Fighting_Racism
00:00:00.000 | Hey everybody, it's Sam from Financial Samurai.
00:00:02.600 | In this episode, I want to talk about racism
00:00:05.480 | and how we can deal with racism
00:00:07.280 | and what we can do about racism, because I'm mad.
00:00:10.720 | I'm pissed off.
00:00:11.720 | This shit is fucked up and bullshit.
00:00:13.680 | What's happening in the black community is an outrage.
00:00:18.000 | The woman in Central Park calling the cops on a black man
00:00:22.400 | for asking her to put her dog on a leash
00:00:25.800 | and then going into hysteria,
00:00:27.600 | saying that he's attacking her.
00:00:30.640 | I mean, what if there was no video camera?
00:00:33.200 | You could easily see a situation
00:00:34.760 | where the cops would side on her side
00:00:38.080 | and put the black man away,
00:00:40.120 | and then there would be no due process.
00:00:42.640 | You can see that happening.
00:00:44.120 | I'm sure that's happened many times in the past.
00:00:47.280 | What about the young black man who was hunted down
00:00:50.160 | by two citizen vigilantes and then shot?
00:00:54.360 | And of course, what about George Floyd,
00:00:56.320 | who was lying on the ground?
00:00:58.760 | He wasn't resisting arrest,
00:01:01.520 | and he got choked to death
00:01:02.640 | because an officer put his knee on his neck.
00:01:06.640 | I mean, this stuff keeps on happening
00:01:09.120 | over and over and over again.
00:01:13.160 | And thank goodness there is cell phone footage,
00:01:15.480 | because otherwise, this stuff is just gonna get swept
00:01:18.160 | under the rug because the system is messed up.
00:01:22.080 | There's institutional racism all throughout the country,
00:01:26.480 | and as a result of historical institutional racism,
00:01:30.920 | you are seeing a massive widening of the wealth gap
00:01:34.440 | between white America and black America.
00:01:37.240 | For example, segregation of housing,
00:01:39.760 | having different loan terms based on your race,
00:01:43.320 | getting shut out of universities because of your race,
00:01:47.280 | not getting a job because of your race,
00:01:50.080 | not getting the same opportunities
00:01:52.080 | because you have nobody in that organization
00:01:54.520 | who looks like you who can fight for you.
00:01:56.600 | Institutional racism is systemic and it's endemic,
00:02:00.320 | and it's not going away anytime soon
00:02:02.200 | because the people in power are gonna have to hurt,
00:02:06.760 | are gonna have to lose some of that power,
00:02:09.320 | give up some of that wealth in order to help
00:02:12.040 | those who have been negatively affected
00:02:14.160 | by institutional racism.
00:02:16.240 | This change takes generations,
00:02:19.480 | and hopefully, hopefully by speaking up and speaking out,
00:02:23.120 | the younger generation, the next generation,
00:02:25.400 | those who are poised to inherit trillions of dollars
00:02:29.120 | of wealth from their parents are gonna recognize
00:02:32.160 | how messed up the system is
00:02:34.480 | and that they should do something about it
00:02:36.600 | by utilizing their wealth and power to help others.
00:02:39.680 | If you don't believe there is systemic,
00:02:42.760 | endemic, institutional racism all throughout the country,
00:02:46.680 | let's just look at some statistics.
00:02:48.240 | This is from 2014, and I'm sure the data for 2020
00:02:52.640 | is gonna look even more egregious.
00:02:54.960 | If you think institutional racism does not exist,
00:02:58.720 | you would assume that the median household net worth
00:03:02.240 | between white America and black America
00:03:04.600 | is quite similar post-college.
00:03:07.680 | The higher the education level goes,
00:03:10.720 | the closer the net worth levels.
00:03:13.760 | So let's take a look.
00:03:15.320 | According to the Survey on Income
00:03:17.560 | and Program Participation of 2014,
00:03:21.120 | the median household net worth for white America
00:03:24.320 | with a high school education is $118,580.
00:03:29.320 | The median household net worth for black America is $6,660.
00:03:34.640 | That's with a high school education.
00:03:37.200 | The median net worth for white America
00:03:39.240 | with some college is 135,415.
00:03:43.680 | The median household net worth for black America is 18,200.
00:03:48.680 | Now with a college degree,
00:03:51.520 | the median household net worth for white America is 268,000.
