explained that to
say our health and our wellness,
including financial wellbeing.
So I, I provide that context just to
say you provided a lot of really helpful
information about history and how we've
been, um, uh, how systemic oppression and
things like that have, have held us back.
But then we also see examples of
things like Black Wall Street.
Where we were able to thrive and,
and, and we saw that we, we saw
examples of things like Black Wall
Street in, in different communities.
Now, those, those were, uh, were
destroyed and race massacres.
But can you talk about.
How were we able to do that in the
face of all of the discrimination and
the oppression that you talked about?
We still managed to figure out how
to thrive and to create something
that like a Black Wall Street.
So it's a two part question.
One, how were we able to do that
and two, how can we get back there?
Because those are examples of things that
worked in spite of, and we were thriving.
What did we do then?
And how can we do that now?
So
as we evolve as a country, those
opportunities do present themselves.
So, so even though in the beginning
African Americans had no opportunity
for wealth building, as laws changed,
as we evolved, then we were, you
know, we earned the right to vote.
We earned the right to
an education, and so, so.
It was separate but equal, but we
started to, to develop rights that
allowed us to advance economically.
And there were just some very, very
brave souls in our history who took
advantage of that and became very
successful African-American entrepreneurs
creating the black wall streets.
And so it just, it takes that
type of vision and courage.
To step up and, and create those
opportunities for the masses.
Um, it.
And so in the second part of your
question, what will it take to
create another Black Wall Street?
And, and before I answer that, another
example is the Freedman's Bank.
Mm-hmm.
You know, we have several black banks,
kind of like the Tulsa massacre.
The Freedman's bank went under and
a lot of people lost their money.
And so when you think about those
two significant examples of kind
of the rise and fall of the African
American economy in this country.
Fear drives a lot of
people, um, or discourages.
Mm-hmm.
A lot of people from trying
to rebuild what we have.
And so, and also policies
make it very, very difficult.
You know, you think about what
we're seeing today and so it
would be very difficult to.
Create some of the opportunities that
we've seen in the past because some of
these, um, minority owned businesses
benefited from DEI policies, and so with
those largely being canceled, that makes
it difficult to raise the capital to.
Create those opportunities and
have a Black Wall Street to have a
freedman's bank to have, um, minority,
small businesses because again, just
like the, the, the history lesson
I just gave, we don't have the
generational wealth to do it ourselves.
So we need a little help getting started.
And right now that help just isn't there.
Mm-hmm.
Do you, is, is there
also, um, just a sense of.
I don't know the exact statistics and
statistic, and we may be able to loop
it in later, but I know that the, the
amount of time that a dollar circ a,
a black dollar circulates in the black
community is almost as soon as we make
a dollar, it goes to another community.
Whereas in other population subgroups,
they tend to circulate dollars
within, within their communities.
Um, as you say, the capital's not there.
We don't have the, we don't
have the, the, the support.
It.
Black people spend a lot of
money in this, in this nation.
So we've, we've, we've got money.
And you could even look at like
what's happening with Target
right now with the boycott and the
amount of money that's being lost.
And it's, I know it's not just black
people, there are others that are
supporting, but is is it that we are
waiting for permission to do something
that we can, we can already do just by.
Coming together as a community and
circulating our dollars, or is it really
that we need to rely on somebody else and
somebody else's DEI policies to be able
to move us into this area of thriving?
I think that's my, that question.
Are we, is it that we need
somebody else's permission or is
it that we, we just need to do it?
I think we just need to do it.
Mm-hmm.
And, um, you know, you talked
about our culture versus other
cultures and we are very different.
You know, you think about
Asian cultures, for example.
They are much, they are, I guess I
would say better at keeping dollars
in their own community than we are.
Um, and it, it's, um.
I don't know.
It seems to be a little bit,
uh, different messaging mm-hmm.
In our culture in terms of what it
means to arrive and to have money
and how you spend it and how you
show it and how you present yourself.
Mm-hmm.
And,
and it is in some.
