Empowering Wealth through Financial Literacy

Hey, hey, it's John Hope Bryant, and this is Money and Wealth on the Black Effect Network podcast series on iHeartRadio. What if I told you you could win this game? This game called life. What if I told you that? What if I told you that it is set up for you, yes, maybe not to win, but I can give you the tools to turn that around. Now, and I'm going to be provocative. well, not provocative to me, but it'll be provocative to everybody who thinks the world is set against them and tell you it's not racial. Now we're about to start a lot of fights because we know that racism is real. And there are countless civil rights organizations that spend their time every day fighting racial discrimination. And so is John Bryant saying that that's not real? Is John Hope Bryant saying... that that's somehow some kind of a game as John O'Brien saying that their time has come and gone. No, racism is like rain. It's either falling somewhere or it's gathering. So you might as well get out an umbrella in the color you like and start strolling through it because it's not going to change so you must. You've got to adapt. You've got to change. You've got to flow. you've got to upgrade your software. Now I'm going to reference Malcolm X. Malcolm X said, we've been bamboozled, we've been tricked, we've been fooled. And while that is from the 1960s and related to civil rights, and I'm talking about civil rights, and by the way, everybody should pick up my book. Financial Literacy for All, number one bestseller in the country, one of very few bestselling books on business and economics by a person of color, although the book's for everybody. That's the primer for this conversation pre, post, and even during. I want that book underlined and highlighted throughout. But what if I told you that, I mean, the thing about racism is it's like herding cats. It's like hugging Jell-O. I can't get into somebody's heart and change how they feel about you, but I can get into your head and change how you feel about yourself. I can get into your head and as a result of that, get into your thought process and your habits and your pocket and change how you operate in this world and to turn the no's that you normally get into opportunities and turn them into yeses. And in so doing, this will change your life. So I'm talking about changing your life, not changing somebody else's life, not changing somebody else's views, but views you or flows you. Again, Quincy Jones, one of my dear friends, would say, music producer, not one ounce of my self-esteem and self-respect depends on your acceptance of me. So I've already said that racism is like rain. It's either falling someplace or it's gathering. You might as well get out an umbrella in the color you like and start strolling through it because it's not going to change. So you must. I remember when I founded Operation Hope, I love history, and I would think about, gee, what would Dr. King have dealt with in this situation following the Rodney King riots in 1992 in South Central LA? Of course, he would have killed it. He would have had solutions. He would have had a strategy that won. There's no question about that. But I remember saying very respectfully, very respectfully. in some ways he would he had a he had an easier challenge in the midst of the civil rights movement and again civil rights is essential so i don't want anybody walking away from this thinking that john bryant's saying it's one or the other no i'm saying it's both the issue is and not or right you need civil rights and civil rights you need protections but you also need opportunity right so what i'm saying is that we have built up institutions in the streets. Now we need access to the suites. We've got a bunch of organizations and institutions that have, at least in minority and underserved communities, I'm talking about all of this, this advice is going to give you is for everybody, by the way. But if you're a minority listening to this, you're a black person listening to this, if you're a brown person listening to this, you're a woman listening to this, you understand that there are unnatural barriers that you've been dealing with. And there are tons of organizations, God bless them and thank God for them, that have been put in place. that are doing God's work. Those are organizations that are built and organized around red rooms, keeping bad things from happening to good people. What we need now are a bunch of green rooms, helping good things to happen to good people, opening doors, not just fighting wars. We don't have green rooms. I'm talking about black people in particular now. There's one video that I did. I spoke at the Milken Conference and Nicole Valentine was a moderator of this panel with a bunch of ballers on it at the Milken Conference. And I happen to say as part of my remarks that I wanted to be the Federal Reserve of the Hood. I believe Jay Brown. was also on that panel who I really respect, co-founder and vice chairman of Roc Nation, Jay Brown. But I remember saying that I wanted to become the Federal Reserve of the Hood, that I wanted Operation Hope to become the Fed of the Hood. And that video has gotten now millions and millions and millions of views. And to me, it was just common sense. But for many, it was enlightenment. I don't know. And it got me thinking. How, again, going back to Dr. King's plight and with my mentor, Ambassador Andrew Young, right next to him to the right at every step of the way and during the movement, they were dealing with love and hate. Somebody would tell you, I love you or I hate you, very specifically. And what I said in 1992 when I founded Operation Hope in South Central Los Angeles after the Rodney King riots was I don't think that the new issue is love or hate. That's not the new prime. primary problem. The new primary problem is radical indifference. That no one cares enough about you to hate you. Increasingly, the risk was, I thought, in 1992, is that no one cares enough about you to actually hate you. It's not love or hate anymore, I thought, in the future, the risk was, but radical indifference. That it's just like whatever. And if you look at 30 years later, look at what's going on today. Unfortunately, that is front and center. And so when I say the new discrimination is not primarily racial, it's economics, it's about the money. When I say I'm going to help you learn how to get the green and that that, I don't want to use the word Trump's, but that overrides and can override the black and the white and the red and the blue. That's what I mean. I'm not saying racism isn't real. I'm not saying bias is not real. I'm saying over and around to do it, we're going to get to it. I'm going to say something quite controversial here. Black people need a Black Jewish business plan. Yes, I said it. That there's only about 15 million Jews in the world of 8 billion, but they're a household name. Last time I checked, about 25% of the asset value of this country. I think that's right, the last time I checked. the asset base of this country, even though they're, I don't know, two, three percent maximum of the population in this country. And they've got their own country, literally, very small country, but like the Vatican, very influential. Do you know the Vatican is probably one of the most powerful banks in the world? So even though Jews have been... discriminated against and we're seeing it in this day in this time um they've also created a bulk worth they've created a a defense against that a defensive line that's also an offensive line and it's called wealth and opportunity and um and i uh i want that for black america black america does not have plumbing. We don't have economic plumbing. And that's a problem when we are a $1.4, $1.5 trillion plus consumer spending force, but 92% of all of our spending is, of our, sorry, we're $1.5 trillion plus economic force. But most of that, 92% of that is consumer spending. That's a problem. And so we need a business plan for Black America. All people need a business plan, but certainly Black America. Again, my Jewish brothers and sisters, in spite of the discrimination and racism coming their way, have created an environment where it's painful. It hurts to attack them. It's not good business. It's not good for your business. It's not good for your brand. They both have a powerful wealth creation in multiple industries, I might add. and powerful philanthropy, which they can direct and use as a defense. And I want to now go to the core of this for you. I said something pretty powerful here. Why and how the new game of money is the center of your life and how that is more important. uh than even the racial barriers that face you let me now first make the primary point um and grounded in history somebody's gonna listen to this and go watch this and say he's wrong racism uh discrimination is rooted in slavery as an example no slavery was about money slavery was how do i build a country for free uh using the best labor and the best intellect uh on this topic in the world what do i mean by that slavery was rooted in an agrarian era um in other words you made your money through uh through through farming land and uh the the crops of that day tobacco and other things were in southern states and in regions of the caribbean etc where it it's hot it's often humid uh hard to work in these environments um rough work conditions but more importantly the soil has been beaten up and looks like it's dead but that's where these crops are inclined to grow how do you bring these these these land areas back to life who who is that talent the poor white immigrants that came from england said the heck with that they brought the england brought poor whites yes poor whites over here white folks who were white wealthy, who were given titles and land and mandates, brought poor whites from England, yes, and the criminals they sent to Australia, by the way, they brought poor whites here and put them to work. And poor whites were like, no, we're not doing that. We're not feeling that at all. So they had to find, and they didn't have the expertise also. So there's another story to this because blacks and whites, poor blacks and poor whites were friends in the 1600s. There's another one on my podcast where I get into this, and you should check that out. You should listen to the whole, every episode, but certainly check that out. And I believe I also covered that in my book, Financial Literacy for All, about how blacks and poor blacks and poor whites were friends. And over money and power and position in the world, they were divided. This is the 1600s. The first indentured servants in America were both black and white. Okay, back to the story. So they went, the billionaires of that day, the economic- chieftains said, where are there people who have this talent for the land? Africa. So they went to Africa and found people who could bring dead soil to life. And