All any of us want is an opportunity to try and succeed. We don’t want handouts. We just want the opportunity to try. Unfortunately, opportunities don’t come evenly. Here’s a story about opportunity, or lack thereof for this Asian landlord.
I realized the other day that all my tenants are white. I’d never thought about my tenants’ racial makeup until I read an article by Washington Post journalist, Michelle Singletary, entitled, “The Legacy Of Slavery Made My Grandmother Fear Investing.”
Michelle writes how discriminatory policies of the past shaped the way her grandmother approached investing. Her series of articles provides an interesting personal perspective on why there is a racial income and wealth gap today.
Here are some passages from her article that stood out:
When my first employer introduced a 401(k) retirement plan, I sought advice from Big Mama. But she actively discouraged me from “gambling” in the stock market.
“That’s for White folks,” Big Mama said. “They can afford to lose money.”
“The legacies of slavery, Jim Crow, and the New Deal — as well as the limited funding and scope of anti-discrimination agencies — are some of the biggest contributors to inequality in America,” says a 2019 report by the Center for American Progress
So, yes, it’s going to take more than a financial workshop to overcome the anxiety my grandmother lived with all her life and passed on to me.
There was only one investment that Big Mama trusted: her home.
The last line about Big Mama trusting only one investment, her home, really resonated with me.
This article will share some of the following insights:
- Why there are so many Asian landlords and small business owners
- Why real estate and small businesses are so highly valued among many minorities
- How the lack of equal opportunity changes behavior
- Where the belief of not depending on anyone but yourself comes from
Why Real Estate Is So Valuable To Minorities
I’ve made plenty of objective arguments as to why I prefer owning real estate over stocks. Further, the more children you have, the more valuable real estate becomes.
But Michelle and her grandmother made me realize there may be an important racial component to my desire to own real estate as well.
Owning real estate and rental properties provides a fundamental feeling of security we all crave. The more turbulence you and your ancestors have experienced, the more you will value your home.
I’ve shared some of my racial encounters growing up in Virginia during high school and college. They were all unpleasant.
But at least these experiences motivated me to study more, earn more, and save aggressively. I felt that as an Asian person in America, education was my main way to ascend.
Once you get your living expenses under control, life becomes much easier. Your other expenses such as food and clothing are relatively inexpensive.
Health care is more affordable if you have a job or earn below 400% of the Federal Poverty Limit. Children can be as expensive or as reasonable as you want them to cost.
But here’s the thing about owning rental property. It not only provides shelter, it also provides income that you might not be able to earn because of who you are.
Real Estate Is A Hedge Against A Lack Of Opportunity
If you are a minority, there is a greater chance you will have fewer opportunities compared to if you are a majority.
It is simply human nature to accept, hire, promote, and pay people who are more similar to themselves. Human nature is why so many company leaders of almost any company tend to all look alike.
We also know based on simple math that majority rules. When you have a majority, whether it’s at your HOA board meeting or voting on a presidential candidate, the majority always wins.
The minority could make up 49.9% of the population and get run over because we have a winner-take-all system. Therefore, as a minority, you are consistently at a disadvantage when it comes to the numbers.
Examples Of Homogeneity
Pay careful attention to company organizational structures. Take note of the similarities between guests on podcast shows and the host. Observe the makeup of judges and award winners. Society takes care of their own. We love echo chambers.
I don’t blame people for wanting to hang out or take care of people with similar backgrounds. It’s natural to want to be with people who believe and amplify what you believe. I just accept that’s just the way things are and try to adapt.
By owning real estate, as a minority, you hedge against a lack of strong income-generating opportunities. The most common lack of opportunity is getting a great job.
My Three Sets Of White Tenants
In all, I have three rental properties as part of my passive income retirement portfolio. My goal as a landlord is to find the best tenants possible. I do not care about race.
During my screening process, I focus on financials, length of work, length at previous residence, references, and character. As diverse as San Francisco is, the thought of race never comes up. It just so happens that all three sets of tenants are White.
As a personal finance writer, I’m always fascinated by people’s financial backgrounds. To protect my tenants’ privacy, let me share some rough details about them.
- Tenant #1: Two individuals making a combined $28,000 a month gross, 780+ credit score. One is a VP in HR, another works for a mid-size tech company.
- Tenant #2: A couple making $27,000 a month gross, 800+ credit score. One is a pediatrician, one is a software engineer.
- Tenant #3: A couple making $50,000 a month gross, 800+ credit score. One works at big tech, another is a C-level executive.
All of my tenants have stable jobs that pay well. They could also all be prototypical Financial Samurai readers who follow my housing expense guideline of not spending more than 20% of household income on rent.
Here’s the kicker.
There’s only a small chance I would ever be able to get any of my tenants’ jobs. I know because I’ve tried.
Real Estate Is A Hedge Against Rejection
In early 2012, before I left finance, I submitted dozens of resumes to various tech companies like Airbnb, Google, Facebook, and Apple. I either didn’t get a response or got rejected by all of them.
After I left finance, as part of the unemployment benefits and severance process, I was required to apply to several jobs once a week and record my efforts.
Below is one rejection e-mail example from Airbnb. At the time, I knew Airbnb would be a winner. I even went to Airbnb’s Friday happy hours. Alas, no luck in getting a job.
Objectively speaking, I wasn’t an excellent job seeker. While I would have entertained potential job offers had there been a great fit, at the time, my main focus was on traveling and taking a break.
That said, I still followed the job application process. After applying to over 100 jobs online, I didn’t get any nibbles.
Rejected From A Journalism Fellowship
After giving up on my job search, in 2013, I applied for a journalism fellowship and got rejected. This was a disappointment because I had visited the school twice and talked to multiple professors. I also thought I had something unique to offer after creating my own platform from scratch.
Earning $75,000 a year to essentially go to school and meet new people would have been a blast! Alas, it was not meant to be.
Related: You Will Always Get Screwed: Accept And Move On
Rejected By Startup Incubators
In 2015, I applied to a couple of startup incubators. One was a straight-up rejection and another had me go pitch my idea. I ended up getting rejected by that one too.
Only one of the six startups that eventually got accepted by the incubator is still around today. And I’ve seen a couple of different companies execute on my initial idea with great success.
Darn. I could have made everyone rich, including myself! Oh well. Just gotta keep on trying as a perpetual failure.
Rejected To Consult For A Potential Affiliate Partner
In 2016, I got to the final job interview round of a Series A startup. They even took me for a team pastrami sandwich and beer lunch. The opportunity came about because the company was looking for affiliate partners and was in the personal finance space.
Always one to explore opportunities, I drove 35 minutes to meet all of the founders and employees in the marketing department several times. There are so many startups in the SF Bay Area that you never know which one might hit it big.
My hope was to get an official offer and then ask them if they’d be willing to let me consult from home part-time. The arrangement would hopefully be similar to when I consulted for Personal Capital back in 2014-2015 and got stock options that turned out very well once the company got sold in 2020 for $850M+.
