Current Events > Wealthy kids refuse inheritance, insist parents donate it to social justice caus

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/covid-19-black-lives-matter-inheritance_n_602ad161c5b6f88289fdbd92

The pandemic and racial justice uprising that took place last year make for a strange time for parenting and a stranger time still to receive an inheritance. On the one hand, the pull to protect ones own tugs hard. Harder than Id imagined. On the other hand, glaring inequalities in health care and powerful calls for racial justice make that instinct a little out of touch. My kids had to shout before we heard, Were fine. Were swimming in privilege we did nothing to deserve and that we received based on the color of our skin.

My wife and I work in community service. Weve tried to raise the kids with generous, civic-minded values. We were Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) supporters and lived and volunteered in El Salvador for many years before and after the civil war, accompanying a struggle for radical redistribution of wealth. Youd think we would be easy targets for their agitating.

And yet we stalled. Although fundraising and grant-making are a big part of my job, I was new to giving away my wealth. Lets have a family meeting to figure out philanthropic priorities, I suggested. Do some research, make a plan. My kids rolled their eyes, impatient.

We werent the sole targets of the kids badgering, or, as they put it, invitation to step up. My daughter had previously raised money for a womens agroecology project in Ghana, where shed volunteered. During the early waves of protest against police impunity, she sent a plea to family and friends with the subject line, Please Dont Stop and continued, we NEED to be giving ALL (not some) of the money we spend ... to Black people at this time and forever. This email is not meant to attack anyone. But I do want to remind all of us of our privilege. WHITE WEALTH IS RACISM ... White people will ALWAYS have a leg up.

Her uncle reported that the email was grist for not one, but two therapy sessions.
...

On a night last year when we returned raw and opened from a Black Lives Matter march where wed locked arms with the kids, my wife and I took a big step and donated thousands of dollars to Black- and immigrant-led organizations, which for us constituted significant giving.

Unimpressed, our daughter bested us. Shed given away her COVID-19 unemployment benefits, on top of which she threw us a curveball.

At her age, I was studying to be a community organizer. For years, I door-knocked in Boston public housing, supporting community leaders fighting City Hall for neighborhood improvements. The next decades were spent moving (other peoples) money into international social movements farmer-led struggles for land and water rights. I tended to be dismissive of charitable giving that helps individuals but doesnt build grassroots power scholarship programs for example.

Lets pay off Naimas college debt, our kids proposed. Naima is a Black, immigrant friend who has been part of our extended family since middle school. I balked, arguing that we need policies and programs for debt-free college and comprehensive reparations. My daughters eyes rolled again, skeptical that justice will emerge from a historically racist political system, the new administration notwithstanding. Naima and her family are financially stressed every day, she replied. We have the resources to zero out their debt now. A kind of mini-reparation.

Which then? I sighed. Pay off her loan or fund social justice organizations?
Both, the kids said.

Argh. Having what I thought were decent social justice credentials, I flinched at being schooled by my daughter, the more vocal instigator. How could I feel simultaneously so proud of our kids for their values while dodging their criticism and feeling ever-so-slightly fleeced? Quarantine dinners were fractious.

Three cheers for these brave and unselfish kids.

DowntownMrSmith posted...

Three cheers for these brave and unselfish kids.

Nothing at all wrong wrong with altruism and self-sacrifice.

Really nice article TC.. I'm not white but I've had a lot of privileges/opportunities that others haven't.

If this is what they choose to do then let them. They are adults and should be able to do with the money as they wish.

---

RiKuToTheMiGhtY posted...

If this is what they choose to do then let them. They are adults and should be able to do with the money as they wish.

But the father is worried they are too young to make these decisions and might regret it later

so they're cucks

---

Well the kids are morons but if they insist then it is what it is.


---

Better than sequestering it in bank accounts to just hoard wealth.

---

---

If they don't want money can i have it

---

Wetterdew posted...

Better than sequestering it in bank accounts to just hoard wealth.

Lmfao at thinking it isn't invested.

---