they brought them here, but they didn't need the attitude. They didn't need the drama. They didn't need the self-esteem, the confidence. So he built, literally beat the self-esteem out of us. And again, this is, I don't want to get into deep, too deep on this. I'll do a separate podcast just on. unpacking slavery and Jim Crow and how we got here. But to make this point, because I did another podcast where I said that Black Africans and Black Caribbeans tend to have, whenever you generalize, you discriminate, yes. But generally speaking, they tend to have higher self-esteem and lower levels of confidence because they have intact family structures. Slavery didn't exist in these places for long periods of time. They had, again, mom and dad at home. They had the dentists, the lawyer, the government leaders, the business leaders were all Black like them for... as long as they can remember and the criminals were black like them too it was you know fair exchange no robbery environment everybody looked like them and so they had high self-esteem okay but low levels of confidence because those were not growing economies uh where you competed at the highest level black african americans who had all that drama and who had the self-esteem beaten out of them literally and they couldn't protect their wives couldn't protect their children quite literally weren't educated kept these things were illegal to give to people of color uh black people specifically at that time um they ended up having low self-esteem but high confidence because they succeeded in spite of that in the biggest economy on the planet, the United States of America. So African Americans tend to have higher levels of confidence and lower levels of self-esteem, whereas Black Africans and Black Caribbeans tend to have higher levels of self-esteem and lower levels of confidence. Confidence is competence leaned into the world market. So the first thing that we thought was about race alone actually was about money primarily, which was slavery. Let me now fast forward to today. This is not meant to be a history lesson. It's meant to be a guidepost for you. So again, I've said something pretty powerful here, that the game today is mostly about money. Let's look at our politics. This is a joke, but unfortunately, a lot of jokes are based in reality. For the longest time, I mean, you know, decades and mayors of big cities were white. The joke is that once the city started to go broke, they handed it to a black man or a black woman. Okay, well, we're done with this. Now you can revive it or kill it or whatever. And it went all the way to the presidency. The country was broke. The country was on his knees and they gave a black man a shot. He did a great job with it, by the way, President Barack Obama. That's a joke, but there's some... always a little bit of truth in every joke. But also, there was a signal there that really the game was economic. When Dr. King was going, so people were pivoting toward money. They were like, okay, politics is good, but I can't get rich in politics. It's about the money, unless you want to go to jail. When Dr. King was marching in the South and Andrew Young was helping him, my mentor, Ambassador Andrew Young, and others, Dr. Dorothy Haidt, Mrs. King, et cetera, Dr. King would shut down the economy. marching, which was, sorry, Dr. King would march and thus shut down the economy because two-thirds of the customers in these small towns were Black. Hello. So even though the back of the bus situation was certainly racial and really about class, by the way, keeping people in their place, so to speak, Dr. King made it about the green because when he shut down the economy by protesting, It hurt the business people's wallets because every customer, whether they're in the front of the bus or the back, was using the same currency, which was green. And so when 60% of your customers say, I'm going to do a black taxi, no pun intended, a black taxi, which is now Uber and Lyft, by the way, they were using their own cars to drive people around because they were not going to participate in a racist system, an unfair system, a system biased against them. um the business leaders ultimately after this pressure in the in these cities dr king would send andrew young in to you know after several weeks of protesting and shutting down the economy dr king would send andrew young with a business suit on to cut a business deal with 100 business leaders in town he could deal with any 100 business leaders in any town you can turn it around and he'd send that the the senator young to me to meet quietly behind closed doors with 100 business leaders cut a deal to get take down the whites only signs. Cut a deal to take down the stupid policies. Cut a deal to integrate the lunch counter and so on and so forth. Dr. King's philosophy, this is not his quote, but it's a quote I use all the time, that he talked with all being offensive, listen without being defensive and always leave even your adversary with their dignity. Dr. King, unlike some leaders today who just want to hurt people and they want them to feel the pain and that's their payoff, I guess. although they're not getting anywhere. Dr. King wanted win-win. He even wanted his adversaries to win. Again, talk without being offensive, listen without being defensive, always leave even your adversary with their dignity because if you don't, they'll spend the rest of their life trying to make you miserable. It becomes personal. So Dr. King would not humiliate the business leaders in public. His problem was challenged with the government leaders, primarily the mayors and the governors who would stand in the hallway and say over my dead body. the business leaders were just using lazy morals lazy ethics and whatever whatever maybe they're racist too dr king would send andrew young in there then andrew would cut that deal um this is why dr king never wanted andrew young arrested ever uh maybe i'll tell that story of of of how dr king even hired andrew young i think is relevant to this podcast and the 100 business leaders would say yeah fine we'll just get our customers back which means get our revenue going again right And that's what would happen in most of these deals. They'd cut a deal and then the business leaders would go talk to the mayor and say, okay, knock it off. It's enough of this stuff. So the business agenda drove the public policy agenda, if you want to call it that way, describe it that way. Let me now explain how Andrew Young, Ambassador Andrew Young, got to Dr. King. And then I'm going to come to the present day and give you some examples today of how this is all around you and you're just not seeing it and what you can do about it. It's positive. Because Dr. King sent Andrew Young in there to solve problems of the streets, retail access, public accommodations, public transportation. I'm trying to create a new constituency of a hundred business leaders in every town in the suites. Civil rights to silver rights. Silver rights. By the way, do you know the first reserve currency of the United States of America was not gold, it was silver? There's no reserve currency now. The currency's un... unhinged to gold or whatever, but it was originally silver. Silver was originally selected as the reserve currency for the U.S. My silver rights, it's just a coincidence. So Dr. King met Ambassador Young and wanted him to work with him and sent Ambassador Young to his office in Atlanta. And Dr. King always was out giving speeches and whatever and traveling, so he wasn't at the office often. So Dr. King... It's a little-known story, by the way. You're getting an inside track here. I don't believe this is actually written anywhere, so you're getting a real special one. I got this directly from Ambassador Young, of course. He's my mentor. The Nelson Mandela of our times in the world built the biggest economy in the South, Atlanta, Georgia, into the only international city in the South. The only mayor ever mentored by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Ambassador Andrew Young. If you don't know his legacy, please look it up, do research. He's amazing. So Dr. King tells Andrew Young, go... go to my office and get to work. Please help us with the civil rights movement."So he goes to Atlanta and he runs into Abernathy and others and they're like, no, we're good. Dr. King's always sending people here, but the offices are all full. Everybody's got a seat. There's no place for you to sit. Goodbye. So Ambassador Young says, well, okay, and leaves. Then Andrew Young, Reverend Andrew Young back then. So he gets back, and Dr. King didn't like conflict, by the way. Isn't that interesting? He hated conflict, which also proved another asset from Andrew Young to Dr. King, which I'll maybe mention that in this podcast. So he goes back to his church, and he tells them the story, and the church leaders are like, okay, we can fix this. And so they create a grant that was designed to teach civil rights leaders, train them in civil rights, train them in nonviolent. protesting, et cetera, et cetera, trained civil rights leaders. And so they gave Andrew Young a portable grant. The grant only went with him. It was for SCLC, but it needed Andrew Young as the representative of the church to go teach this philosophy. So when Dr. King, so when Andrew Young showed back up to the office for SCLC, he had money with him. He had a salary. Well, I'm getting ahead of myself, which included his salary. Yes, but I'm getting ahead of myself. So now they're like, oh yeah, you got some money? Yeah, sit right there. right that's what dr king said sit right there so now when abernathy and others got angry with andrew young this again became why one of the reasons that best young became so valuable to dr king and he never wanted him arrested dr he never wanted andrew young arrested which unfortunately got teased about later by other civil rights leaders i think it was jealousy by the way um it's nothing to get arrested there's nothing special about getting arrested i mean it's morally appropriate and and and and be proud of standing up for what's right but if you cannot get arrested and get you get your problem solved. In fact, you can win the war and not just the battle and not get arrested, as I'm about to explain to you, even better, right? Again, upgrading our software. We need the streets and the suites. We need civil rights and civil rights. We need people who are willing to get arrested so somebody can then, you know, open the door to opportunity so you never have to worry about getting arrested ever again, unless you're going to be arrested by opportunity. So Dr. King goes on and travels again. Well, now Andrew Young would see things going on in the office. He's like, no, that's not right. No, we shouldn't do that. And before, Abernathy and others could just fire Andrew Young or tell him to go away. But now Andrew Young had his own money. He had his own salary. I