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wealth gap
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Money management can be a learning curve for many athletes, and this was the case for Dwyane Wade. Wade was drafted to the league in 2003, which is viewed as “one of the greatest draft classes in NBA history,” the league mentions. LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Bosh were also drafted that year. Wade would make his debut with the Miami Heat as the No. 5 overall draft pick, Sports Illustrated reports. He then signed a three-year contract valued at $8.5 million, to The Palm Beach Post. For Wade, being drafted to the league allowed him to overcome the odds that were stacked against him living in the South Side of Chicago, where he would hear gun shots frequently. At one point, he was being raised by his mother who struggled with addiction and would leave him at home for periods of time, according to Business Insider. When he was 9 he eventually moved to a new neighborhood to be with his father, who had divorced his mother. “[My father] was militant,” Wade shared during an...
May 17, 2024
When Chris Paul was drafted to the league he turned down a substantial amount of money. The NBA player had been drafted in 2005 as the No. 4 draft pick by the New Orleans Hornets, Fox News reports. He was just 19 years old at the time. During an interview with Forbes, Paul mentioned he had just $151 in his bank account as a college student at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, when he entered the league. One of his earliest actions was to bring on board a financial advisor, which ultimately resulted in him receiving an upfront offer of $100,000. However, his parents interceded, leading Paul to accept nearly a quarter of the initial offer. “My financial advisor who we hired, they said they would send me $100,000 and my parents said, ‘No that’s too much,'” he told Forbes. During an appearance on “The Shop,” he elaborated further stating, “Y ou know what happened? I was at Wake in Winston. I went to the bank right up the street just so I could see what the statement looked...
May 17, 2024
Nick Minaj’s latest tour is breaking records! According to Billboard, the Queens, NY, native’s “Pink Friday 2 World Tour” is the highest-grossing and bestselling rap tour by a woman in Billboard Boxscore history after reports revealed that it grossed $67 million and sold 439,000 tickets. Kicking off on March 1 in Oakland, CA, the tour’s first stop brought Minaj $2.3 million thanks to 14,000 tickets sold. The show concluded on May 13 in Oklahoma City, OK. She now joins the likes of her former label mate Drake, as well as Kendrick Lamar, Future, and a host of other rappers with high-grossing tours. Not to mention, she bumped out Doja Cat, who just five months prior had set the record with $37.3 million for “The Scarlet Tour.” With four double-headers, the “Pink Friday 2 World Tour” brought in more than $3 million for each stop in Atlanta, GA; Boston, MA; Brooklyn, NY; Chicago, IL; and Toronto, Canada. Minaj’s biggest moneymaking nights were both in New York, at the Brooklyn Barclays...
May 17, 2024
Chris Brown has been in the game for a little over two decades, and making smart business moves coupled with his talent may just be the reason for his longevity in the industry. During an appearance on “The R&B Money Podcast” with hosts J. Valentine and Tank, the R&B crooner opened up about what encouraged him to make franchise investments early on in his career. “I was 17 when I started trying to invest in certain things, just ‘cause I knew… You don’t know how long you going to be successful, and it’s not like every artist can make it look like they getting money, getting money,” he told his fellow R&B comrades. “If you’re not a touring act, if you’re not doing stuff, you need an exit strategy.” As previously reported by AFROTECH™ , during a 2015 interview, Brown told US Weekly that he was the owner of 14 Burger King restaurants. This type of planning, he told the “R&B Money Podcast,” can be a game-changer for an artist. “My investments were like into Burger Kings and stuff like...
