To understand why black families have found it incredibly difficult to acquire wealth and pass it on from generation to generation, one has to acknowledge the damage caused by systematic obstacles.

You will rarely find communities admitting that privilege and luck are major contributors to outcomes. Human nature has a deep aversion to accepting this. Instead, we do what we have done forever. We develop myths that often times are not accurate. Indeed, we need the Houston/Chavers Initiative to counter this and provide access to capital – especially those from the black community.

“People of color and women have long faced barriers starting their own businesses and raising capital to fund them. Some barriers have been structural, others cultural, but all have been costly — and often in ways we’ll never be able to quantify. We can only imagine what businesses might have taken off, what products consumers might have enjoyed, and what innovations and returns might have been realized had people of color and women enjoyed equal access to capital and opportunity.” Morgan Stanley