How to reduce the wealth gap between Black and white Americans | Kedra Newsom Reeves

Transcriber: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Joanna Pietrulewicz

Translator: Nathaniel Luis Reyhan Soesilo

As last recorded by the US Federal Government,

Berdasarkan data terbaru pemerintah federal AS,

the median wealth for a white family in the United States was 171,000 dollars

median kekayaan keluarga kulit putih di AS adalah 171.000 dolar,

and the median wealth for a Black family was just 17,000 dollars,

dan keluarga kulit hitam hanya 17.000 dolar,

a 10x different over 150 years after the end of slavery.

berbeda 10 kali lipat setelah 150 tahun berakhirnya perbudakan.

I think first we have to ask ourselves, what is wealth really?

Pertama, kita harus bertanya, apa itu kekayaan?

Well, wealth is all of your assets, all of the things that you own,

Kekayaan adalah semua aset atau kepemilikan Anda,

dikurangi liabilitas Anda.

minus all of your liabilities.

Assets are things like your car, your house, your savings account,

Contoh aset adalah mobil, rumah, rekening tabungan,

your checking account, your investments, if you own other properties,

rekening giro, investasi, properti lain, dan bisnis.

your business.

Well, that gap, that 10x gap,

Celah 10 kali lipat itu terjadi karena, selama puluhan tahun,

is partially because for many years,

decades in fact,

Black Americans were left off of that ladder

Orang kulit hitam Amerika terlambat dan tak bisa bergerak maju.

and didn't really have access to it.

Well, why are we talking about this now?

Mengapa kita membicarakannya sekarang?

Well, in 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic and a looming recession,

Di 2020, di tengah pandemi global dan resesi yang mendekat,

ketidakadilan menjadi jelas hampir dalam semua sistem di AS:

inequities are really laid bare

across nearly every system in the United States:

health care, education, criminal justice and finance,

kesehatan, pendidikan, peradilan, dan keuangan,

and people were moved to take action online, in streets,

orang-orang tergerak untuk beraksi di internet, jalan,

in meetings at work, in corporate boardrooms.

dan rapat di kantor perusahaan.

And I, as a consultant, started having conversations with clients

Sebagai konsultan, saya mulai berbicara dengan klien saya tentang hal tak terkira.

that I thought I would never have.

I guess the question that I'd been asking myself is,

Pertanyaan yang saya pikirkan adalah

how do we make sure that in this moment, this results in action and progress

bagaimana agar momen ini bisa menutup celah kekayaan tersebut?

that starts to close that wealth gap for Black versus white Americans?

So who am I?

Jadi, siapakah saya?

My name is Kedra Newsom Reeves.

Saya Kedra Newsom Reeves.

I am a consultant for banking institutions,

Saya konsultan bagi institusi perbankan, pengelola investasi, dan pengelola aset.

hedge funds, asset managers.

But before any of that,

Tapi, sebelumnya,

I am a Black American who is the descendant of slaves.

saya adalah seorang kulit hitam Amerika keturunan dari budak.

And when we talk about the wealth gap,

Ketika membahas celah kekayaan, kita harus memahami sejarahnya.

it's really important to understand the history,

so I thought I'd tell a little story about a family, my family,

Jadi, saya ingin bercerita tentang keluarga saya,

and how policy intersects with wealth.

dan keterkaitan kebijakan dengan kekayaan.

So we'll start with my great-great-grandfather.

Kita mulai dengan kakek moyang saya.

He was a man named Silas Newsom,

Namanya Silas Newsom, ia terlahir sebagai budak dekat Nashville, Tennessee,

and Silas was born a slave outside Nashville, Tennessee,

on Newsom Station,

di Stasiun Newsom, di mana dia dan keluarganya bekerja di tambang.

where he and his family worked on a quarry.

He didn't own anything.

Ia tak punya apa-apa.

He didn't own his home. He didn't own property.

Ia tidak punya rumah ataupun properti.

He didn't really even own his own body,

Ia pun tak menguasai tubuhnya, usahanya, anak-anaknya.

his own labor, his children.

