Generational Inheritance: We Pass Down More Than Wealth
“Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.”
- Coretta Scott King
Over the past couple of years, as I have become entrenched in the groundwater of racial equity one concept has become increasingly alluring to me - the necessity of inheritance in economic mobility and intergenerational sustainability. Within this concept, I also realized my programming to be drawn to the aspiration of inheritance, the idea of receiving something of value left behind by someone connected to you. But inheritance also has a more simple concept, which is the transference of structure(s).
As I dug deeper into the history of wealth distribution in America, the intersection of inheritance, wealth, and racism was undeniable and the notion of “passing something along” began to take on a different, more powerful meaning for me. It is through this lens that I realized the need to redirect our focus from generational wealth to building generational inheritance.
Wealth building is the process of generating enduring securities and affluence. People of color have been lawfully and socially excluded from building wealth. As a result, the median wealth of Black Americans will fall to zero by 2053.
For those who are able to transfer assets, a 2017 study, highlights the stark contrasts in black and white wealth. As one of the co-authors point out, “Among college-educated black families, about 13 percent get an inheritance of more than $10,000, as opposed to about 41 percent of white, college-educated families … The average amount is also drastically different: over $150,000 for white family inheritances, versus under $40,000 for black family inheritances.”
Insights such as these make it appallingly evident that as long as reinvented barriers are passed along rather than eliminated, Black families across the income spectrum will rarely achieve “transformative assets” that enable investments and asset accumulation to build their net worth to put them on par with white families.
Put another way, approaching generational wealth strictly in monetary terms is worthless if it is built on an inequitable foundation. It simply doesn’t account for all the other ailments being passed along and only results in a restart from one generation to the next. Instead, we must constantly use our collective assets (capital, ideologies, resources, etc.) to seek opportunities to build a generational inheritance rooted in anti-discriminatory values and policies that can endure to future generations.
Before jumping in and becoming too focused on solutions, there are three ideas that must ground us.
FIRST: HOPE.
First, we must be grounded in aspirational hope. Hope is usually saved as the culminating attribute that bonds plans for change together. It is imperative to start with the idea of hope because this is where agency is rooted and blossoms into the courage to design a different world. As explained in The Economics of Hope, when people are hopeful, they invest their time, money, and energy into activities they believe will bring a future payoff. Outsiders may try to provide these as best they know how, but you can’t give other people hope for hope is an intrinsic reality.
SECOND: CONNECTIVITY.
Second, we must be grounded in the idea that generational inheritance is about your connection to others and how that connectivity can create a more democratic power structure. While aspirational hope is a call for self-reflection, generational inheritance is relational. Therefore, it is crucial that we not confuse generational inheritance with philanthropy. This is an essential distinction because philanthropy, at its core, is a very exclusive structure that generally gives reign to elites to make decisions for those they are most disconnected from.
As history tells us, change very seldom happens from the top down. Instead, the most iconic system changes are the result of communities challenging social conventions thus creating disruptive movements. There’s something empowering in understanding how our destinies are tied. And unlike traditional philanthropy, which entitles singular control over wealth distribution as the wealthy see fit (and non-threatening), inheritance ensures the beneficiaries impacted the most will have the most control over the outcomes of their lives.
THIRD: ANTIRACISM.
Lastly, we must believe it is important to divorce ourselves from the racism bequeathed to us, generation after generation, in social and market policies. To borrow from Ibram Kendi, “all policies, even the most trivial, are either racist or anti-racist” - they either enforce equity or they don’t. This belief must also include a desire for a new accountability system that has consequences for those who pose a threat to inequity. When we apply an anti-racism lens to generational wealth, we will be able to address the wealth gap that exists, even between college-educated families of color and their white peers.
If we can ground ourselves in these three ideas, then, generational inheritance has the power to be a panacea for closing the racial wealth divide. It’s all-encompassing and envelopes the structures needed to truly foster equitable prosperity. As James Baldwin insisted, “We are not obliged to accept the world’s definitions.” We must always be willing to get proximate to the heritage that looms over us and continuously remind ourselves that inheritance is simply a matter of what we create and practice (or don’t create and don’t practice) in our daily lives that will inevitably be passed along.
Kelli Saulny is the Director of Strategic Partnerships for Camelback Ventures.