00:03:56.360 | However, the median net worth for black America,
00:03:59.160 | this is with a college degree, is 70,219.
00:04:03.360 | Fine, there's all sorts of different levels of college,
00:04:06.920 | qualities of college, forget about legacy admissions,
00:04:10.240 | all that crap.
00:04:11.520 | Now let's look at post-college.
00:04:12.920 | So a master's degree and a doctorate degree.
00:04:15.520 | These institutions are much fewer
00:04:18.360 | and they're much tighter in terms of the quality.
00:04:21.880 | The median household net worth for white America
00:04:24.920 | with a post-college education is 455,000,
00:04:29.880 | whereas the median household net worth for black America
00:04:33.000 | with post-college education is only 141,000.
00:04:37.240 | So we're talking about a 3x differential
00:04:39.960 | despite having a master's degree or doctorate degree,
00:04:44.720 | this is less than 15% of the college educated population.
00:04:49.160 | And think what happens when there's this discrimination
00:04:53.320 | that goes on in society for decades, if not centuries.
00:04:58.320 | And think about what happens to your wealth
00:05:00.480 | if you allow it to compound for a long enough time period.
00:05:04.280 | Compound interest is the most powerful force in finance.
00:05:08.080 | And if you are given or if you start
00:05:10.480 | with a higher level of wealth
00:05:12.000 | and you get to earn a higher income
00:05:14.320 | and you get to save a higher amount
00:05:17.000 | every single year for decades or centuries,
00:05:19.900 | you are gonna blow that wealth gap wide open.
00:05:23.140 | And you can forget about meritocracy
00:05:25.920 | because for our children,
00:05:27.320 | it's gonna be a tremendously unfair fight.
00:05:29.920 | And as a father now, I think about my children all the time.
00:05:34.720 | I think about how they're gonna compete
00:05:36.620 | in this ultra competitive society.
00:05:39.400 | I think about so many of the setbacks
00:05:42.120 | they are probably gonna face due to discrimination,
00:05:46.040 | due to racism, whether it's overt or it's disguised.
00:05:50.720 | Because let's be frank,
00:05:52.020 | most discrimination is a disguised form of discrimination
00:05:57.020 | that is spoken behind closed doors, behind closed doors.
00:06:02.520 | And it's disguised because you cannot really figure out
00:06:05.880 | what is going on in the decision maker's head
00:06:08.580 | when he or she decides not to hire you for the job
00:06:12.000 | or hire you for some side hustle or pick you up
00:06:16.140 | or want to or not wanna work with you for some project.
00:06:20.440 | It's that disguised discrimination,
00:06:23.640 | that disguised racism that is really hard to identify.
00:06:27.960 | And let's be honest,
00:06:29.040 | we all have some preconceived notions
00:06:32.080 | and beliefs about certain people.
00:06:34.480 | And that's just how we process information.
00:06:37.120 | We need to process information
00:06:38.600 | and come to some kind of conclusion and make a judgment.
00:06:43.480 | And we can't not make a judgment
00:06:45.400 | because we wouldn't be able to function efficiently.
00:06:48.800 | But I challenge everyone to really think about an issue,
00:06:52.700 | get to know a person before passing judgment.
00:06:56.140 | It is really much harder to hate someone
00:06:59.240 | if you get to know someone.
00:07:00.960 | This is one of my main messages of this episode.
00:07:05.000 | It is much harder to hate someone
00:07:07.600 | if you get to know someone.
00:07:09.040 | And this is why I encourage everyone
00:07:11.360 | to try to learn another language,
00:07:13.640 | to travel abroad, to live abroad
00:07:16.040 | for an extended period of time,
00:07:18.000 | to diversify your social network.
00:07:20.800 | Look around and see who you're all friends with.
00:07:24.040 | Are you all friends with people who look like you,
00:07:26.840 | talk like you, come from the same background as you,
00:07:29.840 | same socioeconomic class as you?
00:07:32.320 | If so, it's gonna be hard for you to grow.
00:07:36.000 | It's gonna be hard for you to get out
00:07:38.840 | of the normal and natural way of thinking and doing things.
00:07:43.200 | But if you get out there and diversify your network
00:07:46.440 | and make an effort to learn and grow,
00:07:48.960 | I promise you things will get better.