Any of those things, all of those things,

Semua hal itu hanya digunakan untuk memperkaya orang lain.

were here to create wealth for someone else.

So we believe that he was a servant

Jadi, kami percaya bahwa ia adalah seorang pelayan

during the Civil War for a Confederate general

saat Perang Saudara untuk seorang jenderal sekutu

who was actually fighting to keep him enslaved,

yang berjuang untuk terus memperbudaknya,

so he really had no wealth, he had no control over his life.

jadi ia tak punya kekayaan, dan tak menguasai hidupnya.

Well, at the end of slavery, there was a policy opportunity.

Di akhir perbudakan, ada sebuah peluang kebijakan.

There was a question:

Ada sebuah pertanyaan:

what do we do for the hundreds of years of slavery

apa yang akan kita lakukan setelah perbudakan berakhir?

now that we are ending slavery and the country is coming together?

And there was a choice.

Ada sebuah pilihan.

We could make a settlement with the slaves,

Kita bisa membayar para budak, atau para pemilik budak.

or we could make a settlement with the slave owners.

Well, the slaves had no power to advocate for themselves in that moment,

Para budak tak punya kekuatan untuk membela dirinya saat itu,

and the country had to be united,

dan negaranya harus disatukan,

so the federal government decided to give that settlement to slave owners,

jadi, pemerintah federal memutuskan untuk membayar para pemilik budak;

essentially giving them money for the property that they had lost

memberinya uang untuk properti yang hilang saat perang.

at the end of the war.

And not their physical property, not their homes, but people,

Namun, maksudnya bukan properti fisik seperti rumah,

melainkan para budak yang telah memberi jasa gratis selama puluhan tahun.

the slaves that had provided free labor for years and decades.

So Silas, at the end of the Civil War,

Jadi, Silas, di akhir Perang Saudara, tidak punya kekayaan.

had no wealth.

He was free but had no wealth.

Ia sudah bebas, namun tanpa kekayaan.

He became a sharecropper.

Ia menjadi petani.

My great-grandfather Silas was born

Kakek buyut saya, Silas, lahir setelah perbudakan selesai,

a number of years after the end of slavery,

and he was drafted to serve in World War I

ia berperang di Perang Dunia I

along with 350,000 other Black American soldiers

bersama 350.000 tentara kulit hitam Amerika lainnya

in segregated units.

di unit yang terpisah-pisah.

He served in the war.

Ia berperang.

When he came back to the United States,

Ketika ia kembali ke AS di akhir perang, ada banyak sentimen anti kulit hitam.

at the end of the war, there was very anti-Black sentiment.

The economy was compressing, there were a lot of stressors,

Saat itu, ekonomi tertekan, banyak sekali hambatan,

and Black people could not get land, they could not get loans for homes,

dan orang kulit hitam tak bisa mendapatkan tanah dan pinjaman rumah,

they really could not acquire any credit to build wealth over time,

mereka tidak bisa mendapat kredit untuk membangun kekayaan,

so he also became a farmer.

maka, dia menjadi petani.

And he had a son, also named Silas --

Ia memiliki anak, namanya juga Silas -- ada banyak Silas di keluarga saya --

there are a lot of Silases in my family --

yang menjadi kakek saya.

my grandfather.

My grandfather Silas was also a soldier and fought in World War II.

Kakek saya, Silas, juga menjadi tentara untuk Perang Dunia II.

After World War II,

Setelah Perang Dunia II,

the US Federal Government passed the GI Bill,

Pemerintah Federal AS meloloskan GI Bill, yang membantu veteran.

which provided support for veterans.

And the bill provided for building of hospitals,

Bill itu menyediakan bantuan rumah sakit, pinjaman pelajar,

student loans

and, most importantly for wealth-building, low-interest home mortgages for veterans.

dan pentingnya, untuk membangun kekayaan, hipotek berbunga rendah.

In the years following the war,

Beberapa tahun setelah perang,

the GI Bill accounted for four billion dollars of funding

GI Bill mengucurkan empat miliar dolar untuk sembilan juta veteran.

to nine million veterans.