May 3, 2024
A new day has begun in Detroit, MI, thanks to the leadership of the Detroit Black Community Food Sovereignty Network. For nearly a decade, the Motor City hasn’t had a full-scale Black-owned grocery store, Detroit Metro Times reports. Now, in May 2024, Detroit People’s Food Co-Op, the first Black-led co-op grocery store in Detroit, has opened its doors. As Detroit is one of the major U.S. cities that faces a significant shortage of food access, Detroit People’s Food Co-Op offers fresh, local grocery items, a deli, and a coffee bar. The outlet details that the store’s fruits and vegetables are sourced from four Black-owned farms in Michigan. In addition to providing quality food and health and wellness products, what makes the grocery store special is that anyone age 21 and over can become a member and have ownership in the co-op. On May 1, 2024, it had over 2,700 members and counting. “This is not something you’re invited to. It’s literally yours,” said Lanay Gilbert-Williams,...
May 3, 2024
Ashley M. Fox has had dreams of working on Wall Street since she first decided to attend Howard University. Little did she know that this vision would soon propel her into entrepreneurship. After conquering what some would deem the inevitable, Fox not only became the first person in her family to attend and graduate college, but she also landed her dream career of working with one of the largest banks in the world. Still, there was a desire for more. “After about eight months at my job, I felt like I didn’t have the desire to be the best person on Wall Street, I wanted to be like the client,” Fox told A FROTECH™. “I realized that no matter how long I stayed in my Wall Street job, yes, I was making perfect money, but our clients had at least $25 million or more and I felt like I deserved to be on the other end of the table.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ashley M. Fox (@_ashleymfox) Fox built that table for herself and those who look like her through Empify. “The...
May 1, 2024
A new report has shown celebratory news for Detroit, MI. “The Growth of Housing Wealth in Detroit and its Neighborhoods: 2014-2022,” a study by the University of Michigan Poverty Solutions, has been released showing that Black homeowners in Detroit have “gained $2.8 billion in home value,” per a news release. View this post on Instagram A post shared by City of Detroit (@cityofdetroit) Beginning in 2014, the study was conducted after Detroit’s municipal bankruptcy. In July 2013, Detroit became “the largest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy,” per AP News. The news release details that the study had a goal of finding out if the city’s housing values had seen growth across those nine years, and if these improvements had been fairly distributed across Detroit neighborhoods and racial/ethnic groups. With an 94% overall increase in home value, and 80% increase for Black homeowners specifically, since the study started, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan credits residents stabilizing...
Apr 22, 2024
The Antetokounmpo family doesn’t play when it comes to their own. Nike has been a long supporter of Giannis Antetokounmpo and his family since the very beginning of his career in 2013, and it’s also what encouraged the NBA superstar to pass on another endorsement deal with one of the athletic apparel company’s competitors. According to Bleacher Report, during an appearance on the “Thanalysis Show,” Antetokounmpo recalled the moment he decided to walk away from a deal at Adidas because he was in a position where he needed to help support his family. After an initial offer featuring a deal for both Giannis and his brother Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Adidas backtracked on the plan, prompting Giannis to turn down the proposal. “[An Adidas representative] brought the contract and put it in front of me, and I’m like, ‘Okay great, where is my brother’s?’” Antetokounmpo explained, per Bleacher Report. “And he was like, ‘We’re not going to sign your brother’s today. You’re going to sign yours,...
Apr 19, 2024
AFROTECH Executive is set to close out in Brooklyn, NY. On Sept. 22, the last stop of the multi-city series will focus on wealth, finance, and innovation, including a fireside chat with Northwestern Mutual’s Abim Kolawole on corporate responsibility in closing the wealth gap. Snag your tickets for AFROTECH Executive here. View this post on Instagram A post shared by AFROTECH (@afro.tech)
Sep 20, 2023
When it comes to closing the wealth gap, many believe in the power of strategically investing in real estate. And the proof may be in the pudding for Tiffanie Vendryes, who says her net worth exponentially grew once she ventured into the space.