00:07:51.760 | But in the short run, unfortunately,
00:07:53.940 | you will be probably looked upon as an outcast,
00:07:57.720 | someone who might be ruffling some feathers
00:08:00.880 | just for change, an agitator or whatnot.
00:08:04.320 | For myself, here in the personal finance community,
00:08:07.760 | financial samurai is often looked at as an outcast.
00:08:11.800 | I don't participate in all these conventions
00:08:15.080 | that tend to congratulate the same people
00:08:17.560 | over and over again.
00:08:19.040 | I'm not constantly out there trying to self-promote
00:08:21.680 | so I can sell something, and it's totally fine.
00:08:24.040 | I just don't have much to sell, right?
00:08:25.840 | I've got a book on severance negotiations,
00:08:28.480 | and that's about it.
00:08:29.360 | I just wanna live my life,
00:08:30.760 | but I also wanna speak my truth,
00:08:33.320 | get my message out there on what I believe in,
00:08:36.600 | and I'm not afraid of the herd.
00:08:38.520 | I don't need to be in a herd to feel safe and protected.
00:08:42.820 | If someone's gonna come at me, I'm gonna defend myself,
00:08:46.140 | I'm gonna defend my family,
00:08:47.440 | and I'm gonna come after them if they cross the line.
00:08:50.360 | That's just the way I've always been since I was a kid.
00:08:53.920 | One of the main reasons why I talk so much
00:08:56.640 | about personal finance and why I want everybody
00:08:59.840 | to gain financial independence
00:09:02.080 | is so that you guys can speak up, speak your mind,
00:09:06.040 | and not be so afraid of financial ruin.
00:09:09.000 | You don't have to kiss anybody's ass at work
00:09:11.800 | if they are doing something bad or they're berating you.
00:09:15.740 | You don't have to look the other way
00:09:17.000 | if you see some type of injustice.
00:09:18.600 | You speak up, you say, "Hey, yo, what are you doing?
00:09:20.760 | "What are you doing?"
00:09:22.240 | If you can save up enough money
00:09:24.400 | and build a large enough passive income portfolio,
00:09:27.880 | you will have the courage to speak up.
00:09:30.200 | I've talked about racism in the past in several posts,
00:09:34.200 | maybe four or five,
00:09:35.760 | whether it was experiencing the Ku Klux Klan
00:09:38.880 | down in Abington, Virginia when I was visiting my girlfriend
00:09:42.520 | to experiencing multiple types of racial incidences
00:09:45.860 | when I was growing up in Virginia
00:09:47.360 | for high school and college.
00:09:48.980 | And racism, frankly, is one of my main motivators
00:09:52.300 | to not stop, to keep working hard, to keep saving,
00:09:56.240 | to keep being free,
00:09:57.800 | because I went through so much crap growing up
00:10:01.260 | in international schools and in American schools.
00:10:04.460 | And I wanna share some of them with you.
00:10:06.340 | So if you have racial tendencies,
00:10:08.980 | if you haven't traveled, if you haven't gotten to know me
00:10:12.020 | or gotten to know the person you're trying to hate on
00:10:14.300 | or you are hating on, maybe you will stop.
00:10:17.580 | Maybe you will learn to empathize
00:10:18.980 | because it's really important
00:10:20.740 | that you know that racism is wrong and it's very exhausting
00:10:25.580 | and it's sometimes deadly to the person
00:10:28.460 | on the receiving end of racism.
00:10:30.340 | My first experience with racism started in the fourth grade
00:10:33.620 | at Taipei American School in Taiwan.
00:10:36.360 | We always had a Americans versus Chinese soccer game
00:10:39.320 | during recess.
00:10:40.780 | The issue was I was an American, but of Asian ethnicity.
00:10:44.700 | Americans was really a code word for white,
00:10:47.280 | which included my white European classmates.
00:10:49.940 | And it was just so weird at that time.
00:10:52.980 | I knew at that time, fourth grade,
00:10:55.100 | that this thing didn't make sense
00:10:57.140 | and it was creating this fissure between us,
00:10:59.540 | unnecessary fissure, but what could I do?
00:11:02.340 | I was in fourth grade, I was like nine years old.
00:11:05.260 | So even though we were in Taiwan,
00:11:06.540 | Asians were called derogatory names on the pitch
00:11:09.000 | by non-Asians at the school.
00:11:11.620 | There was a fight every single week.
00:11:13.700 | It was every single week.