Segments of our culture, it's
just not as important to keep
those dollars in our community
as it is to take care of oneself.
Mm-hmm.
And, um, and present that,
present that image of success.
Um, so, so getting back to your question
though, I really do think that it's just a
matter of doing and in our community, we.
We need that glue to pull us together to,
to make a strong movement economically.
Mm-hmm.
And that, that's what seems to
be missing to, to move us back
to that era of Black Wall Streets
and, and strong black wealth, um,
that that's.
My perspective at least.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
That's helpful.
Thank you very much.
So, Darius, let me bring you in
'cause we've been talking about, um,
you know, Stephanie gave us the, the
history of systemic racism and how
it's impacted the racial wealth gap.
And then we started talking about yes, but
in the face of all that racism, we were
able to do things like build a black Wall
street and it was thriving until there
was a, a, you know, a. Racial war and
the massacre that, that tore it all down.
Um, and so my question was, you know,
then how can we, how can we rebuild that?
What do we, what can we learn from
how we were able to build a Black Wall
Street so that we can do that today?
Um, I wanna turn to you and just ask you
from your experience in thinking about
now, what are some of the most significant
day-to-day financial challenges that
that black people or black families face?
Hmm.
This sounds like an opportunity, um,
a missed opportunity for us to, to
do a better job of coming together
outside of those institutions with
the, with the money that we have.
And I was talking about the fact that
we, we collectively as black people
spend a lot of money and we do have a
lot of money, but because we're not.
Focusing on how we use our dollars,
we are missing opportunities to,
to collectively build perhaps.
Um, I'm not a financial expert, so
this is my pie in the sky thinking.
Um, Stephanie, go ahead.
Well, you know, tying together what you
were just saying about building wealth
and what Darius was saying about, um,
the generational wealth that often
comes in terms of a family home, another
thing that I'm seeing is we don't have
the knowledge this support, um, the
resources to make that happen Sometimes.
For example, if, if.
Um, the patriarch had the family
home and they pass on and they, they
in their will, they leave that home
or it's just understood that that
home is going to the descendants.
Oftentimes what I'm seeing is
we don't put it in writing.
Mm. You know, we don't have the, the, the
paper trail to make that a legal transfer.
So when I, when I am, we just move in
and so now I'm living in the family home
and, and I think I might be eligible
for some programs that'll help me.
Renovate the home, get a
new roof, whatever it is.
But I can't prove that I own it.
Hmm, okay.
Because we didn't, we,
we didn't get the help.
We didn't understand what it
would take for the patriarch to
legally transfer that home to me.
Mm-hmm.
Before their death.
And so now I'm scrambling to try
to prove that I own it versus just
living there so that I can access
the resources that may be available
to me to, to put money back into the
home and really build that wealth.
And so we, those are the types of supports
and you know, and I keep talking about,
um, one of the keys to getting from.
Surviving to thriving is resources.
Yeah.
That's one of the key resources,
you know, knowing who to go
to, to, for those legal issues.
So, so legal property transfers,
estate planning, um, in order
to build generational wealth,
we've gotta do it the right way.
So those wealth transfers are recognized.
So I've heard you all say a
couple of important things, and
I just wanna pause for a second.
I, I, I heard you say we need resources
and that sometimes the, the land that we
have might not be appreciating, but it,
it, but it seems like we need to kind of
stop the, the, the bleed, so to speak.
So even if what I'm hearing you say
is even if land is not appreciating,
we still need to hold onto it
'cause we're not creating more land.
At some point that's gonna be important.
So, so, so whatever land we have right
now, whatever resources we have right
now, if we can hold onto those, we
should keep those, because that's gonna
be a part of building that wealth.
So I, that's one thing.
The second thing that I heard you say
that's really important, Stephanie, is
we, we need to make sure that we have
the proper paperwork in place for when
we are passing these assets along.
And sometimes it's.
Somebody moves into the family home,
but they don't necessarily have the
right paperwork, as you mentioned.
