Twice weekly, NGPF is celebrating Black History Month by highlighting Black financial leaders and educators via dedicated posts and student activities on the NGPF blog. 

Deviating from our previous posts featuring the work of one individual, today we draw your attention toward this interview conducted by Courtney Stith for Acorns + CNBC on the Grow website. 

Featured Resource and Activity Idea: This is the ‘most obvious’ thing missing from the racial wealth gap conversation, Black experts say

You might recognize some of these names from NGPF’s recent Black History Month blog posts and Speaker Series: Writer Courtney Stith recently interviewed Angelina Darrisaw, Bola Sokunbi, Julien Saunders, Rainier Harris, Kiersten Saunders, Chris Browning, and Melissa Jean-Baptiste about what’s missing from racial wealth gap conversations. Her interview is available in print and video format, which we think is great for classroom use -- you can choose which fits your teaching format best or, even better, let students decide!

According to the Federal Reserve Bank, the average white family has 8 times more wealth than the average Black family. Stith asked the assembled group of experts to weigh in. 

As an activity, if you think your students are ready to provide their own social commentary, you can ask them to respond to the prompt, “What’s missing from the national conversation about closing the racial wealth gap?” They could respond before or after reviewing the interview, or they could do both and see how the expert opinions change their thinking, if at all. 

BUT, we realize many students might not be ready to provide their own commentary on this weighty topic, or they simply might not have enough context or content knowledge to weigh in with their own perspectives just yet. Here are some discussion or writing prompts you could use instead: 

• Which financial guru’s opinion resonated with you the most? Why? 
• If you could ask one of the experts some follow-up questions, who would you choose to speak with? What questions would you ask them?  
• How have you seen the racial wealth gap at play in our own life? And what do you wish someone would do to address it? 

If you’re looking for more ways to celebrate Black History Month, check out our collection of blog posts and Questions of the Day here.

About the Authors

Jessica Endlich

When I started working at Next Gen Personal Finance, it's as though my undergraduate degree in finance, followed by ten years as an educator in an NYC public high school, suddenly all made sense.

Sonia Dalal

Sonia has always been passionate about instruction and improving students' learning experiences. She's come a long way since her days as a first grader, when she would "teach" music and read to her very attentive stuffed animals after school. Since then, she has taught students as a K-12 tutor, worked in several EdTech startups in the Bay Area, and completed her Ed.M in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is passionate about bringing the high quality personal finance content and instruction she wished she'd received in school to the next generation of students and educators. When she isn't crafting lesson guides or working with teachers, Sonia loves to spend her time singing, being outdoors, and adventuring with family and friends!