They Teach Us to Hate the Rich — But Not How to Be Right

In the modern liberal playbook, one lie gets recycled more than any other: “You’re poor because someone else is rich.”It’s a convenient explanation — emotionally satisfying, politically useful, and economically false. Because the truth is, we are not poor — we are broke.

Poverty is a condition of permanent lack. Being broke is a result of habits, decisions, and mindset — all of which can be changed. But instead of offering the tools to change them, the dominant message in Black communities has become one of resentment, blame, and learned helplessness.

In this upside-down worldview, success is suspect, wealth is oppression, and billionaires are the boogeyman. Our children are taught to hate wealth before they ever learn how to create it. Yet at the same time, they are taught to admire entertainers and athletes for their wealth — some of the highest-paid employees in the world — as if wealth is only acceptable when it comes with a microphone or a ball. They’re told to “fight inequality,” but never taught how interest compounds. They’re trained to protest against the 1%, but never taught how to budget, build credit, or own property. In many urban schools, capitalism is portrayed as the enemy — while dependency is framed as justice.

But if we’re so poor, why are Black Americans spending more than $1.5 trillion every year, mostly on consumer goods and status symbols? That level of spending exceeds the entire economies of countries like South Korea, Australia, Spain, and Mexico. You cannot call a group “oppressed” while they outspend entire nations. The problem is not poverty — the problem is how we use our power.

That money doesn’t disappear. It builds wealth — just not for us. It goes into luxury brands, fast food chains, car dealerships, and tech platforms we don’t own. This isn’t wealth extraction — it’s voluntary consumption. No one forces us to spend on liabilities instead of assets. That’s a mindset problem, not a systemic trap. We have the power to transform our communities — but instead, we’re making everyone else rich while owning nothing.

And while we spend, we’re taught to wait — for government handouts, student loan forgiveness, housing vouchers, and stimulus checks. But government handouts do not make you independent. They make you dependent — and that’s the point. Dependency is not a flaw in the system. It is the system. When you rely on the state to survive, you stop demanding opportunity. You stop building. You start waiting. And a people who are waiting are never a threat to the people in power.

Take Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for example. She built a national profile — and raised over $10 million — by making the rich the enemy. Her message was clear: tax the wealthy, dismantle capitalism, fight inequality. And yet, the district she represents remains one of the poorest in New York City, with poverty rates in parts of the Bronx topping 25%, rising crime, deteriorating housing, and vanishing economic opportunity. While she attacks private ownership in her speeches, she’s quietly advancing her own brand, her own influence, and likely her own financial future, just like many who came before her. That’s not change. That’s business as usual, dressed in radical rhetoric.

The same politicians who preach about inequality are quietly building wealth through real estate, investments, and generational planning, fly in private jets , while pushing our children to chase identity politics, protest movements, and symbolic gestures. They teach their kids to own. They teach ours to obey.

Wealth is not built through emotion. It is built through ownership, savings, discipline, and sacrifice. These are not racial principles — they are universal ones. But they require a shift in mindset. Until we stop vilifying the rich and start studying how they operate, until we stop seeing government as a savior and start seeing ourselves as responsible agents of our own future, we will remain loyal voters, loud consumers — and broke citizens.

The numbers prove we are not powerless. But if we don’t change how we think, we will continue to be the most influential culture with the weakest economic foundation. And no amount of protest, hashtags, or slogans will change that.

Because if you can keep a people emotionally triggered, financially ignorant, and dependent on handouts — you never have to worry about them becoming truly free. And the longer we fall for that trap, the more we’ll stay loud, loyal, and broke — marching in circles while the wealth we could have built slips into someone else’s hands.