And I've also seen a lot of instances
where the family home might pass
down from the, the, the, the
parent, the parents to five kids.
None of them wanna live in the
home, but they fight over the home.
And then it just ends up falling
into Dispair, which is a whole
other, a whole other issue.
And so it seems like.
There's some knowledge that we don't
necessarily have, uh, uh, probably won't
have time to get into now, but I'm seeing
a set of resources that we might be
able to work together to put together
to like kind of help people figure out,
like, these are things that you, here's
how you, here's what you need to do.
If you're trying to hold under land,
it might be in the hood, but it is not.
We with gentrification, it's
not always gonna be the hood.
Um mm-hmm.
And so, and then here's
what you need to know.
If you're, if you're moving into a
house, like this is what you need to do.
If, if the house is owned by multiple
people, here's what you need to
do because we need to stop the
lost the loss first, even as we're
trying to continue to grow wealth.
'cause we, we're, we're, it seems like
we are rapidly losing assets because
we're giving up, or we're selling them,
or we're, we're getting these offers that
sound good, but then later on you realize,
wait a minute, I can't do anything.
To move myself forward with
the amount of money that I got.
It felt good at the moment, but I
can't actually buy another house.
I can't actually buy more land with this.
So I just wanted to say that I'm picking
up on a couple of, as we start to build
like our list of like actions, um, you
guys are giving us some good things.
Darius, you were gonna say something
and I apologize 'cause I cut you
off, but I didn't wanna lose it.
Go ahead.
Hmm.
Now, see, Darius, what I heard you say
is now we gotta bring in all of our
emotional wellbeing and all that stuff
because how are we gonna have the,
I think that's where you're say, so
we've got to, I, I love what you said.
We have to not be uncomfortable
with having financial conversations.
We have to recognize the
power of coming together.
And sometimes, uh, you
might give a little bit.
More than somebody else, but it's
for the, the, the good of the whole.
But you've gotta, you've gotta
have those conversations about the
benefits of working collectively
within families and within
communities so that we all move ahead.
And I think that might be
one of those key things.
Uh, 'cause one of my questions is
what's stopping us from getting there?
I think not having the conversations,
not being willing to compromise.
Those are some of those things that
are stopping us from getting there.
And remember I said
early on that community.
And us coming together keeps coming up
as a theme in all these conversations.
It just came up again.
We have got to come together and work
together for us to be able to thrive,
even as it relates to financial wellbeing.
And I'll even add on to that,
that notion of community.
You were talking in your first point
about, um, land and holding onto land.
Whether, whether it's appreciating
in value or not, most times it is
appreciating in value, and I think
the, when we're thinking really
seriously about building wealth.
It, it, we, we've gotta go back to
that prospecting mindset and look
at the plans for, for the, the city
that we're operating in and, you
know, where is the development?
Mm-hmm.
Where do we want to be and, and
can we buy or build in that area?
Can we hold on to what we have in that
area so that, so that what we have.
Is as valuable as possible.
And, and again, those are collective
conversations, thinking about
what it is that we have, what
our community needs, and how we
can work together to create that.
Stephanie, you know what,
that is such a good point.
And I, and I know that there, there
are people that are listening that
are like, look, I'm just trying to.
Um, get from one paycheck to the
other, but we also know that there
are people in our community that have
the space and the freedom to be able
to show up to those meetings and pay
attention to what's being built and be
able to, to kind of be on the lookout.
And, um, I have been in a, just
with the work that I do, I've, I've
been able to be in a number of, um,
conversations with, with developers
and people in communities that.
That show those maps.
So this is what's coming.
This is the community plan.
Let's get input.
And, and by and large, um, the, the
black community, really most people
in communities do not show up.
For those meetings, and when we
do show up, it is, wait, there's
a bulldozer getting ready to dig,
and you're getting ready to knock
this house down and I don't want to.
And what somebody said, a a, a land
developer said one time when you're
out there in front of the bulldozer
with your picket, uh, with your picket
sign, you are 10 years too late.