Alas, I never got the chance to ask because they didn’t extend an offer. The startup, however, did ask if Financial Samurai could become an affiliate partner, but I decided to pass.
The startup is now a public company in the personal lending space and is up more than 10X the valuation when I first applied!
Real Estate Is A Hedge Against Less Desirable Traits
I don’t think being a minority was a reason for me being rejected by so many places. My lack of experience or too much experience were the main reasons. Or maybe, I simply didn’t give off the true enthusiasm of a typical job seeker.
However, let’s be brutally honest. My lack of intelligence (or competence, as one reader commented) probably played a big role in getting rejected. The people who landed these fellowships, incubators, and jobs are all extremely smart with glowing resumes. Whereas I’m objectively average. The only above-average trait I possess is high endurance.
Owning real estate is a hedge against being born with below-average intelligence that hinders you from landing more opportunities. It doesn’t take a genius to properly analyze a real estate investment opportunity.
Real estate can also be a hedge against less desirable traits that can prevent you from landing a job or raising funds for your company.
Some of these less desirable traits include: poor social skills, a boring personality, a lack of charisma, a lack of confidence, and mental or physical illnesses or disabilities.
Roughly 15% of the world’s population has some type of disability. This is a significant minority population we should strive to help out the most.
We can all work on improving our social skills. However, it’s much harder to improve upon genetic traits such as high anxiety or sweaty palms!
Your Connections Matter For Income Opportunities
A lot about getting a job and getting ahead is about who you know. And if there are more people who look like you in power, the easier it will be for you to get ahead.
My White tenants all work at high-caliber companies. Once you’ve worked at a place like Facebook, you can easily job hop to a Google, Apple, Palantir and so forth.
Then, of course, it’s much easier for your siblings, friends, and relatives to get into these companies as well due to referrals and legacy admissions. Although nepotism is frowned upon, it still happens all the time.
But for most, there is simply no way to get in. Check out the latest employee racial profile at Facebook, a company that pays at the top-end of the range. We’re talking ~$150,000 compensation packages for new college graduates.
If you are a Black or Hispanic person wanting to join Facebook, you may look at the percentages and feel you have little hope of getting in. With no connections, you might not bother applying. There’s simply nobody pulling for you.
Representation matters to give those who are underrepresented hope for even trying.
Even if you do land a job at Facebook, you might not enjoy the environment due to the lack of diversity.
Overrepresentation Matters Too
As an Asian person, you might look at the percentages at Facebook and think you’ve got a decent shot at landing a job. However, you might also look at the figures and feel dread.
Due to the overrepresentation of Asians at Facebook and other big tech companies, there’s a feeling the competition is too fierce to get in. Unless you’ve invented a new algorithm that will save the company millions, forget about even applying. These companies are focusing on diversifying their workforce, not concentrating their workforce further.
Unfortunately, instead of thinking people like me have a great chance of getting a job at a big tech company, I’ve adopted the latter attitude of competition being too fierce due to my constant rejections.
When you are shut out from opportunities or feel like you are shut out from opportunities, you tend to make your own opportunities instead.
Real Estate Feels Like A Security Blanket
Real estate is a way to participate in a booming economy that doesn’t quite permeate throughout all members of society.
We know that the rich have gotten much richer during the pandemic. Whereas tens of millions of others are struggling to get by. This is called a K-shaped recovery.
By owning real estate, even if you can’t get a good job, you can still benefit from rising rents and property values due to a strengthening economy.
Even if you can’t join a promising company that plans to go public, real estate should benefit from the unleashing of new liquidity in the local economy.
At long last, I look forward to thousands of Airbnb employees upgrading to nicer homes once their IPO lockup period is over. My baby needs new shoes every three months!
Yes, it is a little ironic that a minority who couldn’t land a job at any of his tenant’s companies is their landlord.
However, in 2005, I made a conscious decision to build a rental property portfolio in case my future income opportunities dried up. I knew opportunities would dry up eventually because I was already tired of work at age 28.
Seeking Security For Your Family
It’s important to predict way out into the future because it’s not just your opportunities that are at risk. Your children’s opportunities may be at risk as well. It is unlikely your children’s intelligence and traits will differ largely from your own.
Over the last two years, we got rejected by six preschools.
One reason for the rejections was due to tremendous competition for a limited amount of spaces. Another reason is because my family has no status.
Another reason may be because we haven’t explicitly said we would donate money. The final reason may be because my son simply wasn’t skillful enough at playing blocks during his playdate interviews.
Who knows for sure why we got rejected. However, the classroom makeup of all the preschools we got rejected to is majority White, even though minorities are the majority in San Francisco.
Clearly, we went overboard once we became financially independent and stopped playing the status game. Now that our son finally got into our school of choice for kindergarten, it’s time to course correct.
To gain back some status, I spent the first two years of the pandemic writing Buy This, Not That, an instant Wall Street Journal bestseller. Now, whenever I fill out a school application for our kids, I no longer have to say “investor” or “high school tennis teacher.”
Finding An Education Solution
What we do know is that pre-pandemic, my son was almost shutout. Thankfully, one preschool accepted him and has a spot waiting for him if we decide to send him back. In the meantime, my wife and I will homeschool.
Due to our preschool rejection experience, the cycle of lost opportunities will likely repeat for my children. Rejection is not unique to us or other minorities. It is a sad inevitability.
Owning a real estate portfolio provides me some comfort that no matter how many times my children get rejected, they won’t starve. Worst case, they can earn a living as property managers.
Funny enough, as I’m updating this post, our son was offered admissions to one of the most selective preschools in the city. We now have to decide whether to forfeit the enrollment deposit of his current planned school. Maybe everything does work out in the end.
A Permission-less Business
Security for your family is also why you see so many minority-owned restaurants, nail salons, and retail stores. All of these businesses are permission-less businesses. Only a perfunctory use of English is needed. If you have the capital, you can start a business without any gatekeepers.
Once you own a business, you will likely succeed if you put out a great service or fantastic product. Race doesn’t matter. At least it shouldn’t. This is one of the reasons why we need to preserve the stepped-up basis. So my minorities and immigrants are small business owners. Their children will be hurt if they have to pay massive capital gains tax upon inheriting their family businesses.
While building your business, you can put your kids to work washing dishes, serving food, cleaning, and more. With earned income, you can open a Roth IRA for each child.
Who knows, with a strong enough work ethic and solid investment returns, your kids might become millionaires at a young age. Breaking the cycle of poverty takes a tremendous amount of parental guidance, among many other factors.
And just in case things don’t go well for your kids on their own, they can always come back and work at the family business.
The Freedom To Operate How I See Fit
I love running Financial Samurai because nobody tells me what to do. I can write about whatever I want when I want. Further, there’s no need to work with businesses partners I don’t find valuable.
If my children ever ask me to teach them about online entrepreneurship, I’ll be more than happy to share what I’ve learned.
When the system is stacked against you, not feeling like your future will be determined by someone else is huge.