00:11:16.900 | And I got into those fights.
00:11:18.380 | One time I was tripped by a white German kid
00:11:20.720 | who proceeded to then stand over me
00:11:22.300 | and taunt me with racial slurs.
00:11:24.260 | He was a slightly bigger kid,
00:11:25.900 | but I wasn't having any of that shit.
00:11:27.980 | No way.
00:11:28.820 | So I swept his legs, stomped my heel into his solar plex,
00:11:32.860 | and he started to cry.
00:11:33.780 | He laughed no longer.
00:11:36.140 | We both had to face the wall during the next recess.
00:11:38.780 | And then another time in the seventh grade
00:11:40.400 | at the International School of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,
00:11:43.040 | I was minding my own business.
00:11:44.380 | I was shooting hoops during recess.
00:11:46.460 | When this white kid proceeded to pick up my ball,
00:11:48.860 | punt it across the outdoor court for no reason,
00:11:51.740 | and then top it off with a racial slur,
00:11:53.420 | I was like, "Yo, what are you doing?"
00:11:55.300 | I was so pissed off.
00:11:56.340 | I was really pissed off.
00:11:58.140 | So I told him, "Look, go get the ball.
00:12:00.500 | "Go get the ball, you, blah, blah, blah, blah, right?
00:12:02.660 | "I was like, go get the ball."
00:12:03.780 | And then when he refused, I just lost it.
00:12:05.620 | So I punched him in his eardrum with an open hand.
00:12:08.860 | And he went to the nurse's office crying.
00:12:11.120 | And then they said he had lost his hearing
00:12:14.220 | for about a month.
00:12:15.320 | And that was a shock to me.
00:12:17.420 | And I felt really bad.
00:12:18.420 | So I apologized to him.
00:12:20.020 | And then he apologized to me.
00:12:22.180 | But that was another incidence where I will never forget.
00:12:25.380 | What the hell?
00:12:26.220 | And from that day on, we were cool.
00:12:28.060 | We were cool.
00:12:28.900 | He realized what he had done.
00:12:30.180 | And I realized I probably shouldn't have gone that far.
00:12:33.340 | And it was interesting because, you know,
00:12:35.300 | elementary school, middle school,
00:12:37.300 | I was able to fight back.
00:12:38.740 | And I always fought back
00:12:41.000 | because we were more or less the same size.
00:12:43.660 | But then starting in high school,
00:12:44.940 | people started getting bigger.
00:12:46.560 | And I stopped growing.
00:12:47.720 | I'm only about 5'10".
00:12:49.340 | And I was like 150 pounds then.
00:12:51.700 | So it was much harder to fight back
00:12:53.500 | because it was much more dangerous.
00:12:56.460 | And some kids brought knives to school.
00:12:58.620 | And this was a public high school in Northern Virginia.
00:13:01.220 | But even with the size differential,
00:13:02.520 | I still fought back on occasion.
00:13:04.180 | And it was strategic.
00:13:05.820 | You know, I remember getting suspended for a couple days
00:13:08.220 | because this big guy, he was like 6'2",
00:13:11.220 | he was 40 pounds heavier.
00:13:12.560 | I was tying my shoe.
00:13:13.500 | This was computer science class.
00:13:14.580 | I was tying my shoe, just minding my own business.
00:13:16.940 | But he wanted to sit in that seat.
00:13:18.580 | And there was no assigned seats.
00:13:20.220 | So he said, "Sam, move."
00:13:21.660 | I said, "Look, I'm tying my shoe.
00:13:22.860 | "Just give me a moment."
00:13:23.900 | And so he had a cheap shot.
00:13:25.420 | He pushed me down while I was tying my shoe.
00:13:27.820 | And I hit my head on the back of another desk.
00:13:31.200 | And so I got up and I punched him in the face,
00:13:34.220 | right in his glasses,
00:13:36.060 | which shattered in his face.
00:13:38.020 | And then I remember,
00:13:39.240 | I still remember the look on the teacher's face.
00:13:40.900 | She was just frantic.
00:13:42.020 | "Oh no, oh no."
00:13:43.500 | And then everybody was just jeering and cheering.
00:13:47.180 | And that was when the disciplinarian came in to the room,
00:13:51.340 | pulled us aside, broke us up,
00:13:52.740 | told us to knock it out.
00:13:54.220 | And it was interesting because the disciplinarian,
00:13:56.500 | I don't know what his official word was.
