Bestselling business leadership author and philanthropic entrepreneur
In the 50 years since the civil rights movement and Dr. King's dream, one problem (racism) has been replaced or at least matched by another -- poverty. Urban poverty, rural poverty, and poverty that hits blacks, whites, browns and others alike. As I have said previously in the Huffington Post, poverty is the new racism. If you are poor, everything pretty much sucks.
The old model of racism was based on race and the color line. The new model of racism is rooted in class and poverty. The old racism was obvious in signs that read White Only, from the southern states in the U.S. to South Africa. The new racism is more obvious in Misery Row.
Whether it is a feature on a boulevard in an urban city or a rural town, or whether it is at the entrance of a military base, the Misery Row looks pretty much the same. Predatory check cashers, next to rent to own stores, payday lending stores, title lending stores, and liquor stores.
One group of financial predators takes advantage of your financial problems and misfortune, while another associated group benefits by helping you to forget you actually have any.
Financial literacy may not be a sexy topic, but
financial illiteracy is literally everywhere. And in this new economic age we
all live in today, it's wrecking lives, hopes and dreams both large and small.
The number one cause of divorce, is money.
The number one reason for domestic abuse, is money.
The number one reason why police get injured on the job is not car chases or
shootouts, but domestic abuse calls.
The number one reason why minorities (and increasingly mainstream America too)
drop out of college is not grades or GPA, but money.
The number one cause for heart disease is stress, so says the American Heart
Association. The number one reason for stress – money.
Financial illiteracy is no longer the thing we assign to the so-called poor,
and those without a college degree, or a degree of material success. It is something that now effects and impacts
all of us, and we need to do something about it. Now. But before we put out the urgent call to our
elected officials, we need to also look at ourselves, our own lives, and our
own decisions.
Operation HOPE, the organization that helped to pioneer financial literacy as U.S. federal policy in January, 2008, as then President George W. Bush signed an Executive Order inspired by our on-the-ground work, is proud to once again have its work cited amongst U.S. policy makers.
Washington, D.C. and our nation need strong and effective leadership today more than ever. Congressman Mel Watts seems to fit that description to me. Important to me, one of my key employee's family was a constituent of the then Congressman in Charlotte, North Carolina, and they uniformly endorse him. I am told that while Congressman, Mr. Watt encouraged the local adoption of our Banking On Our Future, College Edition Program, where we educated college students in North Carolina on financial literacy. This suggests a man who doesn't just talk about things, but seeks to do thing too.
Congressman Watt has over 20 years of congressional experience on the Financial Services Committee, where he sponsored and/or co-sponsored economic empowerment legislation around homeownership, consumer protection, entrepreneurship, small business, and financial literacy. He understands the needs of prospective homeowners, the practical interests of the private sector, and the necessary role of the federal government.
I was inspired to spend a week with my HOPE, South Africa team last week, and found that they have made significant progress around our original promise of instilling and embedding principals of core consumer protection amongst a vulnerable population of women and children.
Going forward, we will be forging a bold new agenda focused on both consumer protection, and consumer empowerment too -- all leading to local GDP, jobs, small business ownership, entrepreneurship, and important in Africa, creating a generation of what we call "self-employment projects."
40,752 youth and adults educated and empowered with financial literacy over the past 5-years.
1,739 youth and adults educated and empowered during the first quarter of 2013 alone.
Approximately 2,000 HOPE Corps volunteers recruited, trained and mobilized in South Africa alone.
65 partners supporting our work, inclusive of Sanlam Insurance, our lead signature partner, Citi, the Banking Association of South Africa, the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund and the Peace Corps South Africa amongst others.
Operation HOPE and Banking on Our Future embedded into 60 local schools throughout South Africa.
From the civil rights justice of Nelson Mandela's bold generation of leaders, to the silver rights empowerment agenda available to this one, Operation HOPE is committed to the future prosperity of this great country, and the African continent overall.