Depend Only On Yourself To Survive
Do not rely on society to help you. Do not dependent on the government to save you. If you adopt this mentality, I’m confident you will build more wealth and have more freedom than the average person. If you can, get that F You Money! This way, you’ll never be beholden to anybody.
I’m not sure America will fight for equal opportunity for Asians as much as it does for other minorities. After all, Asians only make up ~6% of the U.S. population. This is despite many Asian small business owners facing racism and hate crimes during the pandemic.
I was ordering cookies on Uber Eats from my favorite place, Anthony’s Cookies. Anthony has the best toffee cookies in San Francisco. For cookie lovers, also check out Insomnia cookies downtown.
As I was ordering, I noticed at the end of the description it said “Black-owned.” Cool! I knew Anthony was Black because I have met him many times before.
I was happy Uber Eats was trying to do more to support Black-owned restaurants. At the same time, I started thinking about all the Asian-owned restaurants who are suffering during this pandemic as well. Perhaps not.
But I still have hope Asian Americans will gain more support from the community. It may just take another generation.
Making Academic Opportunities More Difficult
Then I started wondering will there ever be a school admissions policy that helps under-represented Asians or poor Asians get in? Doubtful, if you look at what’s going on with Lowell High School and Thomas Jefferson High School doing away with entrance exams and Harvard University revealing its entrance formula.
Therefore, instead of spending all our energy fighting for equal opportunity, perhaps it’s better to use our energy to focus on what we can control. Complaining about a suboptimal situation doesn’t get us far.
This culture of focusing on what we can control and non-confrontation is why the voice against racism isn’t as loud from the Asian community. Further, the last thing Asians want to do is take away opportunities from other minorities.
Competition is fierce for all races. Hopefully, this article has shed some light on why there are so many Asian landlords and Asian small business owners. Again, I don’t fault people for wanting to provide more opportunities for people most similar to themselves. It’s just the way things will always be.
The desire to feel secure is what all of us want. By owning real estate or a small business, some of that security for you and your children can be achieved. My children are what drives me to keep Financial Samurai running for the next 20 years.
Achieve Financial Freedom Through Real Estate
As a minority, real estate is my favorite way to achieving financial freedom. Real estate is a tangible asset that is less volatile, provides utility, and generates income. Real estate currently generate roughly $150,000 a year in semi-passive and passive income to help provide fo my family.
Given interest rates have come way down, the value of rental income has gone way up. It now takes a lot more capital to generate the same amount of risk-adjusted income. Further, the demand for real estate is increasing due to positive demographic trends.
Take a look at my two favorite real estate crowdfunding platforms. Both are free to sign up and explore.
Fundrise: A way for accredited and non-accredited investors to diversify into real estate through private eREITs. Fundrise has been around since 2012 and has consistently generated steady returns, no matter what the stock market is doing. Investing in a diversified real estate fund is the easiest way to gain exposure.
CrowdStreet: A way for accredited investors to invest in individual real estate opportunities mostly in 18-hour cities. 18-hour cities are secondary cities with lower valuations, higher rental yields, and potentially higher growth due to job growth and demographic trends. If you have a good amount of capital, you can build your own select real estate fund.
Investing is the one of the best ways to equalize opportunities for ourselves and for our children over time. There are obviously risks too investing. But over time, investing in real estate, stocks, and other classes have proven to build wealth.
Three White Tenants One Asian Landlord is a Financial Samurai original post. For more nuanced personal finance content, join 60,000 others and sign up for the free Financial Samurai newsletter.
Sam,
It is a bit disappointing to see your takes on Identity Politics. It makes sense. You live in SF afterall which is one of the epicenters of this way of thinking and so you are constantly validated by your circle. There are big problems with the Identity centric point of view that you and many others make. I think most reasonable people would agree with the claim that people like to mingle with others that are like themselves. But you make a big logical leap from a mostly agreeable tepid claim to basically systemic racism is the reason for inequality, to (in other articles/comments) race specific help is what can help. Which sets up a nice Motte and Bailey. Attack (make prescriptions) based on the Bailey, but when challenged you retreat to the Motte (tepid reasonable claims).
I will address the biggest problem with the identity narrative. It distracts from the actual issue that holds back most Americans, which is class and mindset. It is true that the top positions in the USA are held by white men in disproportionate amounts. So the Identity first Ideologues suggest the correct way to fix this is by artificially advantaging those that are not in in the top echelons. (This disadvantages Asians as well BTW. As you may have noticed, they will pay lip service to Asian struggles but their actions are always counter to them). The reason this is so perverted (besides institutionalizing a new era of discrimination) is that you are disadvantaging ALL white/asian people, for the unfair advantages literally <1% of the group enjoys. Believe it or not, poor white kids in Appalachia statistically never stand a chance at the interview with big tech either. The correlation of who people hire and give promotions to connects stronger to zip code than color. The point is that a majority of whites are in the same crappy situation as POC. They live paycheck to paycheck and are "oppressed" by the top 1% whites. It's not a coincidence you see the same last names everywhere….
The fight that needs to happen is giving aid/opportunity/support based on NEED, not on skin color. There should be opportunity investments in the poorest of neighborhoods that is available to all that are unfortunate enough to live there.
Possibly even more important, victimhood mentality needs to be rooted out of popular culture. I admire most of the messaging in your article and blog, so your blog is definitely helping that process! You explain exactly why many Asians succeed even though they are subject to the same "being a minority" issues you describe. If all it takes to overcome this enormous oppression is a mindset shift, seems like it may not be such a colossal oppressive force afterall….Every American should know that even if they are unlikely to become jeff bezos or president.. That's OK, since that is unlikely for ALL. But they have great opportunity here in the USA to build a good life as long as they work hard and try to play smart.
Thanks for sharing. I thought my main message in this article was to focus on what you can control and learn how to take care of yourself.
The reason why I saved aggressively, started a small family business, and created a rental property portfolio is to take care of my family. If my kids lack the same opportunity as I did growing up, then they’ve got plenty to do.
Let me reread my own article and see why you have focused on oppression by the white man. I agree on the often quoted Appalachian state statistic as well.
Can you share your race, where you live and current situation? It would help to understand where you’re coming from.
Thanks
Sam,
I apologize for not clearly framing my post. I don’t think it makes 100% sense if you assumed I was just responding to this article. I have been binge reading your blog the last two weeks and the last few articles/comments I read from you painted a picture that I ended up responding to as a whole. For example this article and many of your replies in the comment section:
https://www.financialsamurai.com/chances-becoming-millionaire-by-race-age-education/
Hopefully that adds more context to why I really honed in on your mentions on race. I did mention in my reply that your blog is a big positive towards rooting out victimhood! In retrospect, this post would have been better served as a comment on that other article.
