Black tax

Rhona Canoy .

SO… I first heard the term recently and I was struck by the concept behind the term, especially since it is one that is truly pervasive in our land. It was brilliantly explained by Trevor Noah, a black comedian from South Africa. After hearing all the criticism aimed at TRAIN, I realized that the more important issue is the financial slavery that many of our young people find themselves in.

What is black tax? It is the expectation among black people that the first member of the family who gets the educational opportunity to rise above their dire situation has the responsibility to (by virtue of his or her opportunities) dedicate all efforts and successes for the betterment of the whole clan. Sound familiar? It should. It is pervasive in our culture, and I’m not just talking about our economically depressed fellow countrymen.

We all know what this is. The parents and the whole family for that matter make the necessary “sacrifices” to enable the promising offspring to finish school, go to college, graduate, seek employment (preferably abroad) and send most if not all of their hard-earned wages back to the family to provide a better life. In some families, the first to graduate is then expected to assume the burden of providing for a college education for their younger siblings. Sounds noble, that’s for sure. But have we taken a closer look at this dynamic to examine whether it actually works? And what its impact is on our work force and our economy? Greater still, its impact on the growth and progress of our youth?

The false nobility of putting everybody else above oneself needs to be dissected. First of all, the poor young student is pretty much without choice with regard to this whole slavehood concept. Why do I call it slavehood? Because it is. All personal goals, dreams, ambitions, plans must be put on hold indefinitely until the responsibility to the family has been successfully met. Successfully meaning once it is good enough for the whole clan.

Oldest siblings put off marriage to support the family and the clan, in some cases. All employment is geared towards bringing home the pay, and not towards self-development and self-improvement. What’s wrong with that? Everything is wrong with that. I have watched many people I know squander their lives away just to be good children and good providers. They spent most of their adult lives paying the black (in our case “brown”) tax, without any relief or hope in sight. I have watched parents collect from their children repayment of what they spent to send their kids to school. That wouldn’t be a problem if they had negotiated with their children right from the very start. “Kid, I’m going to keep all the receipts and journal ledgers of every single centavo I’m spending to send you to school, and when you graduate and get a job, you’re going to pay us back every single centavo. And you’re going to take care of all your younger siblings so that they get the same opportunities as you. And you’re going to make sure that I spend my old age in comfort. Sign on the dotted line.” That’s how that deal should be made.

Here’s what a lot of people don’t realize. Children are inherently grateful to their parents for all the opportunities provided. And children who are given the freedom to seek their own fortunes without hindrance or expectations will, of their own volition, come back to share their blessings out of a sense of gratitude and not a sense of duty. These kids also tend to be more successful and achieve more than those roped into financial servitude.

Our kids are not our retirement plan. We should do that for ourselves and leave our children to be free to make their own mark on the world. I am often dumbfounded by the extent to which parents will invest in their children’s future because of the perceived ROI. These creatures are not stocks nor bonds. They are not a dabble into the money market. They are individuals who we hope will contribute to the world and make it a better place, not just for us in later years, but for everyone who lives in it. Sounds lofty, doesn’t it? But isn’t that the truth?

So many of us stuck on this spinning rock with nowhere to go. The responsibility is much greater than making sure us old folks are provided for by our offspring. I’m a hopeless optimist, firmly believing that one day people will realize that life can never be lived selfishly. It can’t be just about us all the time. If our young people are devoting too much time and energy to paying the brown tax, there is not much left for anything else. Not for them and not for us.

So let’s leave taxation to the lawmakers and to the BIR. Not that they’re doing it any better, by the way.