think he was the only one in that office who was not paid for on the payroll of SCLC under the control of those who were around the office when Dr. King wasn't there. So now Andrew Young has an independent voice because he had an independent pocket. Can I get an amen? Drop the mic. An independent voice because he had an independent pocket. And now you can just tell everybody the truth. Well, the truth is y'all are crazy. And so Dr. King relied on Andrew Young now to talk to the crazy people on the left and the right in the movement and in the office who are saying oftentimes crazy stuff but had a kernel of a good idea. And because Dr. King did not like conflict, he'd wait for Andrew Young to sort it all out and knock heads and curse people out and get to a point where the kernel of this idea had been refined to a magic moment. and then he would then bring that idea to dr king and after king would say yes and let's go forward with the staff and the only time dr king ever threatened to fire andrew young was when doc when andrew young got frustrated and threw his hands up and like oh screw these crazy people i'm not i'm not messing around with this and told dr king that and dr king said look andy if you're not gonna do this i don't need you like this this is this is your job this is i need for you to sort this stuff out um And that's why he's the ambassador. He's a teacher. He's a facilitator. So he did it both inside the office and outside in the community. I gave you an example of how he brought the business community together behind closed doors. And whenever you saw Dr. King and Andrew Young in a photo together, and please, you can search it. Whenever you're looking for Dr. King's photo, you'll see Andrew Young nine times out of ten right next to him. But he's never looking at the camera. He's looking up at the ceiling, at the walls, looking left, right, down. He's looking for threats. He never wanted to be Dr. King like other leaders. He wanted to be himself, but he wanted to protect himself. protect his friend. But he understood that the money was really important. That's why he was able to bring those talents to Atlanta and turn Atlanta into the most educated city in the United States of America. Yes, that's according to Forbes Advisors. Atlanta is the most educated city in the U.S. Just talking to our mayor, Andre Dickens, about that, who's so proud of that, good for good reason. And the biggest economy in the traditional South with almost $500 billion a year in economic activity. Now, let's now bring this. uh to today um and um when i say it's all around you so in the old script people would curse you out they call your names they would do things to keep you out of the public buildings they would you know they drag you out in their heels but today you can sue somebody you can you can sue their pants off if they dragged you out they they first of all you get them arrested you get them arrested in social media get them arrested then you get the then then the business gets zeroed out because of bad publicity. And maybe you can even sue them if you had some harm and literally drill a hole in their economic pockets, which again is about money too. But now you have these communities. By the way, I'm about to name these communities. This is not racism. This is classism. These are people who just want what they want, right? It's no different than our home. We have a gate around it and a private, I used to live in a gated community and there were, I don't know. 15 homes 20 homes in this gay community, but I had to obey the HOA rules homeowners association I had to I couldn't park a car on the street for more than two days I couldn't park the can have two cars in the driveway, which is by the way great rules It was about appearance all that stuff But I didn't want anybody telling me if I was gonna have a party had to tell people it was a community pool I had to get notifications where we got in the water I don't want to do it all that stuff when we get in the pool don't get in the pool when I want to put A car in front of my house and put a car in front of my house I want to keep it there for a week or two weeks, eight. I want to do what I want to do. So I went and got my own gate and my own property, my own 40 acres and a sprinter van where I control the rules. But by the way, that's also economic, right? Civil rights gives you a lot of civil rights. So these communities are not racist. I've been in these communities. I did not pick up one ounce of racism, but they achieve another objective. Might not be the problem of some people who are maybe not so progressive who may live here. Serenbe. Look at these places up. Serenbe here in Atlanta. S-E-R-E-M-B-E. Serenbe. Outside of Atlanta. Beautiful community. Restaurants, whatever. Completely self-contained. Schools. playhouses where they do plays uh they may have a move i think in the movie theater they're horse barns they've got restaurants plural restaurants they've got entertainment centers creative centers art centers schools middle school elementary school high school uh of course residences homes for rent homes to own um it's his own community i'm gonna name some others well trilith right right you know trilith communities that's uh in fayetteville They just, second biggest movie studio in the country, Triluth, T-R-I-L-U-T-H, I believe it's spelled. Look that up. on his way to be a billion dollar community. My friend Dan Cathy built that in Fayetteville, not far from me. Thermal, now this is a motorsports community in California outside of LA, but Thermal's deep. You want to be a member of Thermal? You want to go race your car there? They only have 210 members, 210. They have 75 homes that are there, 135 home lots, that's it. Uh, you've got to to buy a lot when you become a member. The membership is $175,000 initiation fee, $2,500 a month membership fee. And you got to agree to buy, to build at least 30,000 square foot house there. As I understand, those homes are worth between five to $7 million, sorry, the build cost. And yeah, you're not going there broke. This is in California. Let's go back to some examples. The Hamptons. I was just in the Hamptons a few weeks ago. I mean, there's nothing in the Hamptons less than seven figures. In fact, seven figures get you a check. Most houses are 5 million on the low end, 10 million, 20 million. Now you're talking, right? I stayed in one when I was there. And I didn't see one black person in the Hamptons. And it wasn't because they had blacks keep out signs. It's expensive, expensive to live there, shop there, to go to dine there. The thing that's consistent about all these places I mentioned, and there's a bunch of more, it's expensive. And it's hard to get there. It's inconvenient. It's not convenient to roll up to these places. But again, it costs to whether you if you want to go to a restaurant, you want to just dine is expensive. You know, $100, $100 for lunch. And this is how they keep what you might call the riffraff out. I'm not calling your names unless you think you're riffraff. And it works. And so here's the image I want you to have in your head, because there's a there. 500 of the communities I just mentioned. I just gave you four examples. Gated communities. So private homes, private roads, private security, private schools, private planes, private cars, private lives. Gated communities, toll roads, inconvenient access. high prices. It's a way to create an exclusive environment that excludes the drama, pulls all the stuff they don't want away, and attracts the green. Now, if you're Black and you can afford that, you're welcome. When I go to these places, no one ever says anything to me, but hello. When I was in the Hamptons two weeks ago, I literally did not see a Black person unless they were a nanny. occasionally a worker in the in the shops i think i might say i saw a half dozen workers over three four days but literally just was white people everywhere and it wasn't and people couldn't be nice to me when i talked to them so it wasn't there excluding us it's just expensive and inconvenient and maybe some people just feel like i'm good i'm not i don't feel the love but it's no longer about love or hate it's radical indifference and no one cares enough about you to hate you it's I remember I said in one of my books about President Reagan, I was in Harlem, this is 20 years ago, 25 years ago, and his brother was like, President Reagan is a racist. No, I don't think he's a racist. I knew President Reagan. We were born on the same day. His wife honored me, he honored me, recognized me at least. No, President Reagan's a racist. No, he's not my cup of tea. I think he, you know, I'm not crazy about his policies when he was president, but I don't think he was a racist. No, he was a racist. I said, let me explain something to you. President Reagan didn't have no black friends, at least not that I was aware of, didn't have any black children, no black relatives, didn't live in a black community, didn't grow up with a black experience, does not have a black environment. President Reagan, I'm going to say this in present day as if he was alive, President Reagan don't hate you. He ain't thinking about you. Wasn't thinking about you. You were not on his radar screen. He was just indifferent to you. Now, the only time he knew you. was if congressional leaders or Black elected officials or somebody or some recording artist, some celebrity said, you're racist, you're a bad person, Ronald Reagan. So now his only experience, he wasn't very curious about cultural things like that, so he wasn't going to go try and find it. Now his new experience of Black people is a negative one only. And so then it just reaffirms his maybe already preexisting biases. So now he really doesn't want to be associated because nobody wants to be. associated with somebody who's attacking them. whether you're racist or a nice person on the planet. So if the person has no experience with you whatsoever, but their first experience of you is you attacking them, they just shut down completely. So why do I tell you this story? Because you don't have to live in this world and just take it. You can master it. This is why I love for you to get your credit right. Because when somebody cursed me out or if they couldn't, they don't. But if someone was cursing me out or being mad to me at a restaurant, you know, I don't have to get upset with you. I can pull my American Express card out, my black American Express card and knock you out with it without ever touching you. I can I can buy the not just pay for the bill. I can buy the restaurant with it. Like literally, there's no limit on the card. Oprah Winfrey doesn't have to get upset with you. She just I mean, she was on the board of I think it was Weight Watchers. And something happened. Something went down where she didn't like what they were doing. So she made some moves that they didn't like. And so they said, well, we