As for your questions about me. I am a middle aged white immigrant (refugee) that came from the lower class and now solidly wealthy. I recognize “don’t blame race” sounds rich from a white guy, but as an immigrant I received a lot of discrimination when I was young. I may be white, but in smaller cities it is easy for people to tell who is the “other”. There were a lot of refugees of my nationality that were placed in my home city and the locals didn’t all take it kindly. My family came to the USA when I was young with $500 in their pocket and worked long hours at minimum wage jobs for years until they finally broke into the middle class. They stopped paying for anything but the roof over my head and food at around 14 when I got my first job. At 18 they stopped paying for everything as I moved out to college. A few lucrative business ventures later and I am now worth 8 figures. All of my friends back then were of the same nationality and had similar stories. None of them are doing as well as me, but they are all doing fantastic overall. Our parents taught us that America was the land of opportunity, but that we weren’t owed anything and had to work hard for it. In many ways, it was similar values as what I see from many Asian families.
I earned my wealth through entrepreneurship, for exactly the reason your article states. I saw the systemic issues that held back my family and other families like mine. Good ole nepotism/classism. I guess I never really “blamed” others though, as the opportunity for growth was always still present outside of that system and how can you blame people for being people? I am for improving the system and for the system fixing it’s biases. But to do that, we must accurately diagnose the issues. Focusing on identity first is pervasive in todays society but in my opinion penny rich dollar poor when compared to classism/nepotism.
Thanks for clarifying. Congrats for your success.
I do think for those who have succeeded, to be careful not to always think that anybody else can succeed as well just because they did.
We should be aware of our lucky breaks, and our advantages that have helped us get to where we are.
I do believe that outsized Wealth is mostly due to luck. As a result, it’s important to be thankful for what we have and try to pass on our good fortune.
You will probably not like this post, but here’s another one for you to read:
https://www.financialsamurai.com/your-wealth-is-mostly-due-to-luck-be-thankful/
Sam,
I definitely think “luck” plays a role in exactly how successful one is (e.i 10mil vs 5mil vs 2mil). I also think it plays a bigger role in some peoples success than others (Did you have to overcome adversity to make your million or did you put money in the stock market and YOLO’d your way into wealth). But I would push back a little on how far you take it in your article. Life is so long that good and bad luck comes to all. Some people take advantage while others squander it. There are obviously those on the periphery of the bell curve that get more of their share of good and bad luck. However when I talk to individuals that push it all on luck, I usually end up finding out that most of their wealth has been accumulated through investments, inheritance or nepotism. Good luck indeed! The recognition of the extremes is why I definitely believe in having a safety net for people.
I think the articles working definition of luck is so wide that you are merging it with the philosophical ideas of Determinism. If you are a hard worker, it is trait you were lucky to be born with and/or lucky to have acquired through your environment (also luck!). Obviously we are all lucky to have even been born at all! Lucky for us, this topic has been crunched by the brightest minds throughout history and they have done the legwork for us. Even staunch Determinists agree that you must live life as if Free Will (opposite of luck) exists unless you want to fall victim to the toxic effects of fatalism/nihilism.
Outside of your quoted article on it, it seems like you have a balanced view of “luck” as well though. So maybe the hardline stance in the article was the outcome of Stealth Wealth in practice!
Thank you for the great blog and for taking the time to engage with your readers. It is much appreciated.
No meeting of the minds; but, at least we are talking – thanks for the article. Good points on both sides. I hope we don’t tear up the country with angry, because it doesn’t seem like we can get along; everyone has their own story.
Mine story is I am blessed to have rental properties that cover my living expenses and enough to save. I do not want to go back to corporate america. I have seen people less qualified get ahead. Groups split along color lines and they promote and hire along them lines; I have experienced it and I am blessed I don’t have to deal with it.
You can’t help one without the others feeling slighted; they can’t see the big picture of trying to level the playing field so everyone can have the same advantages.
Always in search of passive income and small business opportunities.
Keep up the good work.
Sam,
Very interesting article, Sam. Based on the amount of replies you received; I would say you’ve gotten everyone’s attention :-) Being one of the few African Americans that have responded to your article, I would say that you have made some very valid points.
I’m a big sports fan, and in the sports world (especially basketball or football) there’s this saying that coaches use; “Take what the defense gives you”. That’s what minorities need to do. That’s what everyone needs to do. Based on the Asian community/culture that you described; owning rental properties and/or small businesses is what the “defense” gives you. Take full advantage. I obviously can’t speak for the entire African American community, but an industry that I found to be less discriminatory was working for the government (at both the State and Federal levels). Because of the reduced discrimination, AND my strong work ethic and willingness to go back to school (acquired my doctorate), I was able to move up the ladder and make a healthy salary. Later retiring and earning a healthy pension.
So, I say all this to agree that, no matter what country or community you live in; the majority will always be dominant. BUT, I don’t believe the majority can be dominant on everything, everywhere, and all the time. Just like a running back trying to get through a defensive line…..there’s a hole somewhere.
Our job is to find that hole and make a 55 yard rush to the end zone.
– Alvin
Well said.
Well said, Alvin. I’m another one of the few African-Americans who will respond. One of my favorite quotes is “When the system fails you, create your own system”. Even though I’m an Air Force contractor, my “system” is the stock market and one rental property that I inherited from my grandfather. He was born in 1906 so his world/opportunities were totally different from mine. His one asset was owning a home that he purchased in 1967 and I inherited in 2000. Many times I wanted to sell it due to major repairs and inconsistent occupancy. Glad I didn’t. That home, along with my job and the stock market, helped me build a seven figure stock index fund portfolio. That wasn’t even a dream when I was a kid. Surviving was the dream. Now, my daughter can dream even bigger. There will always be racism, classism, and other isms. I identify them, embrace it, use them as fuel to kick the sh-t out of them. The goal – never let the isms win.
Great take, Alvin. One of my favorite quotes is “When the system fails you, create your own system.” My “system” is the stock market and rental property. As a Black man, I know there are a number of isms that I must deal with. I use them as fuel to succeed and kick the sh#t out of. I teach my daughter to do the same. The goal is to win in spite of the isms.
YES! I LOVE this attitude Nick! Use the negativity as inspiration to fight for yourself and your family!
Love your quote, Nick! Words to live by.
How successful and desirable will the first few Asian-owned pre-schools/prep schools in the bay area be? Especially if they have diversified management to benefit from all perspectives. SO successful, and eventually, just imagine the stellar alumni contributions. Literally everyone of every color would want their kid to go there due to the excellent academic reputation Asians have already established. Surprised it’s not already a thing. Create Utopia.
When I was in school you never had some of the one-sided activism in society today. We had black history and native american studies. But my friends never looked at each other and acted differently, or treated people differently. We weren’t getting PA announcements about the “first {insert racial/ethnic/gender demographic} being put in charge of {insert something they were qualified or that someone wanted them to do}.” I’m not saying those achievements shouldn’t be celebrated, but I think it detracts from the individual and promotes the identifier instead.