00:13:58.020 | We called him a narc,
00:13:59.200 | but he wasn't a narc because he was clearly
00:14:01.060 | over 40 years old.
00:14:02.980 | He was my high school tennis coach.
00:14:06.140 | And so he was like, "What are you doing?"
00:14:08.940 | And so I got suspended a couple days.
00:14:10.860 | And, but I told him what happened.
00:14:13.420 | I said, "Coach, this guy pushed me over.
00:14:15.540 | "He was picking on me and I fought back."
00:14:17.140 | And he's like, "You know what?
00:14:18.020 | "You gotta fight back.
00:14:18.860 | "You gotta fight back against that."
00:14:20.780 | And then when I was a junior in high school,
00:14:23.140 | I used to work at McDonald's.
00:14:24.220 | It was kind of the worst job ever
00:14:26.220 | because I had to get in at 6 a.m.
00:14:28.300 | And the pay was $3.75 an hour initially.
00:14:30.960 | And I think I got a raise to $4 an hour.
00:14:33.260 | So imagine being in high school.
00:14:35.300 | It's a weekend and you gotta get in there
00:14:38.540 | at 5.55, 6 a.m. to open up shop,
00:14:41.340 | make sure everything is clean
00:14:42.540 | and start preparing the food.
00:14:44.740 | And you're making $3.75 an hour,
00:14:47.340 | which frankly at the time was not a lot.
00:14:48.780 | It's minimum wage is minimum wage.
00:14:50.140 | So minimum wage right now, wherever you're earning,
00:14:52.740 | is not a lot of money, right?
00:14:54.020 | So at that time, I remember studying three years of Spanish.
00:14:57.700 | My language skills, not so good.
00:15:00.020 | But I was studying Spanish
00:15:01.980 | and I wanted to practice my Spanish
00:15:03.940 | and all of my colleagues spoke Spanish.
00:15:06.660 | And so I would try to speak to them
00:15:08.620 | between eating some apple pies.
00:15:10.340 | Obviously the broken apple pies, not the good ones, right?
00:15:13.220 | Or flipping the quarter pounder in cheese
00:15:15.380 | and trying not to drop it on the floor
00:15:16.740 | and putting it back in the heating oven.
00:15:19.140 | And whenever the manager would hear us speak Spanish,
00:15:22.260 | he was a white guy and he was total power tripper.
00:15:25.340 | He would say something like, "Shut up all of you.
00:15:28.020 | "Stop speaking Spanish
00:15:29.540 | "and making the customers feel uncomfortable.
00:15:31.680 | "This is America."
00:15:33.320 | Right?
00:15:34.160 | And I was thinking, look, we're in the back,
00:15:37.140 | we're talking Spanish, we're trying to kill time
00:15:39.440 | while we make $3.75 to $4 an hour.
00:15:42.380 | What the F's your problem?
00:15:44.100 | I mean, he's a total power tripper.
00:15:46.180 | And this is when I was realizing, you know what?
00:15:48.740 | I don't know, making $4 an hour
00:15:50.700 | and getting verbally abused by this fellow
00:15:53.420 | was not worth it.
00:15:54.260 | I'm gonna be frugal, I'm gonna save money,
00:15:56.300 | I'm gonna work hard,
00:15:57.140 | and I am not gonna put up with this shit
00:16:00.100 | for the rest of my life.
00:16:01.820 | And then as I got to college,
00:16:02.980 | at the College of William & Mary,
00:16:04.180 | it's in Williamsburg, Virginia.
00:16:05.700 | It's the South.
00:16:06.740 | It's not the deep South, but it's the South.
00:16:09.760 | I remember having a midnight snack at Denny's
00:16:11.800 | with my girlfriend.
00:16:13.000 | She's half Asian, half Caucasian.
00:16:15.680 | And then all of a sudden,
00:16:17.100 | four massive football offensive linemen
00:16:19.880 | sat in the booth right next to us.
00:16:21.920 | And then we looked over, we just glanced over, right?
00:16:25.200 | And then they looked over and they said,
00:16:27.240 | "Get the fuck out of here, you chinks.
00:16:29.280 | "Get the fuck out of here, you chinks,
00:16:31.840 | "or else we'll beat the fuck out of you."
