As innovations such as cryptocurrency and readily available stock buying and trading grow in access and ease, young people are now flocking to their phones to gain a sense of power and freedom within their financial budget. However, many taking a hands-on approach to financial freedom find themselves in a world of wonder as they navigate the field without a clear understanding of where their money is headed. Hill Harper, author, actor, and former US Presidential appointee is here to bridge the gap and make investing easy for everyone.
In April 2021, Harper announced the launch of The Black Wall Street (TBWS) as the first step in closing the racial wealth gap within the United States. With its launch, TBWS became the first Black-owned digital wallet and cryptocurrency exchange platform in the country to build the world’s largest investment and financial literacy curriculum full of tools for Black and Brown communities.
Led by Harper and business partner and friend Najah Roberts, a world-leading cryptocurrency exchange expert, TBWS embarked on a 30 city tour that began in Los Angeles’ Leimert Park and ended in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Noting that this year is also the 100th year since the Tulsa Massacre, the two initiated “The Digital Financial Revolution” National Bus Tour. The tour was an information and empowerment-first initiative intended to honor the victims of the massacre by reclaiming and transforming this namesake into a momentous strive for racial and economic equality.
Harper tells that the tour went extremely well as it stood for a moment to truly connect and reach the people he hopes to lead to financial literacy and freedom. “We absolutely, in our culture, want to build cross generational wealth. We want to find pathways to cross generational wealth transfer,” he tells of the biggest lesson learned from his perspective during the tour. “The problem is, so many people have so many structural systemic impediments to cross generational wealth transfer, and they just don’t have enough information. That’s why this tour has been so helpful, because it’s just giving people financial literacy to move to financial capacity to move to financial empowerment.”
Quoting an old saying, “you can’t do better unless you know better,” he continued to detail the ways systemic barricades over the years have made this goal seemingly out of reach. “You start to realize how many structural things are in place that sucks money out of the Black community, before people even get a chance to actually begin to save and invest.”
Having been a longtime advocate of financial literacy within the Black and Brown community since his book “The Wealth Cure: Putting Money in Its Place” was published in 2011, Harper found it to be his duty to continue his work in hopes for a better future. He explained then, technology had not been up to scale to make a true change in the wealth gap. However, now, technology has finally caught up. “If we can get our community to move into this digital and cryptocurrency space is very smart, intelligent ways, we actually can cure the wealth gap, we can do it,” he encourages, “But we have to be first movers.” He continued to speak on the first movers’ advantage in both business and investing, stating that is the reason why it is imperative to move quickly and intelligently to avoid harmful scams and negative reactions.
His latest endeavor follows the pillars of The Black Wall Street, those being institutional ownership, institutional trust, and movement of capital within the ecosystem. Through these, a digital platform has been created that hosts thousands of Black-owned businesses, creating the ability to circulate the dollar on one digital landscape. He and Roberts also want to create and expand spaces for crypto exchange over the next few years. The first step he says is, “To get intentional about our $1.2 trillion of spending power that we have in the Black community and recirculating our dollars.”
With years of experience and knowledge, Harper detailed TBWS is just another method to educate but also, retain money not only for yourself but the community in today’s digital climate. TBWS has tools set to educate anyone with knowledge of a computer or cellular phone and a database of ways to gain a sense of financial freedom as we continue to uplift and circulate the Black dollar.
“Slow and steady wins the race,” Harper stated. “You don’t need to be an expert, you just need a little bit of time to set up the app,” with everything functioning on its own once the app is set up. “Two or three years from now you run into Hill Harper, and you grab me and you want to kiss me on the lips, because you’re like, ‘I can’t believe it took me five minutes to set this up and now five years from now I’m sitting on tens of thousands of dollars that otherwise never even noticed I was saving.”
“That’s the power!” He stated, “You’re still living your life as it is but something is happening in the background that’s creating wealth while you sleep.”
Now live, visit https://theblackwallstreet.com/ to sign up and get educated to make your money work for you.