By Lucius Gantt
When I was a little boy, my male and female friends used to hang out on the corner.
“The corner” was the neighborhood playground.
We used to push each other on the swings, jump on a spinning merry-go-round, mess around in the sandbox, and do other childish fun and games.
When we got tired, we sat around and talked about things like what we wanted when we grew up.
I, and others, would sometimes say, “I wanna be a millionaire!”
We had no clue as elementary school kids how much money that was. We knew a million dollars was substantial, but we didn’t know what a million could buy. After all, as kids, we didn’t do any shopping.
Young African Americans of today probably think all bank depositors are equal.
They think a million dollars is easy to get. All you need to do is sell a few records, hit a few home runs, score a few baskets, or luck up and get a high-paying job.
The world’s banks and financial institutions won’t give everyone a loan, won’t finance everyone’s house or business and they damn sure won’t tell you about top-tier banking and financial trading!
There is a level of banking that most Blacks can’t go to sleep and dream about.
When African Americans think about richness, they think about entertainers like Jay-Z, athletes like LeBron James, mega-church pastors like T.D, Jakes, and media owners like Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry.
Well, hard work and dedication can get you places and generate some dollars but most Blacks with significant money are chosen.
Beast bankers, revenue roaches, and financial thieves will never give everyone the same money-making opportunities. Banks know more about their borrowers; than the borrowers know about their lenders.
If Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates woke up one day and only had one or two billion dollars, they might consider suicide!
If you don’t know, there are Blacks in the United States, in Africa, and in other countries that have more money than the beloved Blacks mentioned earlier in the column.
Most Blacks in America with a lot of money are proud of their financial consultants and advisors. They were probably hired because they were white.
No rich person, white or Black, would hire a poor person to advise them on money-making.
But God will give financial wisdom to anyone He chooses. Remember baby Jesus was born in a manger. He was very rich in spirit but he wasn’t so rich in money, gold, or silver.
Let me give you an example of what I’ve been trying to get across.
Whatever big bank you use for your deposited money, you might be getting .3 % interest on your savings no matter how much money you have in your savings account.
Those same big, top 25 world banks, like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chase, and others, depending on the specific transaction, pay some customers 100% interest.
Now, don’t run to your bank and tell your banker Lucius Gantt wrote in a column that I could get 100% interest on my money. The bank employees will think you’re crazy because the tellers and customer service staff don’t know anything about it either.
If one of the Black billionaires who love their financial consultants would talk to me, they would fire those guys and gals immediately!
I can’t share details with the media because the money-changers of the world would kill me if I explained how Blacks are being ripped off, including those of us who pretend to be solid bankers.
To make a long story short, I’d love to have a million dollars, but a million dollars is “little Black money”!
After you buy a luxury car, a big house, some gold chains, an expensive weave, and a trip or two, your million dollars is gone!
Money and power are often parallel. When you have one, you can access the other.
There is an obvious difference between being rich and being wealthy.
At one time, the richest man in the world was a Black man and he wasn’t a rapper or a football player!