don't appreciate you doing XYZ, Oprah. So we're going to, I just saw Oprah a few weeks ago. I love her. We're going to, you know, we don't want you to think to be our spokesman anymore. Can you imagine somebody saying this to Oprah? She's like, that's cool. That's fine. No problem. Didn't raise her voice. Wouldn't stole all of her stock. Tied to the deal. The stock then plunged. I think this is the way watchers don't. Don't quote me on this, but whatever company, whatever weight management company she was associated with, you can correct me in the comments or confirm me in the comments if I'm right. The stock plunged when she sold her shares. They forgot that she had a strong economic interest. She wrote a very smart, financially literate and intelligent deal. It's all about the details. When she cut that deal to be their spokesman, she's like, I'm not going to rock the mic. I'm going to own it. And that's what I want you to do. I want you to own the stage. Don't just dance on it. I want you, Quincy Jones says, if you think that you're in the music business and you don't own music rights, publishing rights, licensing rights, some kind of rights or ownership interests, you're not in the music business. You're a temporary performer. Quincy Jones and I used to talk about Michael Jackson and how Paul McCartney got very upset with Michael because Paul McCartney said that Michael should own publishing. Shouldn't just be an entertainer. And Michael realized you that he was smart and so god gave you two ears and one mouth to listen twice as much as you talk and so he's like okay cool that's really smart i should own publishing rights okay cool so he had an own he went out trying to own his own publishing rights michael jackson's rights but then he's like well who else should i own the beatles so he went and bought bid for the beatles publishing rights and and paul mccarthy lost his mind he was extra i think to this day extraordinarily effective no based on public reports, published reports, and his own words. He was very, very, very, very, very unhappy with Michael Jackson. Now, it might have been on the edges of unethical that your friend tells you that, you know, he didn't say, no, he's not even unethical because Paul McArthur didn't say any publishing rights but ours. He didn't say, but the Beatles. In fact, there's a little bit of arrogance to assume that Michael Jackson, who was the biggest pop star in the world at that time, did not have a right to own the Beatles publishing rights too. but he didn't say you can own any rights but the Beatles. He was giving this advice, I guess, like a mentor gives a mentee. He didn't realize that the student was going to become the teacher. Michael went and bought the Beatles publishing portfolio. Paul McCarthy lost his mind and could not say a nice thing about his once good friend. Michael Jackson, he didn't do anything unethical. He just outbid everybody else, including the Beatles. The Beatles could have outbid. michael jackson they could have bought that portfolio but didn't believe in themselves as much as michael jackson believed in them and he bought that portfolio do you know that when michael jackson um was doing all that spending and the reason he didn't go broke was because he owned that publishing rights which which sony ultimately ended up purchasing it was worth a billion dollars his his he never weighed that kind of money in touring you you toured you make 10 million 20 back in that day 10 20 million uh the tour that took him out when he when he passed away, got arrested. So I think that was, he was gonna make 50 million. He's gonna get the number right. He got the number right, 50 million. But his portfolio was worth a billion. Back in that day, it was worth, you know, 700 million. And that's in large part because he owned his portfolio plus a few others, but mostly the Beatles rights. It's what you own. And so getting your credit score, you know, Michael Jackson's credit score was He's Michael Jackson. He is an impresario, and he had these relationship capital amongst people in the music business, and he was savvy about business, and so he made a case, a credible case. You know the word credit comes from the Latin word credito, which means credibility. Did you know that? So he had credibility with those who could work with him to back him to buy the publishing rights. Now, he got into trouble financially later on and had to sell half of the publishing. And ultimately, his estate, I think right now, is trying to sell all the publishing rights. But the reason Michael Jackson was able to live the life he lived was not because he danced on the stage, but because he owned the music being played on the stage. So on the stage you live on, the credit score you have gets most of the yeses that you want. You want a prime home loan? The answer is yes. Good credit score over 700. My mother's credit score was 854. Juanita Smith got rest her soul. And the computer just said yes to my mother. Midnight, when my mother went to the computer to apply for a loan for something, a home mortgage or consumer loan or auto loan or whatever, the computer just said yes. Because it didn't say, are you black or you're female or whatever. It said, oh my gosh, she has an 800 credit score plus, ending over 700, by the way. it's just fine. Perfect actually. 750, you're golden. But my mother's credit score was 854 back when it went that high. Now it's been capped at I think the 850. And the computer just said, yes, you're approved. And you've never seen a riot in a 700 credit score neighborhood in all of your life, right? So I want you to get your credit score right. I want you to get your debt down, your savings up, your credit score up. Because if you can do that, the bank just says, yes, the banks are not racist. Okay. they want their their their their capitalist machines they want to make money and they cannot make money unless they make a loan now is there somebody races at a bank sure there is right there's racist people everywhere but as a rule like racism in banks i did a thing on banks you go and listen to that podcast where break this down but a hundred years ago yes there was a racist bank it was joe's bank his family owned it and he didn't want to give any loans to black people yes that or maybe even the women women couldn't even get a loan before 1972. did you know that that stat 1972 women i did a time article on this you should read it i did a podcast on this you should listen to it but women did not have rights uh financial rights before 1972 1974. crazy not 1872 1874 1972 in our lifetime so um and the bank wants to say yes they can't make any money unless they make a loan again 100 years ago they were discriminating issue because they could because it was owned by a family now a bank is publicly traded And they want their stock to do well. They want to perform for their shareholders, which means they need to make good loans. So if you're pookie-ing them, boo-boo-ing them, whether you're poor white or poor black, your credit score is 500, not making you a loan. They're not making you a loan. I wouldn't make you a loan, okay? But if your credit score is 700, you're not black or white. You're not red or blue as in politics. Black or white as in race. You're green as in a good credit risk. And if you get that credit score up, it's just amazing how your life changes. And it's not about the credit score. Go to the Hope Financial Wellness Index that we've published, and you'll see if you live in a 700 credit score neighborhood, you live to 81 years old on average. You live in a 500, 550 credit score neighborhood, you live to 61 years of age on average, which means Social Security is 65. You don't even get Social Security and you drop dead. 20-year difference, 15 minutes apart. Not because of racism or these other things that we obsessed about police brutality. All these things are really important. Again, the red rooms, we got red rooms all over the place. We now need green rooms, access to capital, access to home loans, access, access to opportunity, access to internships, access to jobs, access to yes, access, access, access to green, the green. So we can build a thing. I want you to go to Hope Financial Coach, get signed up. We have offices all over this country at Operation Hope and take your life back and get the, the, uh. book financial literacy for all the new colors green people it's not black or white it's not red or blue in fact even the red or blue the politics is about the green as i said earlier you know look and there's i mean this is another podcast for another day but somebody's gonna listen to this and say yeah but john we can't succeed we don't have generational wealth and you know how we're gonna do this the credit score is gonna just give you in debt no no there's good debt and bad debt there's not a billionaire in this country listen to me now there's not a progress there's not a growing city a growing country or or a growing multi-millionaire like me or a billionaire who did it without good debt and good debt is something that finances something that may grow and enhance in income or or value in wealth bad debt is financing jewelry bad debt is financing a rental car bad debt is financing a a ticket to go to a concert bad debt is people do this bad debt is financing a vacation bad debt is a 26 loan at a department store credit card. Bad debt is financing a Mercedes at an 18% interest. And it's not a Mercedes, it's Mercedes payments. I did a whole thing on the auto loan industry. Watch that and listen to that in this podcast series. I'm trying to bring you in the light and show you what's right. You want good debt and you want it to leverage things that give you assets and your assets cannot be on your ASS. All right. Love and light. John O'Brien. I'm out. I will see you next week on my ministry of finance. This is the Civil Rights Movement. This is Financial Literacy for All. Get the book. This is the Money and Wealth Podcast series on iHeartRadio and the Black Effect Network. The new color is green. check out that thing. Look in your neighborhood, look in your city, look in your area, pull up the Hope Financial Wellness Index, put in your zip code. I'll tell you your credit score, and I'll tell you how you're living. Your day is about money. From the time you get up in the morning to the time you go to bed at night is a series of financial transactions. You're getting gas in the car. The government's not giving you free gas. The alarm clock, that wasn't the government alarm clock. It was your mobile phone, your smartphone that you paid for. Money is all around us. Do we understand it? Get your life right. It's okay if you don't like me. I like me. I want you to be able to say that. Not one ounce of your self-esteem depends on someone's acceptance of you. Just get you, it's a James Brown version of affirmative action. Open the door. I'll get it my damn self. All right. I'm out.

