1
00:00:05,920 --> 00:00:09,240
Speaker 1: Last year, Like a lot of black Americans, I started

2
00:00:09,280 --> 00:00:12,719
Speaker 1: thinking more about our collective history in America in my

3
00:00:12,760 --> 00:00:15,400
Speaker 1: own place in it. My family had a plot of

4
00:00:15,480 --> 00:00:18,200
Speaker 1: land in East Texas, near a town called Mount Pleasant.

5
00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:21,320
Speaker 1: I grew up in Arizona, and as far as I

6
00:00:21,360 --> 00:00:27,200
Speaker 1: was concerned, Texas was another planet. Big hats, rodeos that

7
00:00:27,360 --> 00:00:31,080
Speaker 1: showed Dallas. We drove through Mount Pleasant once, but I

8
00:00:31,120 --> 00:00:34,760
Speaker 1: don't remember much. As I got older, my dad would

9
00:00:34,800 --> 00:00:38,360
Speaker 1: call and talk about the Texas property. He daydream about

10
00:00:38,400 --> 00:00:40,199
Speaker 1: all the ways that might one day give him a

11
00:00:40,240 --> 00:00:43,319
Speaker 1: financial cushion, How would buy a better life for him

12
00:00:43,320 --> 00:00:46,120
Speaker 1: and my brother, who has a disability, How there might

13
00:00:46,159 --> 00:00:48,680
Speaker 1: be oil on the land or some kind of rare timber,

14
00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:51,720
Speaker 1: And if I'm being honest, he planted some of those

15
00:00:51,720 --> 00:00:55,760
Speaker 1: thoughts in my head too. Then came the pandemic and

16
00:00:55,800 --> 00:00:59,600
Speaker 1: George Floyd and I started thinking more about inequality in America,

17
00:01:00,160 --> 00:01:03,000
Speaker 1: and because I'm a business journalist, the racial wealth gap.

18
00:01:03,800 --> 00:01:07,880
Speaker 1: I started digging into my past in Texas. I learned

19
00:01:07,880 --> 00:01:10,160
Speaker 1: that the land would never be our ticket to prosperity.

20
00:01:10,520 --> 00:01:14,280
Speaker 1: It was gone. When I found out why, I realized

21
00:01:14,319 --> 00:01:17,760
Speaker 1: my family's story isn't much different from other black Americans.

22
00:01:20,959 --> 00:01:24,160
Speaker 1: I started wondering, how did other black people build wealth

23
00:01:24,200 --> 00:01:27,440
Speaker 1: in America and how did they hold onto it, or

24
00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:31,280
Speaker 1: like my family failed to hold onto it. That's what

25
00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:34,480
Speaker 1: we'll be exploring on this season of The Paycheck, the

26
00:01:34,600 --> 00:01:38,000
Speaker 1: racial wealth gap. The U. S is the richest nation

27
00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:40,240
Speaker 1: in the world and has been for a long time.

28
00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:44,280
Speaker 1: But while black people make up around of the population,

29
00:01:44,920 --> 00:01:52,960
Speaker 1: they hold just three of all the wealth. I'm Jackie

30
00:01:52,960 --> 00:01:57,520
Speaker 1: Simmons and I'm Rebecca Greenfield. Starting on March eleven, we'll

31
00:01:57,520 --> 00:02:00,280
Speaker 1: be diving into how the racial wealth gap came to be.

32
00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:03,600
Speaker 1: He was deeply, deeply racist. He couldn't have cared less

33
00:02:03,600 --> 00:02:07,920
Speaker 1: about the fate of the former slaves, and he restored

34
00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:10,760
Speaker 1: white supremacy as quickly as he could. What it looks

35
00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:13,200
Speaker 1: like now. He was the next thing to God in

36
00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:17,040
Speaker 1: this county. He controlled all the bank boards, and he said,

37
00:02:17,040 --> 00:02:20,240
Speaker 1: nobody lends more money in this county than I do.

38
00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:22,800
Speaker 1: And if you don't learn how to speak to me,

39
00:02:22,880 --> 00:02:25,320
Speaker 1: you're not gonna get any any money, and you won't

40
00:02:25,320 --> 00:02:28,400
Speaker 1: be farming very long. I told him I didn't. I

41
00:02:28,440 --> 00:02:31,560
Speaker 1: didn't know what Jesus Christ nor God look like. I said,

42
00:02:31,600 --> 00:02:34,240
Speaker 1: But he can't look like you and what might start

43
00:02:34,280 --> 00:02:38,880
Speaker 1: to close up. It is a way to repair egregious

44
00:02:38,919 --> 00:02:45,320
Speaker 1: injury and crimes against humanity against the black community. Yes,

45
00:02:45,360 --> 00:02:47,960
Speaker 1: it is reparations. Let's not call it anything else. To

46
00:02:48,040 --> 00:02:58,240
Speaker 1: make you feel better, subscribe to the Paycheck on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,

47
00:02:58,480 --> 00:03:01,120
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcast. We'll see you on

48
00:03:01,200 --> 00:03:05,760
Speaker 1: March eleven. H