The American Dream Isn’t for Black Millennials

The New York Times ^ | January 6, 2019 | By Reniqua Allen

[Chode]

where to begin???

Over the course of several years, beginning in 2014 through last year, I spoke with more than 75 people in their 20s and 30s from places like New York; Raeford, N.C.; Jackson, Miss.; and New Orleans.

so you talked to ~20 people a year, it must have been grueling

frustrated that many people, including black people from different generations, didn’t understand why we couldn’t just pull up our pants, find a job with our fancy degrees and be happy.

well maybe if you'd been smarter you'd have gotten a degree that paid for itself

I bought my first home in August 2005. I was working as a production assistant at a television network and was excited that I would now have a visual marker of success. I was 25, just a few years out of college, and everything felt possible. At the time, I was making $28,000 a year —

$28,000? what was that, coffee girl???

but credit was free flowing, and I qualified for a $250,000 “no doc” adjustable loan.

one step above a NINJA loan?

So back in 2005, it seemed like a good idea to buy an apartment.
My mortgage broker told me I needed to get out of my adjustable loan in two years and get a conventional mortgage. She sort of warned me it was a bad deal, and I could understand why. But she didn’t warn me against doing it at all. She was black, middle-aged and seemed to take a “by any means necessary” approach to black people owning property.

so you were taken advantage by a BLACK woman... and an apartment isn't really property

But when I got a notice in the mail about five years after I closed, I felt dizzy.

you are dizzy... dint she TELL you to get out of the adj loan? you ignored her advise

I’d heard the words of the broker. But because of my race? It hadn’t crossed my mind. I was devastated.

no, you're stooopid...

I was reminded of this moment years later, when I was talking to a young man named Bleu who lived in Florida. He loved playing basketball, did well at his charter school and hoped to become a forensic scientist — the version of the American dream that rewards merit and achievement, his version of saving for a mortgage. His family had no resources to get him to college, though, and he took a job at a fast-food restaurant after graduating from high school. He tried to enroll in a for-profit college, but the monthly fees got too expensive. He dropped out after he missed the third payment.

Forensic Scientist, yeah, right... in a school that used to be found on the back of a matchbook no less.

We were talking by phone as he drove home from work one night,And then he got pulled over by the police. The two officers, one black and one white, pulled him over because they said he ran a stop sign. They let him go with a warning,

well maybe if he wasn't TALKING TO YOU ON CELLPHONE he might have stopped for the sign, but prolly not.

I finally decided to put the condo on the market in 2018. My version of the American dream downsized and put on hold. I sold it for far less than I paid in 2005.

reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

[Lizavetta]

You’ll be happy to know the comment section is overwhelmingly against this complaining woman.

[Migraine]

we’re still tired of having to prove our humanity

This is beneath retarded. No human has to prove humanity. But every human has to try to prove value to society. You can't do that by just showing up with your hand out or your hard luck victimhood.

[SamAdams76]

Translaves = born free, self identifying as slaves

Going to have to steal that one!

[gibsonguy]

Ok Reniqua. You are an idiot.

[Aut Pax Aut Bellum]

Cliff Notes of the article: “..black....black....black....black...black....”

[blam]

"They have more opportunity than white, Christian, heterosexual males."

Yes. There's a worldwide war against us.

Civilization will collapse if we go down.

[tomkat]

yawn

[ETCM]

Pure unadulterated crap thrown against the SJW wall, hoping something will stick. This is what passes for journalism? More propaganda from the pit of the commie slime. Nonsense!

She doesn't come up with a SINGLE legitimate example. "My friend got pulled over (by a black cop and a white cop) and they let him off with a WARNING. But, what if they didn't?" RACISM!

"All my close family members own their own homes." RACISM!

"My Mortgage Broker warned me not to take that adjustable mortgage, but I DIDN'T LISTEN." RACISM!

This almost reads like satire. Almost. Millennials are so desperate to be a victim, they search their life to find something, anything.

[Aria]

There are a lot of millinieals where I work (finance at a Fortune 500 company), ALL colors. The job market is tight for qualified people and most employers don’t care what color you are if you can do the work.

[cymbeline]

Advice for choosing your dream: don’t put your race into it.

[ichabod1]

pisses me off nobody payin my rent nobody filllin ny gas tank I aint gotten no raise why should I care what this dusky b(w)itch think?

[Verginius Rufus]

It's like that song sung by Dionne Warwick (and others) from the 1960s: There's Always Something There to Complain Of.

[ichabod1]

see\? not fair.not everyone can live up to that #idiocracy

[dynachrome]

Get off your a$$, reniqua, and make something of yourself. Or remain a whiny racist the rest of your life.

[ichabod1]

well how is that fair to people with IQs in the 80s? Their vote is as good as yours my good man or woman.

[tinyowl]

Sad.

Not the story, but that it's considered a story, or one that will help anyone, unless they read it right. THEN it's a story.

The job of capitalism, whether you're white or black, is to separate a fool from his money. I have been separated from mine before, when I was a fool.

Now I am less a fool.

Now there's a helpful story. And look at that! It took only a few words.

Foolishness knows no color, nor does its punishment.

THINKING it knows a color, now that's just more foolishness.

[Sequoyah101]

Tough.

[Yaelle]

I’m sorry, but none of her examples don’t apply to white people or others. We too often live paycheck to paycheck. We too get taken in by predatory loans. We too don’t have it in our budget to afford tickets, and believe it or not, white people get pulled over too.

[Phil DiBasquette]

Fake news, latifah likes girls