Nowadays, we have people thinking they are entitled to things just because they arrived to this country later than everyone else or look differently than them. I still don’t understand why people are shocked to learn that X% of the population tend to make up X% of the roles that Y% of them they are interested or are even qualified for. Should I be offended if I immigrate to Ethiopia or China, but they don’t go out of their way to be inclusive of me?
“White privilege” is just as much a stereotype as definitively claiming African-Americans are rappers and the best ones at that. What “privilege” was given when my family put on their boots they worked for, built a boat to sail on, and crossed the Atlantic when this country didn’t even exist, and was forced to sweat in the sun just to get a farm in the middle of hot nowhere, fearful of scalping from people we weren’t bothering or even settled in our area?? More modernly, what about us having to live at the federal poverty level but not qualifying for food stamps? Literally having an empty pantry and needing family members to go to the food bank on our behalf. The humiliation of having an abusive father who was stressed from working 80 hours minimum wage job. That was just growing up. Me as an adult personally being homeless for years? I didn’t get my first full time job for 6 years after high school. I was only able to survive, because it was my only choice. I couldn’t get food stamps because I was jobless and didn’t have dependents. My black friend got into Harvard. I was 3.96 GPA and went to community college. I could only afford it because, thank god I had good grades, since I didn’t qualify for scholarships which were all minority-targeted. I too tried to get into tech around 2010-2012. Did they reject me because they had too many white nerds? Maybe, maybe I wasn’t qualified, or I just didn’t work hard enough. I think it’s both.
Have minorities been wronged in this country? I don’t doubt it and we as a society have far to go. But making assertions based on emotion or culture and demanding to have more advantages, just because you perceive someone else did, isn’t going to lead to happiness or progress. It is easy to claim white people are blind because they are the majority; however, we have the same fears and many of the same experiences as anyone else. I have witnessed, but also been the target of racism and sexism. Only once in both cases, but very memorable. The first about 10 years ago in a restaurant, when a minority-only staff ignored our reservation and forced us to wait 2 hours (quietly and respectfully by the way), while they seated every other incoming patron of their own ethnicity. And only then, they finally seated us near closing time when our party’s host gave up being Christian-like and threatened to call the police. The second more recently, when the female-led company I work for promoted a female two levels my junior to lead the team I had been leading, even though she had no experience, never taken initiative and never even uttered a word about leadership. A job I worked 5+ years for was handed to someone who would never truly appreciate and culture leadership…..just because I was a white male, the retiring manager was female, and they already had other male managers. Corporate politics can be subjective, but it’s pretty blatant when the VP literally says you are the most qualified, nobody else could do this job, but then gives it to someone who doesn’t even fit the job description. I saw the writing on the wall and left.
What is this world coming to if we are so concerned with quotas and faux equality, rather than addressing the root cause of these problems? I don’t think token roles or helicopter money is going to solve the problem. As much as Native Americans would prefer, I can’t climb into my time machine and tell my great-great-great grandparents not to get on that boat to the New World because they might mind their own business and still offend someone. But if people really believe that is the root cause of their struggles, they really need to open their eyes and look around. At some point there needs to be personal responsibility within the community. If you want your community to succeed, what are you personally doing to help them? Not asking others who don’t look like you to help them, you? The problem is that people would rather cast blame on something, or things that occurred before their time, or to others who aren’t even related to them.
I don’t meant to be cynical, but at this point in my life I’m sick of the hyper-activism from victim chasers and likewise fanaticism from offended conservatives. I wish all job/housing/government applications eliminated names, races, and addresses and just assigned numbers, or that all selection processes followed a lottery (after all, what’s the point of hard work to achieve anything without being judged— or constrained— by your demographics). Even then, it would not be foolproof from the naysayers who delusionally think the “others” are against them just because of events that took place years ago, or outside our community.
This is not the country my family came to build for a greater good and I’m seriously considering retiring elsewhere.
Good examples of racism and sexism! You’re lucky you only experienced it once each. Imagine experiencing it once a month or once a quarter for your entire life. That would stink, no?
Like all of those instances of asian hate you referred to earlier, right? I can only imagine how terrible it must be.
But I think we know who’s really doing most of the asian hate. Spoiler alert – it isn’t guys who look like Joe, yet we’re still supposed to guilt trip him with snide remarks anyway. Bonus points if you can do it while driving a Tesla on autopilot.
With your nose so high in the air, no wonder homeless people can shit all over the sidewalks in your city and get away with it.
Honestly not following you here. Can you be more specific? Thanks!
You make good points, but there’s a lot of assumptions about minorities here.
Maybe your family got here first. But a lot of white folks didn’t. There have been Asians in this country dating back to the late 1700s, before this country was a country and before a lot of the white people who called themselves Americans now without the hyphen. Asians built themselves a boat and sailed over the ocean to get here. They worked and died in the mines, on the railroads tracks, and on the streets from racism. They fought in the world wars and gave their lives, for a country that didn’t allow them to vote. They got jailed for the way they looked. They built businesses that were repeatedly rampaged by police.
This country is great on the backs of all immigrants. Many were Europeans but POC were there as well. And yet POCs alone in this group, in modern times, are still not considered Americans.
Our definition of “white” keeps shifting. Italians were at one point not considered “white”. Then they were “not white enough”. Today, against visible minorities, they have finally become accepted. Same with Jews. Same with Scots and Irish.
It is not “victim” mentality when your family has been on a land for generations, built and died for a land, to say you deserve equal rights and treatments as the white people around you.
It is also not “victim” mentality for the children of immigrants, whose parents paid the immigrant tax of coming to this country, working hard, and providing for their kids, for those same kids to expect to be treated as any other citizen in the country of their birth and to have the same opportunities when they grew up, went to school, and worked just like with the white kid down the block.
To me, my parents already paid the immigrant tax for me so that I could be equal. I refuse to keep paying this tax. Or to have my children keep paying this tax.
I will not comment on your individual story Joe as it sounds like you have had to overcome a lot of challenges throughout your life.
Two points to consider are that 1) the challenges raised in this article is not about individual challenges but systemic issues where a group of people en-mass faces yearly, monthly, weekly, daily inequities that are often built into the system and 2) that not all minority groups
As an Asian kid growing up in Canada, the word entitlement was never in our household vocabulary. While I have experienced racism both overtly and indirectly through school, work, etc. I was taught to never blame others and to look toward myself to overcome a situation.
As a visible minority growing up in a white-dominated society, I’ve grown up recognizing that I need to both outwork, outsmart others to get to the same spot and that’s just life. In fact, I prefer to use the acts of inequity not as a source of self-pity but as motivation to work harder. With young kids now, I will be doing my best to instill these same philosophies and try to prepare them for the world they live in.
With the global job market we are all capable to moving to a jurisdiction where we might feel less oppressed or where the opportunities are greater (or more equitable). I recognize this is an option for my family, but consider that Canada is still on balance a better place to raise a family vs. many parts of Asia for a wider variety of reasons.
