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Minority finance: What Andrew Yang, marijuana, and cashless restaurants have in common

“Andrew Yang with attendees” by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Minority finance: What Andrew Yang, marijuana, and cashless restaurants have in common

I’ve been observing how financial literacy for minorities is presented in the media.

If you’re interested in why I chose to follow this topic, check out last week’s post, How is financial literacy for minorities presented in the media?

What’s the goal this week? Find four parcels of media relating to minority financial literacy and determine if they are news, opinion, or analysis.

The pickings were slim for current and relevant news, but here’s what I found…

In Colorado, regulators are pushing for social equity in the medical marijuana industry. The Denver Post published, What is social equity in Colorado’s cannabis industry? Regulators look to level the playing field for marginalized communities.

If you’re not sure how social equity is related to the cannabis industry I’d suggest that you read the above article first and then check out this one written by yours truly back in 2015.

TLDR?

“In many ways the imagery doesn’t sit right. Here are white men poised to run big marijuana businesses, dreaming of cashing in big—big money, big businesses selling weed—after 40 years of impoverished black kids getting prison time for selling weed, and their families and futures destroyed. Now, white men are planning to get rich doing precisely the same thing?” – Michelle Alexander attorney and author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. (Source)

The verdict? ANALYSIS, CREDIBLE.

      • The article explains what’s happening and why making it an analysis.
      • The author’s opinion is not present.
      • The Denver Post makes its ethics policy available to the public.
      • Article links to several reputable sources to support claims.
      • The author is named. She has a degree in journalism from Southern Methodist University and according to her bio covers the “Colorado cannabis industry, including marijuana and hemp policy and reform, market trends, and entertainment.”
      • Readers can contact the author via Twitter and email.

Next, I shifted to the Presidential candidate’s economic plans for minorities. I found Andrew Yang poised and shining in the following video: Andrew Yang talks stereotypes, economic policies at dinner with voters ABC News.

In the 20-minute video, Yang sits down for dinner with ABC’s Linsey Davis and three undecided voters to answer their questions. Of course, Yang discusses his Freedom Dividend and how he believes it will alleviate the physical and mental stresses of poverty, create jobs, and stimulate local economies.

The verdict? NEWS, CREDIBLE. 

      • ABC shares what happened without analysis or interpretation, making it news. Viewers are free to watch the video and draw their own conclusions from the discussion.
      • Linsey Davis is a correspondent for ABC news with an extensive body of work listed in her bio. Davis holds a degree in psychology from the University of Virginia and a Master of Arts degree in communications from New York University.
      • Readers can contact the author via Facebook, Twitter, and email.
      • Andrew Yang and the citizens in the footage are sharing their opinions, but ABC is sharing the video as news without their opinion, Davis remains neutral in the conversation.
      • Slightly concerning – I could not easily locate ABC’s ethics policy online.

I also discovered that Dave Chappelle endorses Andrew Yang for president: ‘I’m Yang Gang!’.

If you’d like to know why Dave Chappelle endorsed Yang and how it’s related to financial literacy for minorities read, ‘Health insurance is great, but groceries are necessary too’: Dave Chappelle champions Andrew Yang’s Universal Basic Income at Iowa appearance.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B77WDy8Hvxj/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

The verdict? NEWS, CREDIBLE.  

      • Again, this article feature on Business Insider reports what happened without attempting to explain why it happened or what it means.
      • The author is the Senior Politics Reporter at Business Insider and holds degrees in History from St. Mary’s College of Maryland and an MSc in International Relations from the University of Glasgow according to his bio.
      • Readers can contact the author via Twitter.
      • The Business Insider makes its ethics policy available to readers.

Last, but not least: How Cashless Restaurants Reinforce Systemic Racism

The author shares a single experience with cashless restaurants as an introduction to legislation banning cashless businesses. The article explains how minority communities are under-banked with less access to debit and credit cards and therefore excluded from patronizing cashless businesses.

The verdict? OPINION, DO YOU RESEARCH.  

      • GQ is not a go-to source for financial news.
      • The author’s bio is brief without contact information; links to a page of his other work for GQ, but does not provide information about the author’s qualifications.
      • The author shares personal experiences and uses ambiguous language. Describing urban neighborhoods as, “the hip ones where stores boast Uber pick-up stations and iPad cash-registers.”
      • Read an opinion on the other side of the same topic HERE, both make good points.

What access you’ve had to news and media about financial literacy in the past few weeks? Who are your go-to sources for financial literacy and news? Feel free to share them in the comments.

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