What if I told you that it is set up for you, yes, maybe not to win, but I can give you the tools to turn that around. Now, and I'm going to be provocative. well, not provocative to me, but it'll be provocative to everybody who thinks the world is set against them and tell you it's not racial. Now we're about to start a lot of fights because we know that racism is real. And there are countless civil rights organizations that spend their time every day fighting racial discrimination.

And so is John Bryant saying that that's not real? Is John Hope Bryant saying... that that's somehow some kind of a game as John O'Brien saying that their time has come and gone. No, racism is like rain. It's either falling somewhere or it's gathering.

So you might as well get out an umbrella in the color you like and start strolling through it because it's not going to change so you must. You've got to adapt. You've got to change. You've got to flow.

you've got to upgrade your software. Now I'm going to reference Malcolm X. Malcolm X said, we've been bamboozled, we've been tricked, we've been fooled. And while that is from the 1960s and related to civil rights, and I'm talking about civil rights, and by the way, everybody should pick up my book.

Financial Literacy for All, number one bestseller in the country, one of very few bestselling books on business and economics by a person of color, although the book's for everybody. That's the primer for this conversation pre, post, and even during. I want that book underlined and highlighted throughout. But what if I told you that, I mean, the thing about racism is it's like herding cats. It's like hugging Jell-O.

I can't get into somebody's heart and change how they feel about you, but I can get into your head and change how you feel about yourself. I can get into your head and as a result of that, get into your thought process and your habits and your pocket and change how you operate in this world and to turn the no's that you normally get into opportunities and turn them into yeses. And in so doing, this will change your life.

So I'm talking about changing your life, not changing somebody else's life, not changing somebody else's views, but views you or flows you. Again, Quincy Jones, one of my dear friends, would say, music producer, not one ounce of my self-esteem and self-respect depends on your acceptance of me. So I've already said that racism is like rain.

It's either falling someplace or it's gathering. You might as well get out an umbrella in the color you like and start strolling through it because it's not going to change. So you must. I remember when I founded Operation Hope, I love history, and I would think about, gee, what would Dr. King have dealt with in this situation following the Rodney King riots in 1992 in South Central LA? Of course, he would have killed it.

He would have had solutions. He would have had a strategy that won. There's no question about that.

But I remember saying very respectfully, very respectfully. in some ways he would he had a he had an easier challenge in the midst of the civil rights movement and again civil rights is essential so i don't want anybody walking away from this thinking that john bryant's saying it's one or the other no i'm saying it's both the issue is and not or right you need civil rights and civil rights you need protections but you also need opportunity right so what i'm saying is that we have built up institutions in the streets. Now we need access to the suites. We've got a bunch of organizations and institutions that have, at least in minority and underserved communities, I'm talking about all of this, this advice is going to give you is for everybody, by the way.

But if you're a minority listening to this, you're a black person listening to this, if you're a brown person listening to this, you're a woman listening to this, you understand that there are unnatural barriers that you've been dealing with. And there are tons of organizations, God bless them and thank God for them, that have been put in place. that are doing God's work.

Those are organizations that are built and organized around red rooms, keeping bad things from happening to good people. What we need now are a bunch of green rooms, helping good things to happen to good people, opening doors, not just fighting wars. We don't have green rooms. I'm talking about black people in particular now. There's one video that I did.

I spoke at the Milken Conference and Nicole Valentine was a moderator of this panel with a bunch of ballers on it at the Milken Conference. And I happen to say as part of my remarks that I wanted to be the Federal Reserve of the Hood. I believe Jay Brown. was also on that panel who I really respect, co-founder and vice chairman of Roc Nation, Jay Brown.

But I remember saying that I wanted to become the Federal Reserve of the Hood, that I wanted Operation Hope to become the Fed of the Hood. And that video has gotten now millions and millions and millions of views. And to me, it was just common sense.

But for many, it was enlightenment. I don't know. And it got me thinking.

How, again, going back to Dr. King's plight and with my mentor, Ambassador Andrew Young, right next to him to the right at every step of the way and during the movement, they were dealing with love and hate. Somebody would tell you, I love you or I hate you, very specifically. And what I said in 1992 when I founded Operation Hope in South Central Los Angeles after the Rodney King riots was I don't think that the new issue is love or hate.

That's not the new prime. primary problem. The new primary problem is radical indifference. That no one cares enough about you to hate you. Increasingly, the risk was, I thought, in 1992, is that no one cares enough about you to actually hate you.

It's not love or hate anymore, I thought, in the future, the risk was, but radical indifference. That it's just like whatever. And if you look at 30 years later, look at what's going on today. Unfortunately, that is front and center.

And so when I say the new discrimination is not primarily racial, it's economics, it's about the money. When I say I'm going to help you learn how to get the green and that that, I don't want to use the word Trump's, but that overrides and can override the black and the white and the red and the blue. That's what I mean.

I'm not saying racism isn't real. I'm not saying bias is not real. I'm saying over and around to do it, we're going to get to it.

I'm going to say something quite controversial here. Black people need a Black Jewish business plan. Yes, I said it.

That there's only about 15 million Jews in the world of 8 billion, but they're a household name. Last time I checked, about 25% of the asset value of this country. I think that's right, the last time I checked. the asset base of this country, even though they're, I don't know, two, three percent maximum of the population in this country. And they've got their own country, literally, very small country, but like the Vatican, very influential.

Do you know the Vatican is probably one of the most powerful banks in the world? So even though Jews have been... discriminated against and we're seeing it in this day in this time um they've also created a bulk worth they've created a a defense against that a defensive line that's also an offensive line and it's called wealth and opportunity and um and i uh i want that for black america black america does not have plumbing.

We don't have economic plumbing. And that's a problem when we are a $1.4, $1.5 trillion plus consumer spending force, but 92% of all of our spending is, of our, sorry, we're $1.5 trillion plus economic force. But most of that, 92% of that is consumer spending.

That's a problem. And so we need a business plan for Black America. All people need a business plan, but certainly Black America.

Again, my Jewish brothers and sisters, in spite of the discrimination and racism coming their way, have created an environment where it's painful. It hurts to attack them. It's not good business. It's not good for your business.

It's not good for your brand. They both have a powerful wealth creation in multiple industries, I might add. and powerful philanthropy, which they can direct and use as a defense.

And I want to now go to the core of this for you. I said something pretty powerful here. Why and how the new game of money is the center of your life and how that is more important. uh than even the racial barriers that face you let me now first make the primary point um and grounded in history somebody's gonna listen to this and go watch this and say he's wrong racism uh discrimination is rooted in slavery as an example no slavery was about money slavery was how do i build a country for free uh using the best labor and the best intellect uh on this topic in the world what do i mean by that slavery was rooted in an agrarian era um in other words you made your money through uh through through farming land and uh the the crops of that day tobacco and other things were in southern states and in regions of the caribbean etc where it it's hot it's often humid uh hard to work in these environments um rough work conditions but more importantly the soil has been beaten up and looks like it's dead but that's where these crops are inclined to grow how do you bring these these these land areas back to life who who is that talent the poor white immigrants that came from england said the heck with that they brought the england brought poor whites yes poor whites over here white folks who were white wealthy, who were given titles and land and mandates, brought poor whites from England, yes, and the criminals they sent to Australia, by the way, they brought poor whites here and put them to work. And poor whites were like, no, we're not doing that.

We're not feeling that at all. So they had to find, and they didn't have the expertise also. So there's another story to this because blacks and whites, poor blacks and poor whites were friends in the 1600s.

There's another one on my podcast where I get into this, and you should check that out. You should listen to the whole, every episode, but certainly check that out. And I believe I also covered that in my book, Financial Literacy for All, about how blacks and poor blacks and poor whites were friends. And over money and power and position in the world, they were divided.

This is the 1600s. The first indentured servants in America were both black and white. Okay, back to the story.

So they went, the billionaires of that day, the economic- chieftains said, where are there people who have this talent for the land? Africa. So they went to Africa and found people who could bring dead soil to life. And they brought them here, but they didn't need the attitude.

They didn't need the drama. They didn't need the self-esteem, the confidence. So he built, literally beat the self-esteem out of us.

And again, this is, I don't want to get into deep, too deep on this. I'll do a separate podcast just on. unpacking slavery and Jim Crow and how we got here. But to make this point, because I did another podcast where I said that Black Africans and Black Caribbeans tend to have, whenever you generalize, you discriminate, yes. But generally speaking, they tend to have higher self-esteem and lower levels of confidence because they have intact family structures.

