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“I would like to think that we’ve evolved past biases against people of color, LGBTQ people, but we haven’t,” says Vivian Tu, a 27-year-old millionaire and ex-Wall Streeter.
During her time working as a trader on Wall Street, Tu was one of the only women of color on her team, and she got an inside look at the common traps and barriers that keep people of color from building wealth.
On her TikTok, she educated her 1 million followers on how racism affected a Black couple’s home appraisal, a process where a professional gives a homeowner an estimate of how much their home is worth before putting it on the market.
During their first appraisal, Paul Austin and Tenisha Tate-Austin were told that their home was worth $989,000 — much lower than other homes in their neighborhood in Marin City. Once approved for a second appraisal, the Austins took down personal photos of their family, replaced them with photos of a white family, and asked a white friend to pose as the homeowner. The first appraisal with the Tates’ family photos was appraised at $455,000 less than the second appraisal with white family photos.
Tu encouraged her white viewers, “Talk to your friends of color about financial topics such as mortgage rates, salaries, and home prices so that they know what they should be asking for.” She also tells Business Insider, “If you are in a position of privilege, you can be a great ally to your friends of color by being transparent about money.”
Talking about money openly is already awkward enough, and it can be even more challenging to factor race into the conversation as well. If you feel uncomfortable asking someone face-to-face, try prefacing the conversation with a text or email, or schedule a Zoom call to talk about…
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