The purpose of my emotionally-charged rant was actually the sprinkled logic, which is clearly absent from many responses here. Sam glosses over everything else except my experience with racism and sexism (emotional). Joan rhetorically gives example of reasons you “deserve” (emotional) something, along with “expect” and mention of “same” opportunities. Why should I have to pay the immigrant tax either in the form of resentment or disadvantage? It’s funny because when the local news interviews POCs about what “equal” opportunities they expect they deserve, it’s always a step above whitie. But if you stop and think about it, it doesn’t matter what color you are. There is no such thing as equal opportunity anywhere on this globe. Do you think the Chinese who built our railroads had the opportunity to own the railroad? Do you think me immigrating to work underpaid in a Congo mine, they will suddenly give me equitable role because I’m white? In both cases, no. Why would it be any different in 2020 as 1820? Those who control and capitalize the labor. I have a deep respect for the Asian American population, as they are an often misrepresented and rarely advocated vs. other POCs. How many movies about Chinese immigrants (aka first slaves) have you seen compare to others?
Systematic issues always stem from individual ones. It’s easy to point at this readily available mob of complainers and say they are disenfranchised because the grocery store doesn’t sell their favorite brand of almond milk. But at the end of the day, every person in the mob has a choice— accept it, or change it. You can’t blame the system if you go along with it. A systematic issue my family faced was the Big Govt seizing vast swaths of historic, legally-granted homestead. Every other family in the area was disenfranchised by this too. They complained, and didn’t get their land back, not just because it was a “problem with the system”, but because they went along with it. But did we stand around and complaining about it? No, we didn’t go along with it, we took it to the Supreme court and won. Hence my emphasis on doing something in your community. Voting for someone who looks like you is just doing the bare minimum. This shouldn’t be rocketscience for America. ESPECIALLY after the Civil War. ESPECIALLY after the 1960s. The fact we as a society didn’t solve the issues then and for all, is really disappointing.
Yes, I had a difficult, pressure-cooker upbringing. I also have strong knowledge of my family tree and the facts of the building of this country. We literally come on the Mayflower, several of my family members were Presidents and others fought in every war. We witnessed the travesty of slavery but rather than encourage it, we adopted a freedslave, who was later buried with my family. We lived in fear of Native Americans invading and cutting our heads off. But today my family works to improve children education with tribes in New Mexico and Arizona. This doesn’t even include pre-America history when we literally gave our lives on battlefields in Ireland and Scotland. History influences thinking and opinion, but the present isn’t always as simple to compare. So while my initial rant may come off as “get off my lawn, you late-comers”, the intent was to drive the point that everyone who came before you had just as many, or worse challenges than you. And they are not necessarily out to get you, and probably want the exact same success for you and your generations. But if you’re just complaining, or rationalizing your resentment, nothing is ever going to go in your favor. You can hold your crayon posters and yell all you want, or write a blog post gloating about slumlording whitie, but you won’t change America that way.
The comments about needing to “outwork” or outmaneuver whites is interesting, because they’re the same exact thoughts I and many other WPs have on a daily basis. Not only do I have to outmaneuver those MASSIVE NUMBERS of whities having privileges over me, but also I have to worry about the company enforcing an ethnicity quota and pushing me out to accommodate POCs. They’re already doing that as recently as a month ago. They are severancing older employees, who are mostly white males, and saying that our POC numbers are disappointing, despite the fact that those numbers are ACTUALLY representative of the POC population in the region, and in some cases, BETTER. The worst part is they aren’t telling us what a quality diversity would look like. They are showing us the numbers and saying they need to change, but won’t divulge how or to what extent. How is that productive? Are we supposed to be happy the POC percentage goes up, even if that means they are disproportionately advantaged over whites? I would love us to get the point where we don’t even have these conversations. But unless we move to a random lottery selection system— processes that remove EMOTION from the process— that probably won’t happen. “Whites” will eventually be the minority, I think 2050 is what they say, and then we/they will be complaining just as much then.
If my mental challenges were not apparent from the above, they run deep so I apologize if any comments are unsettling. On the bright-side, I recovered from my homelessness. I’m a first generation college graduate, first generation to earn six-figures. No need for a press conference to announce that.
Jeeze. I’m half white, and even I experience preferential treatment and privilege. You can turn a blind eye to something and stick your head in the sand, but it’s still there. It’s always the people with the most privilege claiming that they must not have it. Like Trump with his small loan from daddy…
Also, this country was always here, and people already used all of it before it was stolen. Prime example of minorities being ignored while one segment of society crushes them…
And, yes, white people also have privilege in most countries in the world. So, they do make way for you even as a minority. These are common knowledge facts. Just like no one is running around calling all white people immigrants… Oh, the mental gymnastics.
What we fail to address in this article, is the source of the new “equity” ideology. Sam, what’s your take on the Great Reset theme discussed in the World Economic Forum at length last month? Also what are your thoughts on “You will own nothing and be happy”? From what’s happening in California, I foresee the government soft targeting landlords with who they can and cannot rent to..
Not sure what the great reset is? Can you elaborate and for sure what your thoughts are on the question? I haven’t really thought about it.
There’s certainly some truth in the White privilege/supremacy narrative, but the proposed solutions range from silly to dangerous:
– Renaming schools
– Tearing down statues
– Abolish SAT/ACT requirement
– Defunding police
– Decriminalizing “petty” crime (abc7news.com/walgreens-closing-san-francisco-sf-on-van-ness/7164861/)
– Attacking high performing schools: sfchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Editorial-Dumping-academics-for-a-lottery-is-the-15645485.php
– Teaching CRT to children (city-journal.org/identity-politics-in-cupertino-california-elementary-school)
– Prop 16 (nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/us/elections/results-california-proposition-16-repeal-ban-on-affirmative-action.html)
– CA ethnic studies requirement (i.e. CRT Trojan Horse): upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/01/22/California-grappling-with-diversity-in-ethnic-studies-for-high-schools/5161611323687/
– CA corporate board BIPOC requirement: usatoday.com/story/money/2020/09/30/california-law-requires-racial-diversity-corporate-boards/5874469002/
– Race based UBI: sfmayor.org/article/mayor-london-breed-announces-launch-pilot-program-provide-basic-income-black-and-pacific
They’re just getting warmed up and the federal hammer has yet to drop. So while you may feel a bit of schadenfreude in renting to clueless high income Whites, it’s certainly possible to smother someone with their own blanket. After all, you’re “white adjacent” and “multiracial white”. You didn’t build that.
Now, the truly wealthy are going for appeasement, buying Woke indulgences like toilet paper in 2020, installing equity police in their organizations, desperate to rain money on anything “Black Owned” so they can virtue signal and get out of the spotlight. To some extent, they can afford it. After all, their kids don’t go to public school.
But for the rest of us that were trying to game this imperfect democracy/meritocracy to get ahead, the beatings will continue until morale improves. In 2021, I expect a full frontal assault on property rights, with landlords in the crosshairs. You heard it here first.
Brian, I love the enthusiasm! Thank you for sharing.
