MIAMI (NewsNation Now) — Sherronda Daye was making six figures with her successful bakery and catering business that supplied desserts to Miami sporting arenas.
Now, she is barely making it and trying to pivot into a new business.
“When the pandemic hit for me, reality put on six inch pumps and was like so what are we going to do? You find yourself in the midst of a pandemic and you are like damn this is what bottom feels like,” said Daye. “And you are trying to climb yourself back to that momentous place you felt at the beginning of 2016.”
Black and Hispanic wealth grew faster than white wealth pre-pandemic, between 2016 and 2019, according to a report by the Federal Reserve. Black net worth grew by about 33%, Hispanic net worth grew by about 65%, and white net worth grew by 3%.
“There is a shift. But I don’t know that the shift has had the magnitude you can feel it and feel the earth shake under your feet,” said Daye.
While the growth numbers show positive trends during those years, there is still a massive wealth gap that exists between white and minority families. The median wealth for Black families is about $24,000, for Hispanic families, it is about $36,000 and for white families, it is about $188,000.
“We need to understand why that wealth gap is so large. And some of our work at our center has traced that back to historical inequities. But I think it is important to focus on that growth as well because far too often there has been a focus on the deficits and I think it is important to applaud and understand why wealth grew in this time period,” said Lowell Ricketts with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Kristin Kitchen grew up financially poor, but is now living her dream. She owns the Dunns-Josephine, a boutique hotel in Miami. She is skeptical the average Black family felt their net worth grow from 2016 to 2019 but is optimistic about the future.
“I think this moment with the pandemic and George Floyd. There is a moment in America where maybe things will turn around. Maybe net worth will grow in a number where it is not 17,000 to 23,000 but 23,000 to 100,000. Where we would get to 50% of the average net worth of a White person,” said Kitchen.
Sherronda and her family thought they were on their way to that but then the coronavirus pandemic hit.
“Is it easy? No it is not. Do I make it look easy? Probably a little more than it is. But when you go from getting $1,000 invoices on a weekly basis to selling tea and getting ten or twenty dollars per order, that gap is a hard gap to fill. I don’t care who you are. That is a hard gap. Because when I make that ten or twenty dollars I have a choice. Do I take this and put it back into the business to drum up more business? Or do I pay the rent,” Daye said.