ATLANTA – April 18, 2013 – Financial dignity leader, Operation HOPE announced today that it has received a $200,000 grant from The UPS Foundation, the charitable arm of the UPS (NYSE:UPS) in support of Hurricane Sandy financial disaster recovery assistance and youth financial literacy programs Banking on Our Future (BOOF), Fellows Interns & Loaned Executives (FILE), and HOPE Businesses-in-A-Box (HBIAB).
"This $200,000 commitment by UPS Foundation builds from previous commitments to financial literacy and empowerment," said Latresa McLawhorn Ryan global vice president of strategic partnerships and development. “This funding will help provide us provide financial recovery assistance and guidance for small business and individuals affected by Hurricane Sandy, and continue our youth financial dignity programs.
Since its formation in 2001, the result of a partnership with the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA, HCA has helped more than 300,000 individuals and small business recovering from 33 disasters, including Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 Florida Hurricanes, tornados and flooding in southern and mid-western states and Hurricane Sandy.
Today I was jazzed to spend
time with a group of future business builders, future industrialists, future
entrepreneurs and future leaders for modern South Africa, in Johanessburg.
Sure, South Africa has
problems and many challenges, but her true hope lies within these young people.
And on this day, today, they showed me the best that they had and I was
impressed. Truth be told, young people in the states could learn a thing or
two about being hopeful for one's future in the face of adversity, and no
matter what one's circumstances, doing something about it.
This is the inspiring story
of so many that I met today. Many, who looked me in the eyes and with all
sincerity made clear their commitment to rise to their own level of human
potential. For South Africa, and for our world over.
Bestselling business leadership author and philanthropic entrepreneur
As I noted in another 'Solving Poverty' piece for The Huffington Post, the new racism today is actually poverty.
Yes, it feels really bad if a racist calls you a highly offensive name, but it is completely un-dignifying when you cannot pay your rent, make your mortgage payment, or you find that your car has been repossessed by the lender while you were sleeping. You can walk away from the racist. And more so, when you know who you are, there is actually very little the racist can say or do to change the way you feel about yourself.
You cannot walk away from poverty.
The reality of poverty faces you as a parent every morning when your child looks up at you for lunch money, and as you reach into your pocket, finding only lent and marked up job wanted ads instead.
Or every time you stop for gasoline and have to stop the pump at $6, or you're at the grocery store, intent on collecting the ingredients for that special meal for your family, but finding that you are $20 short and have to put the healthiest choices back.
Poverty faces you in the unfortunately regular arguments you have with your spouse or mate (money is the number one cause for domestic abuse and divorce in America today), or the first time you have to address your teenage child, whose daydreaming about which four-year college they desperately wish to attend. And today, what I am describing is not a 'Black thing,' it's a 'green thing.'
Whether you are white, black, red, brown or yellow, today you just want to see some more green. U.S. currency, that is. We are all in this mess together.
Sharon Tirabassi was living the dream. She won the $10.5 million dollar lottery in her home country of Canada, earning her a consistent residence on cloud nine. All the things that she’d always wanted were wide open to her: Expensive cars, fancy houses, designer clothes and expensive vacations. Her financial freedom was right in front of her eyes, and it was time to live the lifestyle she’d always deserved.
But years later, Sharon rides the bus to work. When she doesn’t feel like riding the bus, she rides her bike. She’s not doing it for exercise. Instead, it’s because she can’t afford to fix the car that sits in the family’s driveway. All the relatives who were quick to borrow money from her when she won the lottery are nowhere to be found. She’s now finding herself getting reaccustomed to the lifestyle to which she’d become accustomed so many years ago. The fall has not been easy.
I feel bad for Sharon, the same way I feel bad for every NBA or NFL athlete who goes through the same experience. They say that it’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. But this isn’t true when it comes to money: It’s usually better to have never had the money in the first place than to have it and see it all slip between your fingers.