But Black veterans largely did not benefit.

Tapi, banyak veteran kulit hitam tidak untung.

So Silas, my grandfather, came back to Nashville, Tennessee,

Jadi, kakek saya, Silas, pulang ke Nashville, Tennessee,

and he married my grandmother, whose name is Cinderella.

dan menikah dengan nenek saya, yang bernama Cinderella.

Ya, nama nenek saya Cinderella.

Yes, my grandmother's name was Cinderella.

And they had eight children.

Mereka punya delapan anak.

But they never bought a home.

Mereka tak membeli rumah.

And the highlight of their housing journey

Yang luar biasa adalah

was moving into a new public housing project

mereka pindah ke proyek perumahan publik dan membayar sewa untuk proyek itu,

with their children

and paying rent for that housing project,

which in terms of the quality of housing was fantastic for them and a step up,

yang berkualitas baik bagi mereka, dan sebuah kemajuan,

but did not allow them to build wealth.

tapi mereka tak bisa membangun kekayaan.

My father, another soldier,

Ayah saya, juga tentara, seorang veteran 20 tahun marinir AS,

a 20-year veteran of the United States Marines,

bought his first home in his early 50s,

membeli rumah pertamanya di usia 50-an,

but it took four generations for our family to move into homeownership

namun perlu empat generasi bagi keluarga kami

untuk membangun kekayaan dengan kepemilikan rumah.

and begin to build ownership and equity in a home.

That's one family's story, and I skipped a lot of things

Itu adalah cerita keluarga saya, dan saya melewati banyak hal

that happened between the end of slavery and today:

dari akhir perbudakan dan sekarang:

redlining, housing discrimination before the Fair Housing Act in the 1970s,

diskriminasi tempat tinggal dan perumahan sebelum Fair Housing Act 1970,

the really important role that Black-owned banks played

peran penting bank kulit hitam dalam membangun komunitasnya,

in building Black communities,

the Savings and Loan Crisis of the 1980s,

Krisis Tabungan dan Pinjaman 1980, yang menutup banyak bank kulit hitam,

which crushed a lot of Black banks,

and the subprime crisis in 2008,

dan Krisis Subprime 2008,

yang mengusir banyak orang kulit hitam dan coklat dari rumahnya.

which stripped a lot of Black and brown homeowners of their homes.

There's a lot of history there,

Ada banyak sejarah di sana,

but that story tells you a bit about how we get to this 10x gap

namun cerita itu menjelaskan sedikit tentang asal usul celah saat ini.

where we are today.

Now, certainly, as we think about the size of that gap,

Tentunya, ketika kita melihat ukuran celah tersebut,

it is critical for the Federal Government to take a number of actions.

sangat penting bagi Pemerintah Federal untuk mengambil beberapa sikap.

That said, financial institutions play a really important role

Institusi keuangan sangatlah penting dalam memberi kredit, modal

in providing access to credit, access to capital,

to build communities

untuk membangun dan mengembangkan komunitas kulit hitam.

and allow Black communities to thrive.

We have to be clear;

Kita harus tahu;

managing 17,000 dollars better does not get us there.

mengelola 17.000 dolar dengan lebih baik tidaklah cukup.

Better education does not get us there.

Pendidikan yang lebih baik juga tak cukup.

Access to credit and capital are critical.

Akses ke kredit dan modal amatlah penting.

So I want to talk about four solutions today

Saya mau membahas empat solusi

that financial institutions can contribute to start to close the wealth gap.

yang bisa dilakukan institusi keuangan untuk menutup celah kekayaannya.

Number one is getting more people on the ladder,

Pertama, yaitu, memberi akses bank ke banyak orang.

getting more people banked.

We know today that about half of Black Americans

Setengah dari orang kulit hitam Amerika tidak memakai bank.

are un- or underbanked.

Unbanked means that you don't have a banking account.

