TeeWillis speaks

Lack of Legacy: An Historical Opportunity to Change the Paradigm

“Whoever controls the image of the past determines what and how future generations will think”
George Orwell

“A new world order is in the making, and it is up to us to prepare ourselves that we may take our rightful place in it...... The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.
Malcolm X


TeeWillis
CSO, DaGray Enterprises
December, 2011


Many families have a family history, going back generations, of increasing or maintaining their overall financial and economic status from generation to generation. This fact has often been couched in the axiomatic sense that every parent wants their children to have it better than they had it.

For Black Americans, their family histories have a distinctly different arc, due to the centuries of slavery that negated the very concept of upward financial and economic mobility. So, any recounting of the progress of Black families' financial and economic status logically starts with the generation of Black adults living at the time that slavery ended on January 1, 1863 with the executive order titled “Emancipation Proclamation” and signed by President Abraham Lincoln.

Accepting a common definition of the time span of a generation as “the average period, generally considered to be about 30 years, during which children grow up and the average have children of their own,” there have been an average of five generations of Black families born in the 149 years since the end of slavery. The sixth generation will be born in 2013 (on average)

Approximate
Average Birth Year
Generation Birth Year Range

1 1863 1848 - 1878
2 1893 1879 - 1908
3 1923 1909 - 1938
4 1953 1939 - 1968
5 1983 1969 - 1998
6 2013 1999 - 2028

Which of these generations saw an increase in their financial and economic status over the prior generation's status? A study of census and other historical data provides the answer to this question in a precise, detailed manner. But for the purposes of this presentation, the following general (and undoubtedly, arguable) observations can be made:

(a) Generation 1. The babies and children of this generation were in families
that either stayed in the South or migrated to eastern coastal cities like Philadelphia and New York in the 1890s. Those who remained in the South continued to work the land as sharecroppers rather than slaves, with no appreciable difference in their financial status. Those who migrated to northern cities for jobs may have improved their family's social status, and increased slightly their financial status compared to those who stayed in the South, but their children's prospects for an increased financial status over their parents' did not increase. Some members of this “40 acres and a mule” generation did become owners of the land they farmed.

(b) Generation 2. The babies and children of this generation were in families that were part of the large migration of Blacks from the South during World War I, when over 500,000 Black individuals migrated to the North and Midwest. These children came of age during the years of World war I and the Roaring 20s. Those families who stayed in the South: no increase in their children's financial and economic status over the parents'. Those in the North: no change, overall for the majority of families, which could be classified as poor and working-poor. Some members of this “40 acres and a mule” generation did become owners of the land they farmed—some through inheritance from their parents. Some lost inherited land to property tax collectors, abandonment (conscious and unconscious), speculators, and outright fraud.

( c) Generation 3. The babies and children of this generation were in families in the South and North whose financial and economic status had not changed from their parents'. These children grew up to be part of the migration from the South to the North, East, Midwest, and West in the years during and after World War II, and continuing into the 1960s. Due to the increased demand for labor during the war, and the GI Bill following the war, these children became the first generation that did see an increase in their financial and economic status over their parents'. Many of the migrating families moved from the poor and the working-poor class into the lower-middle class status. They became the parents of Generation 4, which, because of major breakthrough movements in the country's economic, and social, and political arenas, became the Generation which saw the biggest increase in their financial and economic status of any prior generation.

(d) Generation 4. The babies and children of this generation grew up to be the beneficiaries of the advancements in American society brought about by the Civil Rights Movement of the 960s. Voting rights, fair housing rights, equal opportunity for jobs, and breakdown of racial barriers in the social arena all contributed to significant increases in the financial and economic status of the members of this generation; so much so, that a relatively sizable Black middle class and even an upper-middle class arose. Many families were headed by parents who had full-term careers in business, in government, and as business owners. With the advent of 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans, IRAs, lump-sum pension options, and an unprecedented housing price bubble to their benefit, they amassed the highest levels of financial and economic status of any generation of Black people ever. On the other hand, the members of this generation began experiencing the effects of the contracting American economy that began in the 1980s and continue to this day: drastic declines in their house values, declines in their savings, increases in their medical costs and living costs, decreases in their job opportunities, and decreases in their children's educational and employment 0pportunities. Many of them live with the reality and the realization that their children's financial and economic status will not be as good as theirs.