May I ask what “white adjacent” and “multiracial white” means when you say that’s what I am? I’m an Asian person and Asians account for about 6% of the population in America. Do you not consider Asian people to be a minority?
What are some things you’re doing to make your life better and boost your wealth?
Thanks,
Sam
Those aren’t my terms. In my opinion, Asian Americans are the very definition of a minority and despite many obstacles, have become wildly successful in America.
However, to the Woke crowd, “white adjacent” means any minority that is successful and therefore, has internalized white supremacy, which in turn oppresses BIPOC “folx”. “multiracial whiteness” is similar. It’s how they explain minority Trump supporters: npr.org/2021/01/24/960060957/understanding-multiracial-whiteness-and-trump-supporters.
As for the personal wealth bit, we paid off our mortgage and have two rental properties. I credit most of that to my wife, who is a first generation Chinese immigrant & prodigious saver. My part in the story is becoming a software engineer so we have more money to save in the first place. We both grew up poor but with stable families that taught us good values.
I’m certainly not a victim and I feel very fortunate. I’m a liberal and I support strict enforcement of anti-discrimination laws, measures to proactively hire qualified diverse candidates and so forth. The point of my rant is to say maybe you’re a bit naive about what’s coming, the world being constructed right now for our children to live in. Were you not aware of all these things happening in San Francisco and California more broadly? Do you support them?
Got it. Thanks for sharing more details.
“The point of my rant is to say maybe you’re a bit naive about what’s coming, the world being constructed right now for our children to live in. Were you not aware of all these things happening in San Francisco and California more broadly? Do you support them?”
I honestly don’t know exactly what’s coming. So yes, I am naive. But I’m also a super-optimist and try to always see the positive in any situation.
I’ve chosen to work hard while taking care of my family until I am vaccinated or until there is herd immunity. Then I plan to take things down a notch and re-retire. See: The Best Time To Retire May Be Under A Democratic President
After a rough 2020, I’m very tired, like many people. However, while we are still in the woods, I/we might as well work as hard as possible to build wealth today.
How many children do you have? And what will you be doing to help them? My plan is to build a rental property portfolio and an online business as a hedge. I don’t want gatekeepers controlling our destiny.
Do you own a lot of real estate, hence the fear of property taxes going way up or something? Just trying to get to the core issue of the “rant” as you say. thx
See: To Get Rich, Practice Predicting The Future
My fears… sure property taxes are likely to go up. Prop 13 has been described as racist. However, they might just outlaw landlords. It would certainly fit their ideology of landlords being evil.
We own two condos in Sacramento free and clear that gross about 30k a year. No biggie. We manage them ourselves and our tenants are great.
Now, I’m not ready yet to sell them, but I have to be realistic and realize there are storm clouds on the horizon for landlords. The “equity” crowd is upfront about their socialist aims. Even if their demands are watered down, it will become harder, especially in progressive states. Unlike well funded REITs with complex compliance and tax strategies, mom and pop landlords are a soft target.
So for sure my next real estate purchase won’t be in home state of California. It might not even be in America. If I believe in capitalism, which I do, why invest in a country trending socialist? Why send my two children to public schools that teach them they’re evil because of their skin color?
I know it sounds like I’m a hysterical doomer but I’m really not. I’m hopeful and I believe like you in taking positive action within my sphere of influence. What I’m saying is that you can’t just put your head in the sand and ignore these seismic political trends. Asian Americans are a logical target and if you don’t stand up for your rights, you’ll lose them.
I think it’s fine to sound hysterical. It’s what you feel and you back up your hysteria with some good thoughts. So, your main action is to be aware (stay woke). Being aware is great. However, shouldn’t action be taken if you truly believe what you want?
Doing nothing just creates uneasiness. By taking action based on what you believe, you will be able to calm your thoughts and feel better about the situation. I suggest you take concrete steps to change what you don’t like.
I didn’t realize Joe Biden’s administration would negatively target Asian Americans. However, I will do more research to see why he would do this. Just the other day, he signed some executive order to combat racism against Asian and Pacific Islanders. I’m probably missing something.
Perhaps you’ll enjoy or actually go ballistic over these two posts. I really like seeing both sides of the equation.
Socialism As A Means To A Brighter Future
A Case Against Meritocracy For Public High School Entrance
I read your posts. I don’t agree with your assessment of the trendline or how to respond to it but that’s fine. To each his own. You certainly have a good track record and I respect your opinions and that’s why I read your blog. Always good to hear all sides of an argument.
As for the actions I’m taking, based on my personal assessment and desired lifestyle, they include: diversfying from U.S. assets, cancelling my plan to buy another California property, looking at out of state and/or international property, homeschooling, getting a second passport, and more. Not in a panicked “buy gold now and move to Uruguay!” fashion. Just making plans and acting on them slowly, thinking about my family’s happiness and well being, just like you.
Peace.
Those are rational moves. Is your wife on board?
We’ve been homeschooling since March 2020, and it’s been pretty good. It’s also been nice to save money on preschool tuition.
“Yes, it is a little ironic that a minority who couldn’t land a job at any of his tenant’s companies is their landlord.”
Well, to be precise, the Asian male that was more highly compensated in his 20s than any of them. That’s why you’re their landlord. Finance pays better than tech in the 20s, though with much higher demands and burnout. All of my team’s recent hires are at home with their parents right now, banking rent money.
And San Francisco isn’t like the Virginia of today. If we crudely group all Asians collectively, they are the largest ethnic group in the city. Though if you go back 60-70 years, quite a few neighborhoods would not sell to you, and the ‘whites only’ clause is still present on many (now unenforcible) CC&Rs. My father in law (Filipino) would have happily put his blue collar earnings into property here in that time, had to settle for East San Mateo. The wealth he and my mother in law generated is quite remarkable, but it could have been even more so.
On other bits:
Why few/no Asians in those intern pics for Obama and Trump? A big part is self selection – while Asians are a majority minority at Cal, that’s not true in the Poli Sci department where I was. Asian parents are trying to drive their kids to be doctors and engineers, not nearly so much to be lawyers or involved in politics. Interning in DC may still be unpaid. Is that acceptable to the tiger moms out there?
Why are blacks and Hispanics poorly represented in Big Tech? Again, self selection is a big component – who is taking CS classes and graduating with the relevant degrees? There are lots of reasons for this- lower quality primary schools contributes significantly as well, and then not feeling accepted discourage many (women as well). So changing it really requires investment and effort at the middle school level and sooner. Hustle can work, esp when timed with the boom eras. I parlayed my poli sci degree and college work spent with the Space Sciences Lab into a dotcom era start. But in 2001, didn’t work for 17 months. Similarly, 2009 was a bad time to start.
You trying to get a finance (?) job in tech in 2012 had a lot of headwinds
1- still recovering from the recession
2- those companies like to hire college grads, or their prior interns
3- networking is just as essential in tech as I suspect it was in finance. I’ve worked for quite a few before my last 2 companies (14 years combined), but very few came from cold submissions.
