Black Tax in the 21st Century
[Music]
have you ever met a highly opinionated
person
and by this person i’m talking about
that one uncle
that usually comes in drunk or the other
uncle that
um thinks he’s lived through seven to
eight generations
let me see if i can bring it home for
you have you
ever been summoned into a family meeting
so mostly family meetings range from
a cousin who got pregnant to the
favorite niece who is getting married
either one of them most of the times you
find that the family members the uncles
or the aunts
do come to a consensus so you find that
it’s very unfortunate for the cousin
why because the ants that know it all
will come and throw stones and we will
also find that for the favorite niece
we have uncles that are determined to
the young man
that is coming so they’ll all want to
discuss the wedding
they’ll all want to talk about how much
we should tell him to pay they all have
experience
all in all so at the end of the day
these people
do come up with a solution whether
it’s sending the pregnant cousin to
the baby daddy or it’s coming up with an
amount of money
for the favorite niece but today i want
us to talk about the elephant in the
room that is never discussed
in these family meetings especially by
that one uncle
children are not a retirement plan
let’s talk about black tax so i know
this phenomenon for some of us who are
privileged might not know it
but for some of us most of us actually
are going through it
so a definition for you black tax is the
money that is expected
from us by our families it is embedded
it is expected with no excuses
so now in my peer group today
you’ll find that a lot of young people
today
are pushing at entry-level positions
they are very innovative at startups
they are brilliant entrepreneurs they
are changing the narrative in these huge
corporations
and also they are actually earning
slightly above the minimum wage
so they’re making good money and by good
money let’s say for argument’s sake
between four five and maybe some way
twelve thousand quacha
but but their money
is not their money so the black child
between the ages of 18 and 40
have inherited this black tax we’ve
inherited
burdens so our parents
uncompromising out of love spend
thousands of thousands of questions on
us
from birth to the time that we get our
independence
but the million dollar question i don’t
know if it’s the million question
question now is
are we then supposed to pay it all back
i don’t know if joey mentioned that i
was a financial advisor so
maybe just maybe i might be speaking
from an expert point of view
so today i want us to for you to think
about this and by the time i’m done
speaking
i want you to choose which side of the
coin you fall back on
so there’s this phenomenon nowadays
called financial planning
and worth creation and financial freedom
that no one wants to discuss in these
family meetings
before i go any further how many of us
in here
were raised by an aunt
a sister or even parent
well i’ll try to think that every one of
us didn’t raise ourselves yeah
so every one of us were raised by
someone but let me ask you this question
how many of us feel obliged or obligated
to send the money every single month
because they’ll think
you’re ungrateful
don’t raise your hand you might be
sitting next to the person that raised
you
i don’t want you caught into a family
meeting
the one thing that i want us to do is
take this
with a pinch of salt i’m not saying
let’s abuse
black tax i’ll give you an example of
someone that i read up
someone called boy to melo so boy to
melo is based in ese
he’s a branch manager a bank branch
manager and he had these sentiments to
say
he said black tax is not as bad as you
are trying to determine
we are africans we’re raised by
communities
and also let us not westernize our
cultures
let us not embrace things that are
coming from abroad
and try to introduce it in our cultures
we are africans
yes but then he goes on to say
because africans don’t have generational
wealth
that means i am to take care of everyone
else
so that caught my attention he said
generation world i’m glad he admitted it
i’m glad that he said that
but he didn’t leave out reality so what
is this
generational wealth let’s talk about
this today
and of course i am talking to
parents i’m talking to future mothers
and future fathers or current
parents children are not your retirement
plan
you are not having five kids to multiply
their income by
five only for you to know how much
you’re going to be earning in your
retirement
so the one thing that i need us to
understand is
black tax is black tax let’s not get rid
of it
but i want you to understand that i do
not want your child
graduating thinking that when my dad or
my mother calls
hell will rain down if i answer that i
do not have fans so there’s this
phenomenon like i mentioned
that is called generational wealth
so there are always two sides to this
coin
like i mentioned let’s not abuse black
tax but let’s change the narrative
you wouldn’t die let’s keep it of course
we can’t even change it overnight
but the good part is most of us in here
are between the ages of 18 and 14.