(e) Generation 5. The babies and children of this generation came of age in the era in which the financial and economic status of the American middle-class and poor class were beginning to decline. This decline began with the election of President Reagan in 1980. It was signaled with his breaking up of the air traffic controllers union by firing members of the union who refused to end their strike over better working conditions and wages. The decline gained speed at an alarming rate beginning with the election of President George W. Bush in 2000. His policies of unpaid-for wars, huge tax decreases for corporations and the highest income brackets, and unpaid-for prescription drug subsidies for health insurance companies caused unprecedented increases in the national debt, which have led to drastic declines in employment and an overall diminished economic environment. Corporations have increased their influence over governmental policies, to their benefit and at the expense of the majority of the American people: decreased government funding for public education, for agencies and programs providing assistance to the poor and working-poor, the unemployed, the disabled, and just about every other segment of the population that has relied on the government to provide a vibrant and compassionate economic environment. Members of this generation have seen their incomes stay flat for the past 30 years, while the incomes of the top 1% of the income levels increase dramatically. Many of them—not all--live with the prospect that their children will have significantly diminished financial and economic status than theirs—and with the reality that their own present and future status is diminished from their parents' status.

(f) Generation 6. The babies and children of this generation are being born today. They are the grandchildren of the members of Generation 4, the wealthiest generation in Black American history—the wealthiest generation in most Black families' history. For most of those Black families for which this is true—and there are many Black families for which this is not true; but for those for which this is true, they have answered the most fundamental question that they face implicitly rather than explicitly.

That most fundamental question is this: “Have I as a parent ensured that my heirs will be sufficiently educated in financial management and the history of our family's progress to-date toward family financial independence, to manage my inheritance (that I worked all of my life to build) in such a way that it serves them to best meet their needs going forward, while growing it so that their children will inherit an even stronger inheritance than I left them?”

The implicit answer is to leave the question un-asked of themselves, and to go about developing their wills and estate plans to distribute their inheritance among their heirs based on how they view the character, personality, and the overall station in life of each of the heirs.

There is an historical and a cultural reason for answering this question in this way. The historical reason is that the size of inheritances in their family history have never been as large, and the complexities of managing money have never been as great, as they are now.

The cultural reason is embodied in the George Orwell quote that is part of the subtitle of this presentation: “Whoever controls the image of the past determines what and how future generations will think.” A central feature of the centuries-long institution of slavery was not only to break up the Black family, but also to rid the slaves of any connection to their generational-based worldview. Think of how many generations of families were born in the 244 years of slavery (1619-1863). With shorter lifespans than today and earlier ages that women (and girl) slaves gave birth, the 13 generations that would be calculated using 30 years per generation is increased to 15-20 generations. While the first generation of Africans would wholly embrace their tribally-imbued generational view of family (think Kunta Kinte in Roots), this view would naturally erode with each successive generation born in slavery. At some point in the generational line, slaves began to shift their view of family lineage from the African tribal view of their ancestors to one in which the lineage began with the first generation of their family that was born a slave—or the first one that they had knowledge of, which was as a matter of course a slave of one or two, or whatever small number relative to the number of generations that had also been slaves.

In this way, the institution of slavery was directly responsible for this shifting view of family lineage. Stated in terms of George Orwell's statement, the institution of slavery controlled the slave's image of the past, and thus controls how future generations of slaves think.

That control continues to the generations of African-Americans living today. It will continue for generations to come...until it is challenged by some generation. The fourth generation, the wealthiest generation of African-Americans ever to exist, and set to leave the largest inheritance ever to a next generation, have an historic opportunity to break this control and introduce a shift in the mindset of future generations that will perennially lift the financial and economic status of families and thus the entire race.

How is the slavery-controlled image of the African American's past, as viewed by African-Americans, harmful to African American families and thus to the African-American race in America today and going forward?

Here's how. On a family level, we must first acknowledge the historical fact stated above that the size of inheritances that are being, and will be, transferred from today's fourth generation of African Americans families to the fifth and sixth generations in these families have never been as large. This fourth generation, for all the reasons stated
below, have amassed more wealth than any prior generation of Blacks in this country's history. And it can be argued persuasively, that this amount of wealth amassed by
this fourth generation will not be exceeded by any African American generation in the foreseeable future—mainly due to the projection of the American (and global) economic and political environment in the foreseeable future.

The reason that this fourth post-slavery generation of African-Americans amassed more wealth to bequeath to the next generation than any prior generation is that this generation were the beneficiaries of the confluence of several historical developments in the country.

First of all, advancements in American society brought about by the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s opened up jobs, colleges, housing, and overall access to the public square that had not existed ever before for Black people in this country. The G.I. Bill allowed many Black men to purchase housing, go to college, and more readily get civil service jobs. Federal, state, county, and municipal governments integrated their employee rolls with Blacks. Scholarships were made available specifically to qualified Black students. Then, over the working lives of this generation, from the late 1950s through the late 1980s, advancements in retirement plans (401(k)/403(b), IRAs, lump-sum distributions of pension plans) allowed workers to build substantial savings over their working lives, conveniently and effectively through payroll deductions—monies that they may not have otherwise saved. Along with these changes, the economy during this period was stable enough to provide full-term careers and job availability on a wide scale. Credit was loosened so that homes could be more easily bought; and real estate investments could be made. The stock market generally rose over this period, to provide investment opportunities and growth in the 401(k)/403(b) accounts.

