Racism is like rain. It is either falling someplace or it is gathering. So you might as well get an umbrella in a color you like and start strolling through it, because we are going to go over, around and through whatever stands in the way.

This episode grew out of a conversation that caught fire online. A short clip from my interview on The Breakfast Club drew a flood of comments, many of them asking some version of the same question: if racism is so deep and so documented, why should any of us bother to try? I understand where that question comes from. My great-great-grandfather wore the Union uniform while he was still enslaved, and my grandfather was a sharecropper. I am not naive about our history. I also refuse to hand anyone the power to write my ending.

So I brought receipts. I talk about why a lender who wants to be repaid has every reason to say yes to a borrower with strong credit, and why a credit score above 700 turns you from black or white into green. I talk about my mother, who worked an hourly job for decades and still became a homeowner and an investor. I also go back to the 1600s, to a moment when poor Black and poor white workers were friends, and to the decision that split them apart for profit.

Be skeptical, but never cynical, because cynicism means you have given up hope. Your aspiration can outshine somebody else’s racism. I end with a listener question about the best investment anyone can make right now, and the answer points straight back at the person asking.

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Prefer to watch? The full episode is on YouTube.