Slavery didn't exist in these places for long periods of time. They had, again, mom and dad at home. They had the dentists, the lawyer, the government leaders, the business leaders were all Black like them for...

as long as they can remember and the criminals were black like them too it was you know fair exchange no robbery environment everybody looked like them and so they had high self-esteem okay but low levels of confidence because those were not growing economies uh where you competed at the highest level black african americans who had all that drama and who had the self-esteem beaten out of them literally and they couldn't protect their wives couldn't protect their children quite literally weren't educated kept these things were illegal to give to people of color uh black people specifically at that time um they ended up having low self-esteem but high confidence because they succeeded in spite of that in the biggest economy on the planet, the United States of America. So African Americans tend to have higher levels of confidence and lower levels of self-esteem, whereas Black Africans and Black Caribbeans tend to have higher levels of self-esteem and lower levels of confidence. Confidence is competence leaned into the world market. So the first thing that we thought was about race alone actually was about money primarily, which was slavery.

Let me now fast forward to today. This is not meant to be a history lesson. It's meant to be a guidepost for you. So again, I've said something pretty powerful here, that the game today is mostly about money.

Let's look at our politics. This is a joke, but unfortunately, a lot of jokes are based in reality. For the longest time, I mean, you know, decades and mayors of big cities were white.

The joke is that once the city started to go broke, they handed it to a black man or a black woman. Okay, well, we're done with this. Now you can revive it or kill it or whatever.

And it went all the way to the presidency. The country was broke. The country was on his knees and they gave a black man a shot. He did a great job with it, by the way, President Barack Obama. That's a joke, but there's some...

always a little bit of truth in every joke. But also, there was a signal there that really the game was economic. When Dr. King was going, so people were pivoting toward money. They were like, okay, politics is good, but I can't get rich in politics.

It's about the money, unless you want to go to jail. When Dr. King was marching in the South and Andrew Young was helping him, my mentor, Ambassador Andrew Young, and others, Dr. Dorothy Haidt, Mrs. King, et cetera, Dr. King would shut down the economy. marching, which was, sorry, Dr. King would march and thus shut down the economy because two-thirds of the customers in these small towns were Black.

Hello. So even though the back of the bus situation was certainly racial and really about class, by the way, keeping people in their place, so to speak, Dr. King made it about the green because when he shut down the economy by protesting, It hurt the business people's wallets because every customer, whether they're in the front of the bus or the back, was using the same currency, which was green. And so when 60% of your customers say, I'm going to do a black taxi, no pun intended, a black taxi, which is now Uber and Lyft, by the way, they were using their own cars to drive people around because they were not going to participate in a racist system, an unfair system, a system biased against them. um the business leaders ultimately after this pressure in the in these cities dr king would send andrew young in to you know after several weeks of protesting and shutting down the economy dr king would send andrew young with a business suit on to cut a business deal with 100 business leaders in town he could deal with any 100 business leaders in any town you can turn it around and he'd send that the the senator young to me to meet quietly behind closed doors with 100 business leaders cut a deal to get take down the whites only signs.

Cut a deal to take down the stupid policies. Cut a deal to integrate the lunch counter and so on and so forth. Dr. King's philosophy, this is not his quote, but it's a quote I use all the time, that he talked with all being offensive, listen without being defensive and always leave even your adversary with their dignity.

Dr. King, unlike some leaders today who just want to hurt people and they want them to feel the pain and that's their payoff, I guess. although they're not getting anywhere. Dr. King wanted win-win.

He even wanted his adversaries to win. Again, talk without being offensive, listen without being defensive, always leave even your adversary with their dignity because if you don't, they'll spend the rest of their life trying to make you miserable. It becomes personal.

So Dr. King would not humiliate the business leaders in public. His problem was challenged with the government leaders, primarily the mayors and the governors who would stand in the hallway and say over my dead body. the business leaders were just using lazy morals lazy ethics and whatever whatever maybe they're racist too dr king would send andrew young in there then andrew would cut that deal um this is why dr king never wanted andrew young arrested ever uh maybe i'll tell that story of of of how dr king even hired andrew young i think is relevant to this podcast and the 100 business leaders would say yeah fine we'll just get our customers back which means get our revenue going again right And that's what would happen in most of these deals. They'd cut a deal and then the business leaders would go talk to the mayor and say, okay, knock it off. It's enough of this stuff.

So the business agenda drove the public policy agenda, if you want to call it that way, describe it that way. Let me now explain how Andrew Young, Ambassador Andrew Young, got to Dr. King. And then I'm going to come to the present day and give you some examples today of how this is all around you and you're just not seeing it and what you can do about it.

It's positive. Because Dr. King sent Andrew Young in there to solve problems of the streets, retail access, public accommodations, public transportation. I'm trying to create a new constituency of a hundred business leaders in every town in the suites.

Civil rights to silver rights. Silver rights. By the way, do you know the first reserve currency of the United States of America was not gold, it was silver?

There's no reserve currency now. The currency's un... unhinged to gold or whatever, but it was originally silver. Silver was originally selected as the reserve currency for the U.S.

My silver rights, it's just a coincidence. So Dr. King met Ambassador Young and wanted him to work with him and sent Ambassador Young to his office in Atlanta. And Dr. King always was out giving speeches and whatever and traveling, so he wasn't at the office often.

So Dr. King... It's a little-known story, by the way. You're getting an inside track here. I don't believe this is actually written anywhere, so you're getting a real special one. I got this directly from Ambassador Young, of course.

He's my mentor. The Nelson Mandela of our times in the world built the biggest economy in the South, Atlanta, Georgia, into the only international city in the South. The only mayor ever mentored by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Ambassador Andrew Young. If you don't know his legacy, please look it up, do research. He's amazing.