This confluence of beneficial economic conditions began eroding toward the end of this Elder Generation’s working life. They began experiencing the effects of the contracting American economy that began in the 1980s and continue to this day: drastic declines in their house values, declines in their savings, increases in their medical costs and living expenses, decreases in their job opportunities, and decreases in their children's educational and employment opportunities. Many of them live with the reality and the realization that their children's financial and economic status will not be as good as theirs.
It is clear from even a casual observation of the economic trend over the past several years that the favorable conditions described above will not be occurring again in this country for the foreseeable future. The financial/economic environment is going to get worse before it gets better for individuals, families, and communities throughout the country.
This is the deteriorating, predatory financial/economic environment that this Elder Generation’s heirs will be living their lives in, and their heirs’ heirs as well.
This deteriorating, predatory financial/economic environment that this Elder Generation’s heirs will face began with the election of President Reagan in 1980. It was signaled with his breaking up of the air traffic controllers union by firing members of the union who refused to end their strike over better working conditions and wages.
The decline gained speed at an alarming rate beginning with the election of President George W. Bush in 2000. His policies of unpaid-for wars, huge tax decreases for corporations and the highest income brackets, and unpaid-for prescription drug subsidies for health insurance companies caused unprecedented increases in the national debt, which have led to drastic declines in employment and an overall diminished economic environment. Also, during this time period, the pace of outsourcing American manufacturing jobs increased rapidly as the corporate class sped up its drive for reduced labor costs under the banner of globalization.
Corporations today have increased their influence over governmental policies, to their enormous benefit and at the devastating expense of the majority of the American people: decreased government funding for public education, for agencies and programs providing assistance to the poor and working-poor, the unemployed, the disabled, and just about every other segment of the population that has relied on the government—directly and indirectly -- to provide a vibrant and compassionate economic environment in which to work and live and raise families.
We must also acknowledge the other part of that historical fact stated above: that the complexities of managing money and funds have never been as great as they are now, and going forward.

So, the harm done to African American families of shifting from the generational view of the family held in their African past, to the shorter-lineage view imposed by the institution of slavery—and reinforced by America's cultural emphasis on the nuclear view of the family—is that these historically large inheritances will, by and large, be passed on to heirs who, in many cases, will not have been trained and educated sufficiently by the members of the fourth generation to be able stewards of their inherited wealth; nor trained and educated sufficiently on their own family history, starting with the generational view from slavery onward; but particularly on how the family wealth was first generated by the family member in the fourth post-slavery generation.

Thus, the risk emerges, that just as the inherited land from the “40 acres and a mule generations” of times past was lost to property tax collectors and others due to a lack of training and education in being able stewards, that the inherited wealth will not maintain and increase the financial and economic status of these African American families generation after generation after generation. Furthermore, without the training and education in their family history firmly instilled in them, they may lack the resolve and perspective needed to persistently and valiantly preserve the newly-established tradition toward the family wealth.

As Malcom X said in the second quote that is part of this presentation's subtitle,
“A new world order is in the making, and it is up to us to prepare ourselves that we may take our rightful place in it...... The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.” Those members of the fourth post-slavery generation of African Americans who are today the elder generation in their families, and are in the process of implicitly or explicitly answering the most fundamental question facing them as they consider their legacy to their heirs, have an historic opportunity to change the pardigm of the past, in which their family—and by extension, the African-American race as a whole—did not benefit generation after generation after generation from the accumulated wealth of prior generations. In the past, the inheritances to be passed on were small enough that the short-lineage or nuclear paradigm was appropriate (at leat not harmful). Not so in many cases today.

How can this paradigm be changed to begin family traditions of maintaining and advancing the family's financial and economic status from generation to generation to generation? How do members of the fourth generation initiate this change in their families' mindset so that their legacies benefit not just their next generation of offspring and possibly the next after that before dissipating; but also benefit their lineage into perpetuity? Not just their grandchildren, but their great grandchildren's great grandchildren?

Again, that is the fundamental question facing every single member of the elder generation of every Black family in the country today who sits on a substantial pile of wealth in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in their savings and investment funds—and who is willing to face this question explicitly.

How it can be done for African-American families is no different than how it has been done for generations of other people whose families range from the very top of the financial and economic status stratum, to the families that perennially reside in the upper tiers of financial and economic status to, for instance, many Jewish families and many Oriental families that are well established in their financial and economic status once a generation establishes its place.

What can African-American families learn from the ways in which these families have been successful in maintaining their financial and economic status for more than a generation or two?

…..to be continued