I, Abel Soares III, the CEO of Hui Malama Advisors LLC and its subsidiaries stand in solidarity with our minority communities that continue to experience systemic oppression and are not provided a fair and equal place in society. There should be no doubt that the current tragic events are heinous and flat out wrong. These recent events serve as reminders of the difficult history of slavery, Jim Crow, lynching, land stealing and systemic policies that have worked to maintain an inequitable society. The burden is not on the minority community to explain or educate those who have profited from their burdensome history, nor is it on minorities to fix the issue as it is not a problem that they created.
I identify that I have privilege in my life of looking and being part white, although I identify with my Native Hawaiian heritage and am proud of the values that my culture and people hold. I am also the father of black children who will not have the same privilege and opportunities that I have. I am fearful of where to raise my children as implicit bias is pervasive and the resulting microaggressions continue to plague society and our interactions. The difficulty is implicit bias in engrained in each persons’ individual mind and we must acknowledge what biases we have to transform our perceptions. Bias underlies the horrific experiences of brutal force that we have witnessed in the news. These biases also happen daily across multiple interactions and industries, from finance to real estate to our medical community. To my non-Black, brown, and minority counterparts, I challenge you to look inward and identify what you can do to change, what you can do to accept the plight of people of color in this nation, and what you can do to support our minority communities. As a Certified Public Accountant and business owner, I acknowledge that generations of Black, brown, and other minority families were unable to make an equal wage, save, own property, and build generational wealth. Let us all come together to be the generation of change. At Hui Malama Advisors LLC we have started with maintaining a focus on minority communities, providing education regarding historical and continued practices that have limited minority financial well-being, and providing support to minority-owned companies. How will you work to bring about change?
Here are some educational resources on the systemic issues impacting the economic challenges people of color, and specifically African Americans, face in the US.
Racialized Cost of Banking: https://www.newamerica.org/family-centered-social-policy/reports/racialized-costs-banking/
Race, Planning, and the American City: http://www.we-aggregate.org/piece/race-planning-and-the-american-city
Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, 2019, Historical Context of Racist Planning: https://beta.portland.gov/sites/default/files/2019-12/portland-racist-planning-history_general.10.2.19_pdf.pdf
Systemic Inequality: How America’s Housing System Undermines Wealth Building in Communities of Color: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/reports/2019/08/07/472617/systemic-inequality-displacement-exclusion-segregation/
Systemic Inequality and Economic Opportunity: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/reports/2019/08/07/472910/systematic-inequality-economic-opportunity/
Discrimination in America: Experiences and Views Based on Population Group: https://www.rwjf.org/en/library/research/2017/10/discrimination-in-america--experiences-and-views.html