Feb 3, 2023
Looking to expose beneficial financial practices, Stackwell Capital will release a new application that will target Black Millennials and Generation Z Americans. Users will be introduced to educational resources and pre-built portfolios, according to information provided to AfroTech. The investing affinity application aims to eradicate the wealth gap for Black Americans. “Before founding this company, we fundamentally believed that the racial wealth gap is a social justice issue of our time that directly impacts many of the other gaps that have left people in the Black community feeling like they’re not set up for success in this country,” Stackwell Founder and CEO Trevor Rozier-Byrd told AfroTech. “Ultimately, I founded Stackwell to help more people in the Black community leverage the power of the market so that they could grow their wealth and have greater agency control to direct outcomes that better their lives, particularly those in the Millennial and Gen Z population where the...
Apr 7, 2022
Iris Nevins is an art collector who soared into the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) after the realization that it would be a profitable marketplace for artists. One year after her dive into crypto, she soon launched NFT studio Umba Daima in February 2021 . The switch was fitting for Nevins, who already planned to create a digital store for artists to gain profit for their work. Umba Daima educates artists on Web3 and helps them find their footing in the NFT space. The company also boasts various sub-brands under its belt including Black NFT Art, NFT Roundtable podcast, and virtual exhibit The Unseen Gallery. “We noticed that the artists that were having a lot of success had these really strong communities around them that were promoting or reposting on social media or participating in their drops,” Iris Nevins said in an interview with CNBC. The studio launched Black NFT Art “in an attempt to create that kind of experience for Black artists.” Umba Daima can celebrate a few...
Jan 14, 2022
Black Girl Ventures is making sure the futures of the next generation of entrepreneurs are in good hands. We are excited to announce that @blackgirlventures will be partnering with the @nba to launch BGV NextGen! Which HBCU should we recruit from first?! 👀 Drop your favorite HBCU in the comments… #communityornothing #bgv #hbcu pic.twitter.com/opEidtpCRB — Omi (@theomibell) August 6, 2021 According to our sister site, Blavity News, 25 students will have an opportunity to advance their business plans with support from BGV and the National Basketball Association (NBA) through the launch of the BGV NextGen Program. “We are excited to announce that @blackgirlventures will be partnering with the @nba to launch BGV NextGen,” Shelly Bell said in a tweet in August 2021. We are excited to announce that @blackgirlventures will be partnering with the @nba to launch BGV NextGen! Which HBCU should we recruit from first?! 👀 Drop your favorite HBCU in the comments… #communityornothing #bgv #hbcu...
Jan 6, 2022
The past year plus in America has been a glaring reminder of the unfair and unequal conditions that exist in this country, especially for Black Americans. In an effort to change that reality, The Highland Project founder Gabrielle Wyatt wants to create the change she hopes to see for women that look like her. Wyatt shares that The Highland Project — a non-profit organization created to help Black leaders support one another and build power — was founded with a mission to cultivate a coalition of Black women who are leading in various institutions and systems to help generate multi-generational wealth. “As Black women, we are tired of performative activism when real and meaningful policies and practices are needed to close the racial wealth gap,” she said in a press release shared with ESSENCE. “Black women do so much for this country, but our contributions are rarely appreciated and certainly don’t always benefit us.” According to her, her non-profit will reverse this truth...
Jul 6, 2021
On average, Black workers are already earning $12,000 less than the median wage in the U.S. , and there are so many other barriers in their way in regards to diversity, opportunity and stability in the workplace. Jesse Walton, SVP of the Walton Group and a certified private wealth advisor at Morgan Stanley, has been fighting institutional inequities for over two decades. Walton is extremely passionate about helping position his clients to create generational wealth and those building blocks start with financial literacy, long-term investing and saving, he says. “The biggest opportunity this country gives you is freedom and the fact that you can participate in the corporate structure,” Walton told AfroTech. “You can grow your wealth if you save and participate in the growth of this economy and you do that through stock ownership.” Here’s more of Walton’s thoughts on the racial wealth gap , how the Black community can close it, and more. Editorial Note: This piece has been edited for...
Jul 5, 2021