Maksudnya adalah tak punya akun bank,

Underbanked means that you have a bank account

atau punya, namun memakai layanan lain

but you use alternative services for check-cashing or payday lending

untuk mencairkan uang, meminjam gaji, atau membayar tagihan.

or paying bills.

And that's not just expensive from a transaction perspective

Biaya transaksinya mahal, dan waktu untuk membayar juga lama.

in terms of the fees that you pay,

it's also expensive in terms of the time that you commit to paying a bill.

Think about how you pay your utility bill today.

Bayangkan bagaimana Anda membayar tagihan.

It probably comes out of your checking account.

Mungkin Anda bayar dengan rekening giro.

You don't even think about it.

Anda atur di awal, dan menjadi otomatis.

You set it up in advance, and it's automatic.

Well, if you're unbanked,

Jika tak memakai bank, Anda harus pesan uang kertas dahulu,

you are probably going to get a money order somewhere,

physically, a piece of paper.

You then travel to City Hall or your DMV

dan membayarnya di balai kota atau kantor pemerintah.

to pay that bill.

About 40 percent of people who are unbanked

40% orang yang tak memakai bank mengira uangnya terlalu sedikit

say they are unbanked because they think they don't have the minimum amount

to really maintain a checking account.

untuk membuka rekening giro.

Well, that's just not true.

Itu tidak benar.

In the last several years,

Beberapa tahun terakhir,

credit unions, community banks and major banking institutions

koperasi kredit, bank komunitas, dan institusi perbankan

have created low-cost, no-minimum checking and savings account products

telah membuat rekening giro dan tabungan tanpa saldo minimum berbiaya rendah

specifically made for this population.

khusus untuk populasi ini.

So we have an issue with awareness.

Jadi, masalahnya adalah kesadaran.

Banks, community partners and others

Bank, mitra komunitas, dan lainnya harus bekerja sama

have to work together to increase the awareness of these products

untuk memberitahu produk ini ke mereka yang membutuhkan

in communities that need them,

so that we can start to reduce the number of people

dan mengurangi jumlah orang yang tak memakai bank,

who are un- and underbanked

and get them on the ladder that we talked about earlier.

dan membantu mereka bergerak maju.

The challenge is about 28 percent of Black and Latinx families

28% keluarga kulit hitam dan Latinx tidak punya atau punya sedikit kredit.

are credit-invisible,

which means that you have a thin credit file or no credit file.

And the way that credit works and creditworthiness assessments work

Cara kerja kredit dan penilaiannya adalah

is to say, if you can prove

jika Anda punya bukti kemampuan membayar pinjaman,

that you have paid credit back consistently previously,

then I can lend you more credit.

maka Anda bisa pinjam lagi.

It's kind of a chicken or an egg situation.

Ini seperti situasi ayam atau telur.

The interesting thing is that banks and financial technology companies

Yang menarik adalah bank dan perusahaan teknologi keuangan

have really innovated in recent years to use alternative data --

telah berinovasi untuk menggunakan data alternatif --

cable bills,

tagihan kabel, tagihan utilitas, pembayaran sewa, dan lainnya --

utility bills,

rent payments, etc. --

to show that you're able to consistently make payments.

untuk menunjukkan kemampuan Anda dalam membayar.

The additional challenge on this one, unlike the last one,

Tantangan kali ini bukan tentang kesadaran.

which was more about awareness,

is that you need to have regulatory support to do these things.

Anda perlu peraturan untuk melakukan hal ini.

You need to prove to regulators

Anda perlu membuktikan kemampuan menggunakan datanya

that you are able to fairly use alternative data

to lend credit to marginalized groups.

untuk meminjamkan kredit ke kelompok terpinggirkan.

What we need to see is, from the Federal Government

Yang diperlukan adalah agar Pemerintah Federal dan industri perbankan

and the banking industry,

to come together to create innovation sandboxes

untuk bekerja sama menggunakan data alternatif bagi kelompok tersebut.

to start to use alternative data to expand to marginalized groups.

Well, what about communities?

Bagaimana dengan komunitas?