that means you and i it starts here
or maybe it ends here whichever way
we’re only changing the narrative
let’s leave it as black tax but let our
children
give back from a point of love and not
obligation
the reason why i say this is right now
you currently have an
income you don’t know that 20 years post
you will not be as strong you will not
be as young so what
are you doing about it i’m saying some
of us are comfortable
i’m saying some of us are actually happy
giving back
and i’ll make reference to this the
bible
says uh a wise man
leaves wealth for his children’s
children
being a christian nation let’s abide by
that
also the same bible tells us to honor
our
parents so the beauty about this is
it is balanced but what i need you to
understand
is let us raise our children
not for them to pay us back how about we
start passing on wealth
and not burdens how about we become
the generation that starts that
particular innovation
so let old traditions marry with 21st
century traditions
we’re not changing anything let’s say
let’s honor our parents
but parents do not come at us
saying because i birthed you mwanango
pay me back you ungrateful child
those those those are the sentiments we
get
and honestly speaking we cannot speak
back
why because we are africans we respect
our parents and i speak from a point of
respect
another thing also we don’t like to talk
about
the things that goes through the minds
of
men so immediately two young people get
married
guess what whatever my daughter used to
send me is supposed to double
why because we have another
another child on the other side which is
the husband
but when are you going to think about
that man first providing for his nuclear
family before he can look at you
have you ever thought about it have you
ever thought about how this man
has to tour the ground how he can’t even
share these sentiments with you
why because you expect him to sell his
house sell his car
because he drives a car saying and this
is the narrative now
you’re going to pass on the burden to
the wife and say because
of the woman that he married he doesn’t
send us much money
but the one thing that you felt to do as
an individual was passed on generational
world
guess what you are passing on burdens so
you expect this young
person this young man to provide for you
whilst still providing for his family
black
tax also when you have five children
you expect the first born to take care
of the siblings
inherited black tux another person who’s
been raised by their aunt
feels in the back of their mind because
my aunt
raised me i should take care of
my cousin her child subconscious
it’s gratitude but let’s be honest you
just don’t want to be called into a
family meeting
so let’s talk about these things the way
we are vocal and opinionated in our
family meetings
let’s change the narrative about black
tax let’s talk about it in a different
way
what is generational wealth
what is financial freedom let’s borrow
some of these thoughts that go through
our
our friends like the lebanese
and the indians so you’ll find that for
the indian or the lebanese family
the grandfather had a hardware store the
son
had a restaurant and
his son is going to own a clothing store
that is generational wealth so on top of
that they’re not
sitting waiting saying because my
grandfather had a hardware store
they pass on the knowledge of
generational wealth why
because you are going to have a family
of your own and you cannot depend on
what your grandfather did
so how about we pass on such cultures in
the same family meetings
how about we stop stunning that young
lady that got pregnant
yes we do make mistakes yes it
gives us joy when our favorite niece is
getting married and that is the only
reason we come together
but let us change the narrative let us
call family meetings and tell them
saying
please do not call our daughter when an
uncle has swallowed a shovel in the
village
you cannot save a 2 000 quarter without
receiving an emergency
i’m not saying let’s not give we’ve been
raised by the community
we are part of a community we are
africans we thrive
because of the community but i want us
to graduate
to go into this world thinking
saying you know what my mother is
michael i
love my father to death lord knows this
but you need to understand that i have
obligations
i have things that run through my head
there are certain days when
things heaven is not so close
but maybe just maybe in as much as he
loves me he might not understand
it’s coming from a point of love so let
us change the narrative
like i said take this with a pinch of
salt you might take it you might not
it might affect you it might not but one
way
or another 20 years post which parent
are you going to be
are you going to be the one that
terrorizes your children
because they did not send back or are
you the one that bugs them from a point
of love and say honey
it is my birthday i need some flowers
or even on days when there’s an
emergency you sit down your child and
say
manango at a certain point
i need this but because we’re africans
parents don’t have that approach it’s
either you do
or you don’t and if you don’t i’m sorry
so let’s change the narrative we are
young
we are working we are still very young
and because we live
in this integrated world
that is moving at a very fast pace means
in this room i can guarantee you most of
us are successes
just by the bare fact that you came to a
ted talk
so that in its own attributes the fact
that you
are bound to make a significant amount
of money
by the time you get to retirement start
planning
for your retirement because children are
not a retirement plan
have children out of love and not for
income purposes
i might say too much but let he
who has an ear here thank you