Wtf is community?

& how do we build it inside of a broken system?

A couple of weeks ago, I went viral.

I posted a video, a rant really, venting my frustrations with the lack of integrity that some people have in and around the conversation of “buying back the block” and community wealth.

For context, I’m a baby economist (and by baby economist, I mean I’m currently an econ major with an emphasis on community economics on top of all of my other titles 😅).

Traditional economics (and social media, if we’re being honest) tends to frame wealth as personal assets + your income. I know y’all love the models and graphs, but community wealth is more than that. It’s messy, cultural, and rooted in lived experience.

That’s not really something that can be measured and put in charts and tables.

Now, despite how a lot of people took my video, I don’t believe there’s anything inherently wrong with that traditional view of wealth. As much as I hate using the words “generational wealth” in a sentence, I do believe that every Black family should be building the kind of wealth that can be passed down generationally, and it requires you to do some of those things yourself.

I just believe that wealth is not built in a silo. You need people. You need community.

There’s a great book I read that talks about this called No One is Self-Made by Dr. Lakeysha Hallmon. In the book, Dr. Hallmon talks about the importance of a village in order to succeed in life and in business, and I believe that 100%.

I believe that being in community is required to build the “generational wealth” we seek.

When I spoke about community wealth in my video, I was viewing it through the lens of using community economics to build sustainable, healthy, Black communities. Wealth shouldn’t just be about “what I have,” but “what can we access, build, and sustain together.”

So, how do we do it?

Community economics isn’t something new to us. All across the diaspora, Black communities have always practiced cooperative economics in some form. Things like sou-sous, rent parties, and fish frys to pay for funerals are all examples of how culturally we have understood the importance of the community in our survival. I believe that in order to build sustainable models for today’s communities, we should build on these traditions instead of imitating the White supremacist policies that have destroyed our villages and smothered our culture.

In English, we don’t have to become our own oppressors to build wealth.

But in order to do this, I need more people to understand that trust is the real currency here. And lying about your intentions in these communities won’t make us trust you.

And I know the house flippers and landlords are gonna wanna tussle over this, but while we’re here, buying individual properties doesn’t automatically equal community wealth if it’s not serving the community's needs.

Sustainable community wealth building means creating ecosystems where housing, schools, businesses, and culture reinforce each other. This means we also need community centers, youth programs, and grocery stores alongside housing (and the housing should be affordable!!!!).

I believe that there are Five Pillars of Community Wealth:

• People Power (skill sharing, mentorship, intergenerational knowledge)

• Place Power (owning land, housing, and businesses)

• Capital Power (circulating dollars locally through credit unions, co-ops, and buy-Black initiatives)

• Cultural Power (storytelling, traditions, and creative economy as economic drivers)

• Policy Power (local policies that protect instead of extract from communities)

All of these things work together to create sustainable, wealthy, healthy Black communities.

I’m not claiming to have all the answers on how to execute this. I never said that at all, actually. All I wanted to do with that post was start a conversation around intentional community wealth building and what our communities could become if we implemented it.

Conversation is just the first domino. This is just my first post.

What I do know is that we all have a role to play in the rebuilding of our communities. Some of us will play multiple roles until others can come and lift the weight off our shoulders, and I’m ok with that. I’ll be the visionary, and the mouthpiece, and the advocate, and the resource for now.

I’m ok with it because I know that there are other people here in Baltimore, and maybe even around the world, who feel as passionate as I do about this. I know because I see them. I’ve talked to quite a few of them since the post came out. And though we’re in different corners of the city/state/country, knowing that gives me so much hope for my neighborhood. For my block.

I might have been by myself in my office when I made that video, but the thousands of likes, shares, and comments showed me that I’m not alone in this.

So buckle up, cousins. We got work to do.