In the United States of America, there are over 600 billionaires and only 7 of them–Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Michael Jordan, David Stewart and Robert F. Smith–are Black. All of these billionaires are self-made, meaning they became successful from their own efforts.
Oprah Winfrey started from humble beginnings. She was born in rural Mississippi and faced countless amounts of hardships during her childhood and early adulthood. Oprah began her career in radio and television broadcasting in Nashville, Tennessee and landed her first big gig as a television host for the Baltimore TV show, People Are Talking. Oprah never received any handouts to start her career, yet she has managed to become a media mogul and household name. Winfrey’s net worth is estimated to be $2.6 billion.
Shawn Carter (famously known as Jay-Z) was raised by a single mother in the dangerous projects of Brooklyn. He started off his career by rapping and became one of the most influential figures in the 90s and early 2000s. Carter increased his wealth with multiple investments and entrepreneurial ventures. He’s created a clothing line, a film production company and multiple record labels to surmount his challenging background and become a billionaire. His net worth is estimated to be $1 billion.
Robert F. Smith, one of the lesser known people in this list, is the richest Black man in the United States of America. In May 2019, he made news headlines when he paid off the student debt of the entire Morehouse graduating class. Smith graduated with a chemical engineering degree from Cornell University in 1986 and received an M.B.A. degree from the Columbia Business School in 1994. After business school, he joined Goldman Sachs where he oversaw the merger and acquisition activities of companies like Apple, Yahoo and Microsoft. Later, he founded his own company, Vista Equity Partners, LLC, which in 2015, was named one of the industry’s top performers by the HEC-Dow Jones Private Equity Performance Ranking. Robert F. Smith’s net worth is estimated to be $7.05 billion.
While the success stories of these Black billionaires are inspiring, it’s hard to ignore the fact that they represent such a small percentage of the total amount of American billionaires. According to the Census, Black Americans represent 13.4% of the total population. However, of the top 1% of Americans, 96.1% is white and only 1.4% is Black. Why are there so few?
With the long history of racial tensions and minority oppression, it’s no surprise that the number of Black billionaires and millionaires is so small compared to the number of white billionaires and millionaires. In 2014, the median Black household income was about $43,300, while the white household income was about $71,300.
The lack of generational wealth in the Black community has put Black Americans at a disadvantage and one can conclude that it’s easier to become rich if you live in a white household.