4- tech companies don’t need a lot of additional finance people as they grow, and the startups have the VC folks on this. IP lawyers are a different story.
5- you were about to retire due to burn out anyway. That probably showed in any cover letters. And if you didn’t do that because EDD didn’t require it, even less chance your resume got more than 30 seconds of attention that year.
If you tried a couple years later, after a sabbatical, and used relationships as you should have, I suspect the outcome would have been different.
“Asian parents are trying to drive their kids to be doctors and engineers, not nearly so much to be lawyers or involved in politics.”
You said it for me. Of all the Asian families I know, none have encouraged their kids to get into American politics. A few may mention law school (and steer them to lucrative private practices), but the vast majority I’ve seen are encouraging their kids to go into the sciences and medicine.
You need a BIG ego to get into politics. It is a vote for me, power hungry attitude that runs contra to many Asian cultures that focus on the collective.
Not sure it’s so much about “Asian cultures”, because obviously there are BIG egos in politics across Asia, and dictators at that. ( How about when a country views their emperor as if he’s divine? Hmmmm. ) It’s probably more about the mindset of immigrants to the United States who carry with them ambition. And values from their motherland. There was an interview on YT with a woman from Nigeria who had emigrated to the States. She couldn’t believe how her fellow Black citizens had such a low view of education. In her native country she and her friends would compete hard to be the best in class. They were eager to study and learn. To your point: “power hungry” is not solely found in politics. Rather, business, real estate, Science, Religion, and on. My “Asian” landlady constantly brags about who she knows, their status. It’s about power and prestige for her. Accomplishments aside, and all due respect for her hard work, but…lol.
I wonder if part of the reason Asian immigrant parents don’t push politics on their kids is because they often left their home countries due to politics.
Hmm, that makes sense!
Readers, what do you think are the reasons why there are so many landlords and small businesses run by minorities? Do you think there will ever be equal opportunity for all? If you are a minority, why did you decide to own real estate or a small business? If you are not a minority, how do you view the fairness of the economic game? Is it likely to try and help someone who doesn’t look like you or come from a similar background?
In answering the questions you pose…In my opinion, there are many small businesses and properties run by minorities that are likely foreign born or 1st generation Americans. I think it’s because of language and cultural barriers. A person from Cambodia can come to the US with low English language skills and open a donut shop where their language skills won’t really matter. This person would likely not get hired to climb a corporate ladder because of that. But in my opinion, they have a more desirable opportunity to create their own empire. The skill sets for small business and landlording are not complicated or technical. They don’t require one to be adept at office politics.
I am not a minority. I view the fairness of the economic game as, for the most part, fair. With community colleges, trade schools and public universities, access to education is doable and possible for anyone that really wants to do it. I believe if you want it, you can have it. But you must work for it and you have to make intelligent choices to get there, preferably debt free.
I find the whole obsession with race to be disgusting, frankly. I prefer the “color blind” approach to society where things are merit based. Our current focus on race being the most important factor of life is going to lead us down a more divisive path. Especially because we do not address our current issues with honesty. For example, we like to thing there’s an epidemic of police shooting unarmed African Americans. But we don’t ask questions like, “how many police shootings of unarmed people (of all races) are there in total for the year”? “Broken down by race, which groups commit the most violent crimes? Could this impact how police approach this population?” Or asking the question: “when confronted by police, why do people resist and fight and not simply comply with orders?” Could this effect outcomes? Uh…yeah. Because we are approaching the race issue politically and not rationally, we are doomed. We refuse to have honest conversations about this topic.
The real focus should be on class, not race. All this talk of POCs being disproportionately affected by everything is never questioned. We don’t dig deeper. We don’t examine the economics of the populations in question and how they are the real culprits…I live in a predominantly white county in California. The poor, lower class whites in our community are in no better shape than POCs. There are lower rates of achievement, police pay special attention to them, they are not properly nourished, drugs are rampant, educational attainment is low…class is the real issue, not color.
Yes, there will likely always be little differences in how we treat each other. But I can’t control how a POC feels in my presence. I can’t and won’t constantly worry if they feel welcomed or not. I just can’t care about this topic. I can treat everyone I meet with kindness and consideration…but I can’t control your feelings or your perceptions of the world.
I’m a 48 year old white male married to another male of Mexican birth. I grew up in Northern California to parents that were middle class, but we lived like lower middle class because my dad was a saver and investor. He instilled in me a work ethic and the expectation that I would go to college. My spouse and I have a net worth of 1.5 million and we don’t have ‘regular jobs’. I credit my father with my success…and I credit my persistence and obsession with ‘work’ I’ve done in my life. If my skin color was an advantage in my life, it’s not my fault. But I was not blessed with any superior intelligence or skill. So I do think anyone can achieve in the US. We all have US privilege…more valuable than white privilege. Ask lower class whites if they feel their skin color has granted them any extra privileges in life.
Sam, I love your blog and read it often. I am so inspired and thrilled by your success and your savvy. Keep it up. I don’t care if you don’t agree with me or don’t look like me…I love the content of your mind and your blog:)
You wrote that your white tenants have jobs that you couldn’t get on your own. Do you think you pick them for a reason: they have the career connections you want? If you want a job in the tech industries, one of them can give your name.
That is quite a good idea actually! I didn’t ask any of them in 2012 during the transition year I left finance bc my tenants didn’t work at places I wanted to work back then. They were also quite junior 1-3 years out of college in one property.
Now, I’m too old and tired. I want to go back to early retirement by the year 2022. However, maintaining good relationships with my tenants might be able to help my children in the future. Who knows! It’s always good to be a good person anyway.
Thanks for making such an honest post!
It makes sense to me that when faced with powerlessness and rejection, you seek out control where you can. And in the US, real estate and business ownership are the mainstays of this.
I’m at the stage in my life where I do regular employment and invest in stocks, but I’m fast approaching the point of being ready to rent out real estate.
I’m privileged enough that after only a few years of rejections I landed my first jobs in STEM.
That said, I know that I was taken on for diversity and my “smarts” rather than for competency, so I’ve had impostor syndrome.
It makes me distrustful of regular employment, especially when I look around and see no other women in my area of the company. Or when my non-traditional background comes up with upper management, and they prefer people like themselves.
I’d rather succeed or fail on my own merits.
I can’t wait to start renting to people, to help soothe that concern.
Keep thinking about your story of the junior that mocked your blogging efforts back in the day. Feels like it may have come from a place of racism (in addition to stupidity).
Man everyone has imposter syndrome especially when you are new in tech it will come and go. Also, honestly you think you were hired because you were a woman it’s okay take the opportunities you are given. We all do.
I think talking about racism and money is a taboo best avoided.
In today’s climate we have too much to lose and nothing to gain on the topic- it’s a red flag.
Here are several red flags you might enjoy.
Dear Minorities, Use Racism As Motivation For Achieving Financial Independence Every Single Day
Silent Threats In The Night: C’Ville
Your Chances Of Becoming A Millionaire By Race