One story doesn’t define Black wealth. There are over 800,000 Black people in Chicago, and that means there are over 800,000 stories of Black wealth in the city.
As part of our reporting, we put out a series of social media calls asking folks:
How do you define wealth?
How are you building wealth in your family or community?
What are three things you’ve inherited from your elders in your family or community?
What wealth building resources exist in Chicago? What resources do you wish existed?
What are you building now for future generations? What do you hope to leave behind?
Here are some of the responses.
@VelvetAngelPie gave us a thread defining Black wealth, concluding, “#BlackChiWealth is about being able to keep homes in families, to not get run out of neighborhoods you helped make great (when others look up & notice). It’s creating capital without sacrificing or negating your culture.”
@biaMedious thought Black wealth “looks like the many (at times unlicensed/unpermited) side hustles that exist that would otherwise be known as small businesses... Helping to fill the gap that is created by living paycheck to paycheck due to being un- or under-employed.”
When we asked folks about how they Build wealth, @Public_Ade said, “Helping pay niece’s tuition, teaching nephew so he can thrive, loving&collaborating w/my blk 👸🏾 & fixing my credit.”
@evanFmoore told us about how his family’s travels when he was young has a lasting impact on him: “Both my parents were CPS teachers, so we traveled a lot during the summers. Also, we traveled the entire city more than most. I was never told that I couldn’t do something due to where we were from. I lean on those experiences in my writing.”
@bridget_vaughn told us about what she inherited from her family, which included money from bank accounts and insurance, material goods like jewelry as well as values, such as “supporting each other, checking in on each other and looking out for each other. Society have a very narrow definition of wealth, meaning lots of money. There’s so much more to it.”
We also hosted Public Newsroom 78: How Do We Define Black Wealth in Chicago? where panelists spoke on the different interpretations of Black generational wealth from a historic lens and into Chicago’s future.
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