Without community wealth,

Tanpa kekayaan komunitas, kekayaan individu tak berguna.

individual wealth, in a way, is on an island.

And if you go into most major cities in the United States

Jika Anda lihat kota besar di AS dan komunitas kulit hitam,

to most communities of color,

what you'll find is underinvested communities.

Anda akan menemukan komunitas yang kurang berkembang.

For every economic crisis, these communities have suffered severely.

Saat krisis ekonomi, komunitas ini tersiksa dengan buruk.

For every economic boom, they have not benefited.

Saat ledakan ekonomi, mereka tidak diuntungkan.

And so what we're seeing in a number of cities across the country,

Jadi, yang terlihat di banyak kota di AS, contohnya Chicago adalah kerja sama

and I'll use Chicago as an example,

is the partnerships occurring

between banking institutions,

antara institusi perbankan, dermawan, pemimpin kota dan komunitas,

philanthropists,

the city and community leaders

to invest hundreds of millions of dollars

untuk menanamkan ratusan juta dolar untuk membangun sumber daya di komunitas

to build community resources

and communities that have historically been disinvested.

yang telah lama dirugikan.

Lastly, we've got to talk about business,

Akhirnya, kita bisa bicara tentang bisnis, tak hanya bisnis kecil.

and not just small businesses.

Now, when you have individual stability and a banking institution,

Ketika Anda punya kestabilan, institusi perbankan,

and you have access to credit, and when you have community wealth,

akses ke kredit, dan kekayaan komunitas,

those are all fantastic things, but we need also job creation.

itu luar biasa, namun kami juga perlu pembuatan pekerjaan.

Take all of the new tech companies,

Misal, perusahaan teknologi "baru", yang tak terlalu baru,

and I say "new" because now they're not so new,

but take Facebook, Google, Amazon.

seperti Facebook, Google, Amazon.

At some point, all of those companies were sole proprietorships

Dulunya, perusahaan itu hanya dimiliki oleh satu atau beberapa pegawai

with one employee

or a few employees

that were building a technology that was not yet proven.

yang sedang membangun teknologi yang belum terbukti.

What those companies received early on

Perusahaan tersebut awalnya menerima uang modal usaha.

was venture capital money.

And when you look at venture capital today,

Saat ini, hanya 1% modal usaha masuk ke pendiri kulit hitam.

only one percent of venture capital funds go to Black founders.

So if Black entrepreneurs are largely shut out of those networks

Jika pengusaha kulit hitam dicegah masuk ke jaringan itu,

they're not able to grow,

mereka tak bisa tumbuh,

and the only way for that to change

dan hanya industri yang dapat merubahnya.

is from within the industry itself.

In this generation, we must not only be talking about thriving businesses

Di generasi ini, kita tak boleh hanya bicara tentang mengembangkan bisnis

in Black communities.

di komunitas kulit hitam.

We must also be talking about seeing more Black-owned

Kita juga harus bicara tentang melihat lebih banyak

bisnis orang kulit hitam menjadi publik.

and founded businesses going public.

Those are just four solutions.

Itu hanya empat solusi.

There's many other things that can and should be done

Ada banyak hal lain yang bisa dan harusnya dilakukan

to close the wealth gap.

untuk menutup celahnya.

This gap is not new.

Celah ini tidak baru.

It was born and perpetuated by federal policy, social constructs

Ini dilahirkan dan dilanjutkan oleh kebijakan federal, teori sosial,

and business practice over time,

dan praktik bisnis.

and all of those things need to change

Dan semua hal itu perlu berubah untuk mulai menutup celahnya.

to start to close the gap.

Financial institutions play a really critical role

Institusi keuangan berperan sangat penting di level individu, komunitas, dan bisnis.

at the individual level, at the community level

and at the business level.

It's important to our families, it's important to our communities

Ini penting bagi keluarga, komunitas, dan ekonomi kami.

and it's important to our economy.

Instead of talking about how the gap continues to grow,

Daripada membicarakan pelebaran celahnya, marilah kita mulai menutupnya.

let's begin to close the gap now.

Thank you.

Terima kasih.