For decades, politicians have sold America a feel-good story: if we just tax the rich more, everything will get better. Schools will improve, wages will rise, poverty will shrink, and the economy will magically fix itself. But this narrative isn’t just misleading—it’s dangerous, especially for Black Americans.

We’ve been told that taxing the wealthy is a path to fairness and opportunity. In reality, it’s a policy that consistently shrinks opportunity, stifles business growth, and kills the very economic mobility that Black communities desperately need to build generational wealth.

The numbers tell a sobering story. According to the Federal Reserve, the median Black family holds just $24,000 in wealth compared to $188,000 for the median white family—an eightfold gap. Meanwhile, Census Bureau data shows that only 2.4% of U.S. businesses are Black-owned, despite Black Americans making up over 13% of the population. Even among those businesses, most are sole proprietorships with no employees, reflecting systemic barriers to growth, capital access, and market expansion.

So when politicians push policies to “tax the rich,” they aren’t just targeting billionaires—they’re suffocating the very entrepreneurial spirit that Black America needs to escape generational poverty. Higher taxes mean fewer investments, fewer jobs, and fewer Black-owned businesses surviving, let alone thriving.

History makes this clear. Herbert Hoover’s 1932 tax hikes deepened the Great Depression. Franklin D. Roosevelt raised taxes further and triggered a recession in 1937. Lyndon Johnson’s 1968 tax surcharge led to stagflation. George H. W. Bush’s tax increases preceded the 1990 recession. Barack Obama’s 2013 tax hike coincided with a sluggish recovery that left Black wealth and business growth stagnant.

The Lie About Taxing the Rich — And Why It Hurts Black America Most 5

By contrast, the economy expanded when taxes were cut under Coolidge, Kennedy, Reagan, and even Trump. Jobs were created, wages rose, and business formation increased. Between 2017 and 2019 alone, following corporate tax cuts, Black business ownership grew by 13%, and Black unemployment hit record lows.

This is why tax policy matters to Black America. We cannot afford policies that choke economic growth when we are already fighting against a legacy of exclusion from wealth-building opportunities. The solution isn’t more redistribution—it’s fostering an economy where Black ownership and enterprise can flourish.

Frederick Douglass understood this truth by famously saying: “Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. If the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall… All he asks is to be allowed to do for himself.”

Black America doesn’t need the government to take more from others in our name. We need the government to get out of the way—to stop overtaxing, overregulating, and undermining the economic conditions necessary for us to build businesses, accumulate wealth, and pass it on to future generations.

Thomas Sowell reminded us that, “The real question is not whether the rich are taxed too little, but whether the government spends too much.” Every dollar drained from productive citizens to fund bloated government programs is a dollar that could have been invested in a startup, a storefront, or a family legacy.

We’ve been lied to. Taxing the rich doesn’t empower Black communities—it weakens them. The path to closing the wealth gap isn’t through punishing success but through creating more opportunities for success. That means policies that encourage ownership, investment, and entrepreneurship—not dependency.

While Black Americans collectively hold $1.5 trillion in spending power—enough to rank among the richest nations in the world—we are constantly distracted by leaders and politicians who preach envy of the wealthy instead of teaching the principles of wealth-building. Rather than focusing on cooperative economics, business ownership, and circulating our dollars within our own communities, we’re told to hate “the rich” as if poverty is a virtue. This mindset keeps us consumers, not producers. The truth is, as a people, we are not poor—we are poorly organized. Until we reject the politics of resentment and embrace an economic strategy, that $1.5 trillion will continue to enrich everyone except us.

True Black empowerment will never come from waiting on redistribution. It will come from ownership, enterprise, and economic freedom.