Nick Foy, CFP®
nick@greenwaywealth.com
Over the past couple of weeks, there’s been a pretty big shift in the news cycle: constant talk of a global pandemic gave way in a sudden, startling fashion to conversations about race after George Floyd was brutally killed, on video, in broad daylight, by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
Protests and riots have ensued, and a whole new level of anger has been uncovered as people have responded to the broader treatment of black Americans by law enforcement. It’s led to some uncomfortable conversations, and many white Americans have started to discover (or better vocalize their understanding of) the inequities that exist in our society.
By just about any definition, I was born on third base. I was born in early 1980’s America, into a home with two loving parents, into a neighborhood with great schools, and little crime. And I have white skin. I controlled none of this. I’ve never felt scrutinized when I walk into a store. I’ve never had an uncomfortable run-in with the cops. I’ve never been denied a job opportunity because of the amount of melanin in my skin.
As a kid, I’m not sure that I realized the implicit advantages I was afforded thanks to my fortuitous situation, but my Dad would travel all over the world for his job, and he’d always come back home to California and tell us we were so lucky to live where we did. He was right. But not everyone is so lucky, even in America.
We’re working hard to instill grateful attitudes into our kids. Not guilty. Grateful. They’re lucky to have been born into our household, and with that reality comes a great responsibility. It means we should work to help those in need. The oppressed. In fact, it’s demanded of us.
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