Chris Rock, On Race and Money
Posted by admin in General
I saw Chris Rock this weekend, and was happy to mine his act for a personal finance nugget I could re-use. The bit that struck me was when Rock talked about how much more a black person has to do than a white person to be financially successful. I'm paraphrasing, but here's basically what he said:
"I live in Alpine, New Jersey, in a $3 million home. There are 4 other black people that live in my neighborhood. So it's me, a fairly successful comedian, then Mary J. Blige, one of the greatest R&B singers of all time, Jay-Z, one of the greatest rap artists, and Denzel Washington, one of the great actors today, right? Everyone else is white.
You know what my neighbor does?
He's a dentist!
He's not the greatest dentist of all time. He's not a superstar dentist. He's just a dentist!
You know what it would take for a black dentist to live in that neighborhood? If a black dentist wanted to live in that neighborhood, he would have had to invent teeth!"
I think when this was delivered, Rock used the "F" word a few times for emphasis, but I left that out.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Funny stuff, but also says a lot about inherited wealth (neither of the entertainers mentioned came from money) and perhaps living below one’s means while in your youth. There’s a direct correlation there.
Yes, compare the white dentist who actually educated himself with entertainers. They could simply move to a nice black neighborhodd.