So Dr. King tells Andrew Young, go... go to my office and get to work. Please help us with the civil rights movement."So he goes to Atlanta and he runs into Abernathy and others and they're like, no, we're good. Dr. King's always sending people here, but the offices are all full. Everybody's got a seat. There's no place for you to sit. Goodbye. So Ambassador Young says, well, okay, and leaves. Then Andrew Young, Reverend Andrew Young back then. So he gets back, and Dr. King didn't like conflict, by the way. Isn't that interesting? He hated conflict, which also proved another asset from Andrew Young to Dr. King, which I'll maybe mention that in this podcast. So he goes back to his church, and he tells them the story, and the church leaders are like, okay, we can fix this. And so they create a grant that was designed to teach civil rights leaders, train them in civil rights, train them in nonviolent. protesting, et cetera, et cetera, trained civil rights leaders. And so they gave Andrew Young a portable grant. The grant only went with him. It was for SCLC, but it needed Andrew Young as the representative of the church to go teach this philosophy. So when Dr. King, so when Andrew Young showed back up to the office for SCLC, he had money with him. He had a salary. Well, I'm getting ahead of myself, which included his salary. Yes, but I'm getting ahead of myself. So now they're like, oh yeah, you got some money? Yeah, sit right there. right that's what dr king said sit right there so now when abernathy and others got angry with andrew young this again became why one of the reasons that best young became so valuable to dr king and he never wanted him arrested dr he never wanted andrew young arrested which unfortunately got teased about later by other civil rights leaders i think it was jealousy by the way um it's nothing to get arrested there's nothing special about getting arrested i mean it's morally appropriate and and and and be proud of standing up for what's right but if you cannot get arrested and get you get your problem solved. In fact, you can win the war and not just the battle and not get arrested, as I'm about to explain to you, even better, right? Again, upgrading our software. We need the streets and the suites. We need civil rights and civil rights. We need people who are willing to get arrested so somebody can then, you know, open the door to opportunity so you never have to worry about getting arrested ever again, unless you're going to be arrested by opportunity. So Dr. King goes on and travels again. Well, now Andrew Young would see things going on in the office. He's like, no, that's not right. No, we shouldn't do that. And before, Abernathy and others could just fire Andrew Young or tell him to go away. But now Andrew Young had his own money. He had his own salary. I think he was the only one in that office who was not paid for on the payroll of SCLC under the control of those who were around the office when Dr. King wasn't there. So now Andrew Young has an independent voice because he had an independent pocket. Can I get an amen? Drop the mic. An independent voice because he had an independent pocket. And now you can just tell everybody the truth. Well, the truth is y'all are crazy. And so Dr. King relied on Andrew Young now to talk to the crazy people on the left and the right in the movement and in the office who are saying oftentimes crazy stuff but had a kernel of a good idea. And because Dr. King did not like conflict, he'd wait for Andrew Young to sort it all out and knock heads and curse people out and get to a point where the kernel of this idea had been refined to a magic moment. and then he would then bring that idea to dr king and after king would say yes and let's go forward with the staff and the only time dr king ever threatened to fire andrew young was when doc when andrew young got frustrated and threw his hands up and like oh screw these crazy people i'm not i'm not messing around with this and told dr king that and dr king said look andy if you're not gonna do this i don't need you like this this is this is your job this is i need for you to sort this stuff out um And that's why he's the ambassador. He's a teacher. He's a facilitator. So he did it both inside the office and outside in the community. I gave you an example of how he brought the business community together behind closed doors. And whenever you saw Dr. King and Andrew Young in a photo together, and please, you can search it. Whenever you're looking for Dr. King's photo, you'll see Andrew Young nine times out of ten right next to him. But he's never looking at the camera. He's looking up at the ceiling, at the walls, looking left, right, down. He's looking for threats. He never wanted to be Dr. King like other leaders. He wanted to be himself, but he wanted to protect himself. protect his friend. But he understood that the money was really important. That's why he was able to bring those talents to Atlanta and turn Atlanta into the most educated city in the United States of America. Yes, that's according to Forbes Advisors. Atlanta is the most educated city in the U.S. Just talking to our mayor, Andre Dickens, about that, who's so proud of that, good for good reason. And the biggest economy in the traditional South with almost $500 billion a year in economic activity. Now, let's now bring this. uh to today um and um when i say it's all around you so in the old script people would curse you out they call your names they would do things to keep you out of the public buildings they would you know they drag you out in their heels but today you can sue somebody you can you can sue their pants off if they dragged you out they they first of all you get them arrested you get them arrested in social media get them arrested then you get the then then the business gets zeroed out because of bad publicity. And maybe you can even sue them if you had some harm and literally drill a hole in their economic pockets, which again is about money too. But now you have these communities. By the way, I'm about to name these communities. This is not racism. This is classism. These are people who just want what they want, right? It's no different than our home. We have a gate around it and a private, I used to live in a gated community and there were, I don't know. 15 homes 20 homes in this gay community, but I had to obey the HOA rules homeowners association I had to I couldn't park a car on the street for more than two days I couldn't park the can have two cars in the driveway, which is by the way great rules It was about appearance all that stuff But I didn't want anybody telling me if I was gonna have a party had to tell people it was a community pool I had to get notifications where we got in the water I don't want to do it all that stuff when we get in the pool don't get in the pool when I want to put A car in front of my house and put a car in front of my house I want to keep it there for a week or two weeks, eight. I want to do what I want to do. So I went and got my own gate and my own property, my own 40 acres and a sprinter van where I control the rules. But by the way, that's also economic, right? Civil rights gives you a lot of civil rights. So these communities are not racist. I've been in these communities. I did not pick up one ounce of racism, but they achieve another objective. Might not be the problem of some people who are maybe not so progressive who may live here. Serenbe. Look at these places up. Serenbe here in Atlanta. S-E-R-E-M-B-E. Serenbe. Outside of Atlanta. Beautiful community. Restaurants, whatever. Completely self-contained. Schools. playhouses where they do plays uh they may have a move i think in the movie theater they're horse barns they've got restaurants plural restaurants they've got entertainment centers creative centers art centers schools middle school elementary school high school uh of course residences homes for rent homes to own um it's his own community i'm gonna name some others well trilith right right you know trilith communities that's uh in fayetteville They just, second biggest movie studio in the country, Triluth, T-R-I-L-U-T-H, I believe it's spelled. Look that up. on his way to be a billion dollar community. My friend Dan Cathy built that in Fayetteville, not far from me. Thermal, now this is a motorsports community in California outside of LA, but Thermal's deep. You want to be a member of Thermal? You want to go race your car there? They only have 210 members, 210. They have 75 homes that are there, 135 home lots, that's it. Uh, you've got to to buy a lot when you become a member. The membership is $175,000 initiation fee, $2,500 a month membership fee. And you got to agree to buy, to build at least 30,000 square foot house there. As I understand, those homes are worth between five to $7 million, sorry, the build cost. And yeah, you're not going there broke. This is in California. Let's go back to some examples. The Hamptons. I was just in the Hamptons a few weeks ago. I mean, there's nothing in the Hamptons less than seven figures. In fact, seven figures get you a check. Most houses are 5 million on the low end, 10 million, 20 million. Now you're talking, right? I stayed in one when I was there. And I didn't see one black person in the Hamptons. And it wasn't because they had blacks keep out signs. It's expensive, expensive to live there, shop there, to go to dine there. The thing that's consistent about all these places I mentioned, and there's a bunch of more, it's expensive. And it's hard to get there. It's inconvenient. It's not convenient to roll up to these places. But again, it costs to whether you if you want to go to a restaurant, you want to just dine is expensive. You know, $100, $100 for lunch. And this is how they keep what you might call the riffraff out. I'm not calling your names unless you think you're riffraff. And it works. And so here's the image I want you to have in your head, because there's a there. 500 of the communities I just mentioned. I just gave you four examples. Gated communities. So private homes, private roads, private security, private schools, private planes, private cars, private lives. Gated communities, toll roads, inconvenient access. high prices. It's a way to create an exclusive environment that excludes the drama, pulls all the stuff they don't want away, and attracts the green. Now, if you're Black and you can afford that, you're welcome. When I go to these places, no one ever says anything to me, but hello. When I was in the Hamptons two weeks ago, I literally did not see a Black person unless they were a nanny. occasionally a worker in the in the shops i think i might say i saw a half dozen workers over three four days but literally just was white people everywhere and it wasn't and people couldn't be nice to me when i talked to them so it wasn't there excluding us it's just expensive and inconvenient and maybe some people just feel like i'm good i'm not i don't feel the love but it's no longer about love or hate it's radical indifference and no one cares enough about you to hate you it's I remember I said in one of my books about President Reagan, I was in Harlem, this is 20 years ago, 25 years ago, and his brother was like, President Reagan is a racist. No, I don't think he's a racist. I knew President Reagan. We were born on the same day. His wife honored me, he honored me, recognized me at least. No, President Reagan's a racist. No, he's not my cup of tea. I think he, you know, I'm not crazy about his policies when he was president, but I don't think he was a racist. No, he was a racist. I said, let me explain something to you. President Reagan didn't have no black friends, at least not that I was aware of, didn't have any black children, no black relatives, didn't live in a black community, didn't grow up with a black experience, does not have a black environment. President Reagan, I'm going to say this in present day as if he was alive, President Reagan don't hate you. He ain't thinking about you. Wasn't thinking about you. You were not on his radar screen. He was just indifferent to you. Now, the only time he knew you. was if congressional leaders or Black elected officials or somebody or some recording artist, some celebrity said, you're racist, you're a bad person, Ronald Reagan. So now his only experience, he wasn't very curious about cultural things like that, so he wasn't going to go try