Journal of Financial Planning: June 2021
I am writing this letter to express my frustration with the lack of response from this national organization on issues regarding race and the treatment of Black and other minority households in this country.
When FPA sees an issue that it believes can fundamentally damage the growth of wealth for households, they usually speak up vociferously. This organization often unambiguously condemns congressional and other regulatory rule changes that they deem harmful to financial planning and household wealth in this nation. I submit that a biased criminal justice system harms the household wealth of Black and other minority households, and ultimately the wealth of our nation. I submit that the terror which grips Black families as they consider the potentially deadly effects of otherwise routine interaction with law enforcement is corrosive to financial and civic development in this country.
The financial planning industry has lamented its lack of diversity and seems to be showing genuine interest in increasing the number of minority and women financial planners, as well as financial planning clients. To truly cultivate this all-inclusive growth, we need to authentically commit to the ideals of equality and fundamental fairness. We can not sit idly as the households who represent our constituents suffer harm at the hands of our government. We need to be real allies, and to do that, we need to take action and be vocal about it. We need to recognize that people are more important than things and that the people we desire as colleagues and clients deserve to be treated with fairness and respect. We need to voice that opinion so that everyone knows where we stand.
I will not pretend that this is not a controversial topic. I do believe that most in our membership want to do the right thing. They want to be allies, and they want to see our beautiful profession flourish with all the diversity of thought and background that will make this industry relevant for years to come.
This is new ground, and sometimes examples can be helpful. One such example comes to mind. I have a great friend named Nathan who used to live in my neighborhood. We had interactions wherein we were pulled over, and he saw how he and I were treated differently. He saw the fear on my face as we had what should have been innocuous encounters with the police, and he showed he cared. We used to run around our neighborhood together for exercise until one day I started refusing his invitations, and he inquired as to why. I told him, “It is because you are faster than me and it looks like I am chasing a white man through our neighborhood.” At first, he laughed, and I chuckled too, but he could see the pain behind the joke, and he knew my fear was real. He called and said he had an idea. I trusted him and we ran together, sort of. Nathan and I would run together again, but when he got a bit ahead of me, he would turn around and run back to me, and then we would run together again. Just take a moment to think about how weird this looked to anyone who didn’t know us.
Nathan running laps back and forth to me as I struggled to make laps around our neighborhood was different than the running Nathan would do by himself. He chose to do a peculiar thing to show me and everyone else that he was with me and he cared about me. We were both better off and grew even closer as friends because he did.
All I am asking is for all of us to run together.
Sincerely,
Ajamu Loving, Ph.D., CFP®