Because those plans happen 10 years
in advance and we have to be paying
attention and we have to show up.
And this is not to put any more pressure
on folks that are, you know, full up
at the, because we know that that life
is overwhelming and there's a lot.
But there are also those of us who
could show up to town hall meetings
who could come and speak out.
And we don't go as, we don't go either.
And that's how.
We end up losing.
We don't, we miss the boat on what's
being developed and where to, and
we've gotta be paying attention.
And those of us that show up to
the meetings have to be willing to,
as a community, as a collective,
share that information with others.
So we all know when I
know You should know.
Absolutely.
We should be gate keeping.
Darius, go ahead.
You'll let the, we just,
we just over talking.
You we're sorry.
Mm.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, sometimes, and sometimes
the way life is set up, we
end up making a a, a short.
A, a decision that impacts us in the short
term when we could have made a different
decision that impacts us in the long term.
But sometimes life is life and,
and you need your power to be
on and you need that money.
And so, you know, I think we also
have to, that there's, there's no,
there's no right or wrong answer.
We have to have the, the, the, the space
and the grace to, um, to understand that
sometimes people are in that situation.
But on one of our other podcasts,
somebody also mentioned that we, we also.
We also have to know within our networks,
we have to be in enough connection with
people to know when somebody is struggling
to, to pay their power bill if we've got
a little bit, to be able to help them,
to be able to help get, to have the grace
and give them the grace and dignity to
be able to help them without them having
to beg, without them having to, um, to,
to, to, to, to, to feel uncomfortable.
Um, because then those kinds of things is
how, is how we come together as community.
This is like community funds, this,
those, those kinds of things to really
be able to help move us out of that, out
of that poverty situation so people can
even have the space to think about, okay,
now let me think about this long-term
decision that I need to make financially.
Yeah.
But you know, what I'm also hearing is
the need for education around some of
these topics, and not necessarily in the
traditional sense of, you know, degrees
and certificates and so on, but it's.
Okay.
This is where you are.
These are the things
that you can, you can do.
These are the resources
that are available to you.
Mm-hmm.
To get you from where you
are to where you wanna be.
Sometimes the, the hopelessness and the.
The desperation comes from I'm
in this bad situation and I don't
know how to make it any better.
Yeah, I don't know who to call.
I don't know what to do, and it
just isn't getting any better.
And, and those are the questions that
we as a community need to be answering.
Those are the people.
In our community that we
need to be reaching out to.
And those are the resources
that we need to be providing.
And we need to make it easy to
access those resources because I
know that sometimes you, there are
resources that are available, but
when you're in that kind of situation,
it's um, you know, it might be you
have to go to one side of town.
On three buses to access these resource
and then another side of town, and
then you get there and it's closed
and you can't take, you know, you
can't take another day off work.
I mean, we have, I've seen
the reality of, of that.
So we have to.
You know, we, we, I, I love the idea of
education and making sure that people
understand what resources are available.
And then I think that those of
us who have access to, um, either
providing those resources or adv or
can advocate, we need to make it easy
for people to get those resources.
But then we also need to be spending,
um, just as much time, um, helping
to make sure that people don't have
to depend on those resources forever.
'cause I think sometimes we make
it so that people get stuck.
And they have to keep
relying on those resources.
Well, and when I talk about resources,
I'm not just talking about food pantries.
Mm-hmm.
You know, things to get you over the hump.
I'm talking about empowerment.
Mm-hmm.
I'm talking about, you know, so not
giving you the fish, but teaching
you to fish and teaching you mm-hmm.
How to start your business.
Um.
By property, uh, clear the, clear the
title on the family home, all of mm-hmm.
You know, all of those things that
in our community we weren't off,
we often were not taught at home.
Mm-hmm.
Whereas in other communities, yeah.
That's.
Yep.
That's the education you get at home.
Right.
And so we are, we are left sometimes
scrambling because our parents
didn't know how to do it either.
Yeah.
Our, we, we have to redefine home, home,
home for us has to be more of a village.