00:16:34.280 | And man, I was so pissed,
00:16:36.740 | because you gotta imagine,
00:16:38.340 | I'm here with my girlfriend,
00:16:40.660 | these guys are making me look like a fool,
00:16:43.780 | and I wanna defend my honor and her honor,
00:16:46.060 | but there's four on one.
00:16:47.380 | And so we paid our bill.
00:16:50.420 | And we were about to leave anyway,
00:16:51.740 | but still, this enraged me so much.
00:16:55.460 | And it's just sticking with me to this day.
00:16:57.780 | And if there was just one guy there,
00:16:59.580 | I didn't care if he was 100 pounds bigger,
00:17:01.620 | I would have gone to war.
00:17:04.180 | But when there's four huge guys,
00:17:06.260 | who are basically outweighing you six acts,
00:17:09.580 | 'cause you're just massive,
00:17:11.060 | you gotta pick and choose and live to fight another day.
00:17:14.220 | And this is a key lesson for many of you,
00:17:16.700 | all of you who are experiencing racism, discrimination,
00:17:19.820 | some type of antagonist,
00:17:22.040 | you've gotta be strategic nowadays.
00:17:23.680 | If you're an adult, you've got assets,
00:17:26.460 | you've got kids to care for and stuff.
00:17:28.840 | Be strategic in the fights you choose to participate in,
00:17:32.720 | because a lot more is at stake now.
00:17:35.340 | Back in college, when that incident happened,
00:17:37.340 | I thought to myself,
00:17:38.420 | okay, I can go to war with these guys.
00:17:41.480 | Maybe the manager will break us up.
00:17:44.100 | Maybe I'll get some fists of fury in
00:17:46.520 | before I get beat into a pulp.
00:17:48.780 | But at least I will have defended my honor.
00:17:51.100 | But I thought in that instant,
00:17:52.380 | okay, I think I was a junior in college.
00:17:56.100 | I'm applying for jobs.
00:17:57.420 | I don't wanna get in trouble again,
00:17:58.900 | because I already got in trouble in high school.
00:18:01.380 | If I got in trouble again in college,
00:18:03.380 | clearly this was not good and it would ruin my future.
00:18:07.480 | So I decided strategically,
00:18:08.620 | all right, you guys win the battle today.
00:18:11.980 | I'm gonna swallow my pride,
00:18:14.000 | and I don't want anybody to get hurt,
00:18:16.720 | most of all my girlfriend,
00:18:18.260 | but I'm gonna win the war.
00:18:19.180 | And I'm gonna win the war by using these experiences
00:18:22.200 | to motivate me to work hard, to save aggressively,
00:18:25.940 | to find a path to financial independence,
00:18:28.640 | so I don't have to deal with this type of bullshit anymore.
00:18:31.780 | Or at least I don't have to deal as much
00:18:33.440 | with this type of bullshit.
00:18:34.720 | Because if you think about it,
00:18:36.100 | a lot of your stresses is due to other people.
00:18:38.980 | Well, other people just hate you, they're jealous,
00:18:41.460 | they just wanna put you down, whatever it is.
00:18:44.220 | If you have enough money,
00:18:46.120 | so you don't have to deal with other people,
00:18:48.100 | or you can pick and choose exactly
00:18:49.680 | who you wanna deal with, life is much better.
00:18:52.700 | So for the minorities out there listening
00:18:55.020 | and reading Financial Samurai,
00:18:56.660 | who are pissed off at what's going on in America,
00:19:00.080 | use racism, use discrimination as motivation
00:19:03.700 | for you to work hard, take calculated risks,
00:19:06.560 | save, invest, more than you ever thought you could
00:19:10.240 | for your future.
00:19:11.600 | Unfortunately, and realistically,
00:19:13.380 | bad things are gonna happen all the time.
00:19:15.640 | And there is gonna be someone out there
00:19:17.800 | who just doesn't like you for whatever reason.
00:19:21.160 | You need to fortify your finances
00:19:23.960 | so you can fortify your independence,
00:19:26.000 | and you gotta figure out how to love yourself
00:19:28.760 | and love others by educating yourself.
00:19:31.580 | The more you can learn about someone else
00:19:33.560 | in some other culture, the less you'll be able to hate them.
00:19:37.500 | And the more you can learn to love yourself,
00:19:40.060 | the less you'll find a need or desire to hate other people.
