The Hidden ‘Black Tax’ That Some Professionals of Color Struggle With
Many black professionals feel pressure to share their income with struggling family members, making it difficult for them to build generational wealth
By Brittany Oliver
There are plenty of obstacles for professionals and entrepreneurs of color: a wage gap, a funding gap, and plenty of discrimination. But for many there’s also an unspoken challenge while trying to build their companies, their career, or their wealth. A common phenomenon that some refer to as the “black tax”—money they give to family members each month. When Sheena Allen, founder, and CEO of tech companies CAPWAY and Phocal expressed the stress of “black tax” in a viral tweet recently, she started a conversation of what “black tax” looks like for black founders and professionals.
“I feel like it was the elephant in the room, and nobody talked about it for some reason. Look, we all are in the struggle of the journey, but the reality of it is we don’t have this same advantage and opportunity of quickly building generational wealth,” Allen said. She grew up with a rule that is common in many black homes: to keep your family’s struggles private. If there was no food to eat or if the lights were cut off, no one else…