and find it. Now his new experience of Black people is a negative one only. And so then it just reaffirms his maybe already preexisting biases. So now he really doesn't want to be associated because nobody wants to be. associated with somebody who's attacking them. whether you're racist or a nice person on the planet. So if the person has no experience with you whatsoever, but their first experience of you is you attacking them, they just shut down completely. So why do I tell you this story? Because you don't have to live in this world and just take it. You can master it. This is why I love for you to get your credit right. Because when somebody cursed me out or if they couldn't, they don't. But if someone was cursing me out or being mad to me at a restaurant, you know, I don't have to get upset with you. I can pull my American Express card out, my black American Express card and knock you out with it without ever touching you. I can I can buy the not just pay for the bill. I can buy the restaurant with it. Like literally, there's no limit on the card. Oprah Winfrey doesn't have to get upset with you. She just I mean, she was on the board of I think it was Weight Watchers. And something happened. Something went down where she didn't like what they were doing. So she made some moves that they didn't like. And so they said, well, we don't appreciate you doing XYZ, Oprah. So we're going to, I just saw Oprah a few weeks ago. I love her. We're going to, you know, we don't want you to think to be our spokesman anymore. Can you imagine somebody saying this to Oprah? She's like, that's cool. That's fine. No problem. Didn't raise her voice. Wouldn't stole all of her stock. Tied to the deal. The stock then plunged. I think this is the way watchers don't. Don't quote me on this, but whatever company, whatever weight management company she was associated with, you can correct me in the comments or confirm me in the comments if I'm right. The stock plunged when she sold her shares. They forgot that she had a strong economic interest. She wrote a very smart, financially literate and intelligent deal. It's all about the details. When she cut that deal to be their spokesman, she's like, I'm not going to rock the mic. I'm going to own it. And that's what I want you to do. I want you to own the stage. Don't just dance on it. I want you, Quincy Jones says, if you think that you're in the music business and you don't own music rights, publishing rights, licensing rights, some kind of rights or ownership interests, you're not in the music business. You're a temporary performer. Quincy Jones and I used to talk about Michael Jackson and how Paul McCartney got very upset with Michael because Paul McCartney said that Michael should own publishing. Shouldn't just be an entertainer. And Michael realized you that he was smart and so god gave you two ears and one mouth to listen twice as much as you talk and so he's like okay cool that's really smart i should own publishing rights okay cool so he had an own he went out trying to own his own publishing rights michael jackson's rights but then he's like well who else should i own the beatles so he went and bought bid for the beatles publishing rights and and paul mccarthy lost his mind he was extra i think to this day extraordinarily effective no based on public reports, published reports, and his own words. He was very, very, very, very, very unhappy with Michael Jackson. Now, it might have been on the edges of unethical that your friend tells you that, you know, he didn't say, no, he's not even unethical because Paul McArthur didn't say any publishing rights but ours. He didn't say, but the Beatles. In fact, there's a little bit of arrogance to assume that Michael Jackson, who was the biggest pop star in the world at that time, did not have a right to own the Beatles publishing rights too. but he didn't say you can own any rights but the Beatles. He was giving this advice, I guess, like a mentor gives a mentee. He didn't realize that the student was going to become the teacher. Michael went and bought the Beatles publishing portfolio. Paul McCarthy lost his mind and could not say a nice thing about his once good friend. Michael Jackson, he didn't do anything unethical. He just outbid everybody else, including the Beatles. The Beatles could have outbid. michael jackson they could have bought that portfolio but didn't believe in themselves as much as michael jackson believed in them and he bought that portfolio do you know that when michael jackson um was doing all that spending and the reason he didn't go broke was because he owned that publishing rights which which sony ultimately ended up purchasing it was worth a billion dollars his his he never weighed that kind of money in touring you you toured you make 10 million 20 back in that day 10 20 million uh the tour that took him out when he when he passed away, got arrested. So I think that was, he was gonna make 50 million. He's gonna get the number right. He got the number right, 50 million. But his portfolio was worth a billion. Back in that day, it was worth, you know, 700 million. And that's in large part because he owned his portfolio plus a few others, but mostly the Beatles rights. It's what you own. And so getting your credit score, you know, Michael Jackson's credit score was He's Michael Jackson. He is an impresario, and he had these relationship capital amongst people in the music business, and he was savvy about business, and so he made a case, a credible case. You know the word credit comes from the Latin word credito, which means credibility. Did you know that? So he had credibility with those who could work with him to back him to buy the publishing rights. Now, he got into trouble financially later on and had to sell half of the publishing. And ultimately, his estate, I think right now, is trying to sell all the publishing rights. But the reason Michael Jackson was able to live the life he lived was not because he danced on the stage, but because he owned the music being played on the stage. So on the stage you live on, the credit score you have gets most of the yeses that you want. You want a prime home loan? The answer is yes. Good credit score over 700. My mother's credit score was 854. Juanita Smith got rest her soul. And the computer just said yes to my mother. Midnight, when my mother went to the computer to apply for a loan for something, a home mortgage or consumer loan or auto loan or whatever, the computer just said yes. Because it didn't say, are you black or you're female or whatever. It said, oh my gosh, she has an 800 credit score plus, ending over 700, by the way. it's just fine. Perfect actually. 750, you're golden. But my mother's credit score was 854 back when it went that high. Now it's been capped at I think the 850. And the computer just said, yes, you're approved. And you've never seen a riot in a 700 credit score neighborhood in all of your life, right? So I want you to get your credit score right. I want you to get your debt down, your savings up, your credit score up. Because if you can do that, the bank just says, yes, the banks are not racist. Okay. they want their their their their capitalist machines they want to make money and they cannot make money unless they make a loan now is there somebody races at a bank sure there is right there's racist people everywhere but as a rule like racism in banks i did a thing on banks you go and listen to that podcast where break this down but a hundred years ago yes there was a racist bank it was joe's bank his family owned it and he didn't want to give any loans to black people yes that or maybe even the women women couldn't even get a loan before 1972. did you know that that stat 1972 women i did a time article on this you should read it i did a podcast on this you should listen to it but women did not have rights uh financial rights before 1972 1974. crazy not 1872 1874 1972 in our lifetime so um and the bank wants to say yes they can't make any money unless they make a loan again 100 years ago they were discriminating issue because they could because it was owned by a family now a bank is publicly traded And they want their stock to do well. They want to perform for their shareholders, which means they need to make good loans. So if you're pookie-ing them, boo-boo-ing them, whether you're poor white or poor black, your credit score is 500, not making you a loan. They're not making you a loan. I wouldn't make you a loan, okay? But if your credit score is 700, you're not black or white. You're not red or blue as in politics. Black or white as in race. You're green as in a good credit risk. And if you get that credit score up, it's just amazing how your life changes. And it's not about the credit score. Go to the Hope Financial Wellness Index that we've published, and you'll see if you live in a 700 credit score neighborhood, you live to 81 years old on average. You live in a 500, 550 credit score neighborhood, you live to 61 years of age on average, which means Social Security is 65. You don't even get Social Security and you drop dead. 20-year difference, 15 minutes apart. Not because of racism or these other things that we obsessed about police brutality. All these things are really important. Again, the red rooms, we got red rooms all over the place. We now need green rooms, access to capital, access to home loans, access, access to opportunity, access to internships, access to jobs, access to yes, access, access, access to green, the green. So we can build a thing. I want you to go to Hope Financial Coach, get signed up. We have offices all over this country at Operation Hope and take your life back and get the, the, uh. book financial literacy for all the new colors green people it's not black or white it's not red or blue in fact even the red or blue the politics is about the green as i said earlier you know look and there's i mean this is another podcast for another day but somebody's gonna listen to this and say yeah but john we can't succeed we don't have generational wealth and you know how we're gonna do this the credit score is gonna just give you in debt no no there's good debt and bad debt there's not a billionaire in this country listen to me now there's not a progress there's not a growing city a growing country or or a growing multi-millionaire like me or a billionaire who did it without good debt and good debt is something that finances something that may grow and enhance in income or or value in wealth bad debt is financing jewelry bad debt is financing a rental car bad debt is financing a a ticket to go to a concert bad debt is people do this bad debt is financing a vacation bad debt is a 26 loan at a department store credit card. Bad debt is financing a Mercedes at an 18% interest. And it's not a Mercedes, it's Mercedes payments. I did a whole thing on the auto loan industry. Watch that and listen to that in this podcast series. I'm trying to bring you in the light and show you what's right. You want good debt and you want it to leverage things that give you assets and your assets cannot be on your ASS. All right. Love and light. John O'Brien. I'm out. I will see you next week on my ministry of finance. This is the Civil Rights Movement. This is Financial Literacy for All. Get the book. This is the Money and Wealth Podcast series on iHeartRadio and the Black Effect Network. The new color is green. check out that thing. Look in your neighborhood, look in your city, look in your area, pull up the Hope Financial Wellness Index, put in your zip code. I'll tell you your credit score, and I'll tell you how you're living. Your day is about money. From the time you get up in the morning to the time you go to bed at night is a series of financial transactions. You're getting gas in the car. The government's not giving you free gas. The alarm clock, that wasn't the government alarm clock. It was your mobile phone, your smartphone that you paid for. Money is all around us. Do we understand it? Get your life right. It's okay if you don't like me. I like me. I want you to be able to say that. Not one ounce of your self-esteem depends on someone's acceptance of you. Just get you, it's a James Brown version of affirmative action. Open the door. I'll get it my damn self. All right. I'm out.

Transcript for:Empowering Wealth through Financial Literacy

Transcript for:
Empowering Wealth through Financial Literacy