00:19:43.100 | You just don't have time for that hate,
00:19:44.660 | you just don't have room for the hate,
00:19:46.780 | because you're happy with yourself.
00:19:48.780 | Every single antagonist that I've met online and offline
00:19:52.620 | has some type of issue, whether it's a personal issue
00:19:56.100 | or a financial issue they're dealing with,
00:19:58.540 | that propels them to take it out on you.
00:20:01.980 | And because Financial Samurai is a relatively large site,
00:20:05.100 | based on the law of numbers,
00:20:06.860 | you know, even 1% of a million people who hate your guts,
00:20:10.620 | that's a lot of people.
00:20:12.740 | But when I get to know them,
00:20:14.940 | I better understand where they're coming from
00:20:17.020 | and where their hatred is coming from.
00:20:19.480 | And I would say, almost all of the time,
00:20:21.620 | when they get to dig deeper into my work
00:20:24.100 | and understand where I'm coming from,
00:20:25.740 | that hatred goes away.
00:20:27.340 | A lot of people find Financial Samurai from a search engine,
00:20:30.740 | and they visit once or maybe twice, read a couple articles,
00:20:33.980 | and then they never come back.
00:20:35.540 | So they only get one small glimpse
00:20:37.740 | of my thoughts on some topic.
00:20:39.820 | But if you stick around for long enough,
00:20:41.620 | I think you'll get to understand
00:20:43.380 | the overall principles of Financial Samurai.
00:20:46.500 | And I think you'll be able to see
00:20:48.020 | other sides of the equation, you know,
00:20:49.980 | different sides, different viewpoints
00:20:51.700 | make for better thought and better people.
00:20:54.500 | I wanna end this podcast by saying that
00:20:56.640 | if you've ever been discriminated against
00:20:58.220 | based on your race, your sex, age, religion,
00:21:02.300 | or whatever it is, just know that you're not alone.
00:21:05.420 | Plenty of people get slapped around every single day,
00:21:09.260 | but plenty of people don't rise up and fight.
00:21:11.900 | You can either take the insults lying down,
00:21:14.660 | or you can get up and get motivated
00:21:16.540 | to work harder and smarter than you've ever worked before.
00:21:20.100 | And when you have the right opportunity,
00:21:22.820 | you should fight back, and you should voice your opinion.
00:21:26.060 | You need to be heard,
00:21:27.540 | and you need to confront the injustices out there.
00:21:31.080 | Confront these people, talk to them,
00:21:34.240 | tell them how their actions make you feel,
00:21:37.260 | and how it negatively affects other people.
00:21:39.700 | You must confront them, hopefully in a peaceful way,
00:21:42.780 | not like what I did when I was growing up as a kid,
00:21:45.380 | but in a peaceful, logical, thoughtful way.
00:21:48.980 | I have found that if you confront your antagonists
00:21:52.180 | in a peaceful and thoughtful way, in a rational way,
00:21:54.740 | give them an opportunity to explain themselves,
00:21:57.060 | tell them how you feel,
00:21:58.540 | and how what they're doing is making you feel,
00:22:00.860 | or how it's negatively affecting other people.
00:22:03.160 | I have found that more often than not, they will listen,
00:22:07.320 | and I think they will come to an agreement
00:22:10.020 | and acknowledge what they're doing is wrong,
00:22:13.240 | or at least acknowledge what they're doing
00:22:15.460 | is making you feel terrible.
00:22:17.340 | Too many people don't confront their antagonists.
00:22:20.580 | They're too afraid, they don't wanna rock the boat,
00:22:23.460 | but you should confront them, you should talk about it.
00:22:26.180 | It's important to have these difficult conversations,
00:22:28.620 | otherwise nothing changes.
00:22:30.220 | What happens is just people bottle up
00:22:32.980 | all their anger inside, and then one day they explode,
00:22:35.100 | and they pop off, and they do something really, really bad.
00:22:37.940 | So try to let out the steam slowly
00:22:40.540 | by confronting the issues when they bother you,
00:22:43.700 | by having an honest conversation, a respectful conversation,
00:22:47.560 | and I think this will help your antagonist too,
00:22:50.080 | the person with these hateful feelings,
00:22:52.640 | learn why he or she is hating on that way,
00:22:55.840 | or doing something bad in that way.
00:22:57.920 | Don't let them just keep on doing what they're doing,
00:23:01.560 | and don't let that rage inside you bottle up and explode.