Because maybe it didn't happen in
your home, but within your village.
We need to be able, we need to be
sharing that information outside, within
the village and not just in our home.
Absolutely, Darius.
Absolutely.
Can you tell us, have you implemented
any specific strategies in your own
life or, or things you've observed in
the community that have successfully
helped to improve financial health?
What have you seen that's worked?
You, you all are, are doing
absolutely incredible work.
I'm excited to, um, to hear
about what you're doing.
Um, Darius, I, I, I do have
to say you, you threw me when
you first said Magic City.
'cause I thought you were talking about
Atlanta, and I was like, wait a minute.
This is, this is a whole
different kind of show.
So I'm glad you cleared.
You're talking about I got
it, but okay, we're good.
So
I did not know that.
I was not gonna knock anybody's hustle,
but I was like, oh, I, I was like,
oh, well, you know, I don't, okay.
If my mom is listening, I, I, I'm sorry.
Okay.
This has been incredible.
You all are doing incredible work.
I know we could have talked
about any number of things as it
relates to financial wellbeing.
Um, we got to the question on thriving and
then really got into the resources piece.
I, I would love to have you all back,
um, another time to talk about even
more related to financial wellbeing.
'cause, 'cause we could
talk about this forever.
Um, but I, but I do wanna thank you
for being here and as we close out, um.
I wanna go back to your definitions of
what it means to thrive, uh, financially.
And I would love for you to give our
listeners one concrete thing that they
could either start doing or stop doing
this week that would move us toward
that definition of financial, uh,
of thriving, of financial wellbeing.
So what's one concrete thing?
Not like an abstract you should
think about, but one like.
Go do this thing and that
will move you one step closer
toward thriving financially.
Um, Stephanie, I'm gonna start
with you and then Darius,
I'll give you the last word.
Well, I always do this in my
financial workshops, and that is to
ask you to take an inventory of your
financial strengths and weaknesses.
So think about all the various aspects
of personal finance and which ones have
you been kind of running from, and which
ones do you feel like you are comfortable?
And then once you identify, you know,
that's the first step is identifying
those weaknesses, put together a plan
on how you're going to get stronger.
Thank you.
And, and
I would say,
mm-hmm.
Yeah, I would say go and find.
A financial expert and have, ask
them for help, you know, that could
be go into the bank and say, Hey,
do you know someone who can help me
better understand money or my money?
Or do you know someone who is
offering some classes that will help
me better manage what I do have?
Um, I, I think that
seeking out financial help.
Is a start for many people.
So if you're someone out there who just
doesn't know what to do or does not have
an understanding of, you know, how money
works, you know how to save, how to set
aside, um, how money flows, how it grows,
what are some things that you can do?
I would seek help, like go and
find helpful resources with that
so that you can be educated.
Thank you very much to both of you,
for both of you for those tips.
And what we'll do is put some things on
our website, um, we'll ask you all off
the air for, uh, some recommendations.
And then, um, 'cause I think
those are concrete, uh, steps.
And, and I imagine somebody's saying, but
how do I, what, what questions do I ask?
Or do you have a link to a. Financial
person or a link to a, a checklist.
So I can, so I can look at my,
you know, my, my assets, uh, as it
relates to how I manage wellness.
So we'll put those on our website
and that way people can at least
have some place to start if they're.
If they're saying, I'm ready.
I want to, I want to get started
moving, uh, but I need some help.
So, um, thank you to our incredible
guests for helping us rethink what
health really means, and reminding
us that optimal black health is about
more than the absence of illness.
It's about feeling whole,
rested, connected, and free.
To our listeners, your version of
Optimal Health is yours To define
whether it starts with rest, movement,
joy, boundaries, or stillness.
The key is that it starts with you.
To learn more, follow us
and visit council bh.org.
Be sure to subscribe and tune in
for future episodes as we explore
different dimensions of wellbeing.
I'm Dr. Militia Wick Glover.
Thanks for listening to
Re-Imagining Black Health.