One doesn’t automatically associate wealth with Black communities, as American history will attest to. But that’s about to change as Cedric Nash, founder of the Black Wealth Summit, launches its first in-person convocation on October 27 – 29 in College Park, Maryland. Held at “The Hotel” at the University of Maryland, the focus of the summit is “Promoting the Prosperity of Black People.”
The Summit “is a conference unapologetically committed to educating, inspiring, and exposing African Americans to wealth-building tools, techniques, and resources,” Cedric explained. “We have learning tracks designed for three different levels: beginners, intermediate, and advanced investors. We’re bringing Black Wealth advisors from the top financial services firms and health advisors from top healthcare organizations. The entire objective is to educate and help African Americans make better decisions about what they do financially, to take ownership of their financial welfare.”
Cedric explained that African Americans, since slavery, have been systemically suppressed and denied resources that would enable them to more readily achieve long-term financial stability and wealth. From his perspective, it all comes down to education. He makes the distinction that “financial literacy” just makes you information knowledgeable. More important is “wealth literacy” because it teaches you how to build sustainable and generational wealth.
One important facet of what Cedric is putting forth is the understanding that wealth doesn’t happen overnight. It might if you win the lottery, but then what? And what about government policy, reparations, closing the racial wealth gap, etc.?
Cedric described how so many politicians and movers and shakers say that we’ve got to create more Black homeowners, or we’ve got to create more opportunities for jobs. “Yes, we do have to do that. It’s still not going to close the racial wealth gap,” Nash states. He believes that the only way to dissolve this issue is for Blacks to keep score of their wealth:
- pay attention to their level of assets,
- pay attention to their liabilities,
- know their net worth,
- know more than your credit score is, and
- know just how much debt you have.
“Our entire objective with the Summit is to educate and help Black Americans make better decisions about what they do financially.” The Summit’s membership portal is filled with content and commonsense principles, including videos and training, that speak to and support where individuals are wherever they are on their financial journey.
Nash also says that the only way Blacks are going to move their financial needle is that they’ve got to get the entire community fired up about building wealth, about accumulating assets.
With the Black Wealth Summit, Nash says, “It’s important that we create something that lifts us up and gives us authentic information. We’re not promoting anything, we’re not promoting a stock or any investment. This is education. The whole point is that we’re trying to create energy around learning and wanting to learn.” In keeping with that, Cedric points out that the Summit’s theme this year is “The season of accountability.”
Nash says that there are three barriers to African Americans investing, according to a study done by Charles Schwab and Ariel capital: 1) access to capital, 2) financial literacy, and 3) fear, specifically, fear of the unknown. It’s an obsolete and debilitating mindset that he’s looking to shift people out of.
“We understand that that shift isn’t going to happen quickly,” Cedric says, candidly. “It’s a process of liberation, of shifting one’s mindset. It’s also the ongoing development of financial literacy because there is no one way or quick fix to any of this. Most specifically, it’s understanding that this is a long-term proposition.”
What Cedric and the Black Wealth Summit are teaching is what he calls “millionaire money moves,” the kind of mindset and moves millionaires take that allow them to always build wealth. And that overall “move” is to accumulate assets, to put money in assets that appreciate and generate income and continue to grow. “That’s what we do. It’s just that simple,” Nash says.
He feels that within the Black community, the Black Wealth Summit is the perfect solution giving Blacks an environment where they can ask whatever questions they want. They’ll be there with people who are at their same financial level, with people who look like them.
As the mission of the Summit states, “It’s about time that every Black person has access to the knowledge that can be used to build real generational wealth for their families and communities. The Black Wealth Summit is an answer to making prosperity accessible to Black people, thereby making prosperity accessible to all people.”