00:23:04.480 | For those of you with racist tendencies,
00:23:07.320 | I want you to think about some of these final points
00:23:10.000 | that I wanna address in a personal finance
00:23:12.700 | and a society context.
00:23:14.800 | One, when you assume everyone can happily relocate
00:23:18.260 | to a lower cost area of the country,
00:23:20.680 | that is an incorrect assumption
00:23:22.480 | because not everybody can comfortably fit in.
00:23:25.580 | Two, when you assume that everyone has an equal opportunity
00:23:29.360 | to get good grades and high college test scores,
00:23:32.720 | that is an incorrect assumption
00:23:34.480 | because not everybody has the financial means
00:23:36.400 | to pay for tutors, and not everyone has
00:23:39.040 | a stay-at-home parent or two loving parents.
00:23:42.320 | Three, when you assume that everyone has
00:23:44.360 | the equal opportunity to get ahead in the workplace
00:23:47.080 | when there are very few senior people who look like you,
00:23:50.060 | that is an incorrect assumption.
00:23:52.420 | People who are already in power
00:23:54.200 | tend to take care of people who look, talk, act,
00:23:57.360 | and have the same background as them.
00:23:59.880 | Four, when you assume someone has special talents,
00:24:03.160 | intelligence, or skills based on their race,
00:24:05.840 | that is a lazy assumption.
00:24:07.560 | Everybody is unique.
00:24:09.440 | Five, when all your friends look the same,
00:24:12.520 | talk the same, support the same people,
00:24:15.280 | interview the same people, believe in the same thing,
00:24:18.640 | it's really hard to grow as a person.
00:24:20.840 | Go out there and learn a new language.
00:24:22.880 | When the economy opens up and the restrictions are done,
00:24:26.500 | go travel, make different types of friends
00:24:29.320 | from different racial backgrounds
00:24:31.560 | and different socioeconomic backgrounds.
00:24:33.960 | Spend some time listening to their stories,
00:24:36.880 | really listen and try to see how they differ
00:24:39.320 | from your background and your beliefs
00:24:41.480 | and see if you can share your background and your beliefs
00:24:45.040 | in a thoughtful and respectful manner.
00:24:46.960 | Finally, let's not paint an entire group of people
00:24:50.400 | based on the actions of a few.
00:24:52.480 | I know this is how stereotypes are created,
00:24:55.440 | but this is mental laziness.
00:24:57.000 | We need to be vigilant against mental laziness.
00:24:59.680 | Just don't assume that everyone is just like this.
00:25:04.320 | Everyone is different and unique.
00:25:05.720 | We need to spend the time to learn, to understand,
00:25:08.520 | to listen and to share our thoughts and perspectives.
00:25:11.720 | Thank you for letting me address this important issue
00:25:14.880 | in society today.
00:25:16.600 | It has affected me my entire life
00:25:18.760 | and I know it's gonna affect my children,
00:25:20.840 | their entire lives.
00:25:22.480 | I've been living in this bubble, frankly, since 2001.
00:25:26.040 | I've lived in San Francisco where minorities are a majority.
00:25:30.320 | Minorities make up 60 plus percent
00:25:32.560 | of the San Francisco population.
00:25:34.120 | And I haven't felt racism in quite a long time,
00:25:37.960 | at least overtly that I'm aware of.
00:25:40.360 | And one of the reasons why we're happy to go to Hawaii
00:25:43.200 | to live out our remaining days
00:25:44.480 | is because Hawaii is a minority majority state.
00:25:48.120 | However, I realize not everybody can live
00:25:50.840 | in a minority majority city or state
00:25:53.160 | and not everybody wants to, that's fine.
00:25:55.360 | There are plenty of awesome cities and states
00:25:57.600 | all across America and I respect that.
00:26:00.600 | And I also love a lot of these states, including Virginia,
00:26:03.760 | where I grew up for high school and college for eight years
00:26:06.560 | and where I experienced a lot of racism.
00:26:09.080 | I don't think we're born racist.
00:26:11.160 | We're just taught racist thoughts and actions.
00:26:14.680 | And I think the more we can share and embrace and love,
00:26:19.680 | I think we're gonna make things better.
00:26:22.560 | So thanks so much for listening to this episode.
00:26:25.480 | And if you found it valuable, please share it
00:26:28.120 | and I'll see everyone around and fight on.