Make your landlord rich or find a permanent home
The “American” question I was asked that made me question public school and black wealth
“You are from America, aren’t you?” he asked, gazing down at me. I sat on a garden stone and leaned my back against the bricks surrounding the outside of my kitchen window.
“Born and raised in Chicago, south side,” I responded, mildly irritated that my citizenship was being questioned. “Why did you ask me that?”
“I don’t understand why you weren’t trying to buy property years ago,” he said. “That’s what I always knew about America. Buy homes. Get money. I thought everybody in America did that.”
I paused. He was born and raised in Mexico, and I’m sure he was telling his truth. But I was a bit offended and mildly embarrassed by his explanation. It felt like he was challenging my educational background for not buying a house fresh out of high school. I tried to figure out the most diplomatic way to both answer his question and make him understand why property ownership was not the first thing on my mind growing up.
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“Historically speaking, there is a large gap between black people and home ownership versus other groups,” I said, not having the black-versus-white home ownership statistics handy. “Also, real estate classes and home ownership are not topics that are taught in our school systems. We get standardized tests and physical education. I had to take trigonometry and geometry in order to get my high school diploma. But if I relied on my elementary school, high school and even college education to buy a home, I’d have been S.O.L. I didn’t even have real estate courses in grad school.”
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He paused for a second, pondering on my reply. Then he just shrugged in an “I guess that’s that” kinda way. I went on to drill him and his wife with questions about how they ended up owning more than 20 properties. Both of them had agreed early on when they met that they never wanted a boss, so real estate investment was a mutual decision for them. I listened attentively, soaking it all in. But his original question sat with me for weeks.
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Having a home is part of the “American dream.” And although my grandfather repeatedly asked me if I wanted his home once he passed away, telling me, “It’s paid off. All you gotta do is pay taxes,” I told him “no.” I didn’t want the responsibility of owning a home nor did I think I could afford the taxes. I said “no” all through my 20s and most of my 30s until he passed away. Ironically, a year later, I purchased a condo and realized that turning down a paid-off home was quite possibly the dumbest business decision I could’ve made. If I could do it all over again, I wish I would’ve just asked him more about the ins and outs of home ownership. Instead, I looked at it as “too much money” and shut down completely.