Michelle Singletary On Dispelling Misconceptions About Race

Michelle Singletary, nationally syndicated personal finance columnist at the Washington Post, said she faced a lot of questions about her credentials when she was first hired. So she pulled her editor aside and asked him point blank, was she hired because she’s Black? The answer her editor gave herShe was, but like all things, it’s more complicated.

“I hired you because you’re Black, I hired you because you’re young. I hired you because you were raised in a low income household so you know what it means not to have a lot of money. I hired you because you have a Masters’ Degree,’” Singletary recalled her editor telling her. “He said ‘I hired you for the totality of who you are,’ ... I get teared up now when I think about it, because he said ‘I didn’t want you to run away from your Blackness.’”

That’s where Singletary’s latest series, Sincerely Michelle, starts: affirmative action. Part memoir, part history lesson, the series breaks down misconceptions about race and finance through letters to readers.

She tackles reparations, misconceptions about Black people and their investment in education, criticisms about the way people of color spend their money, and so much more about the Black American experience.

“I wanted to write these letters to let people know there are people behind these statistics,” she said. “I get that you don’t understand this, so let me walk you through this stuff, let me put it in context so that we can have a candid conversation and try to fix these things.”

Reflecting on 2020 — a year filled with protest for racial equality and police reform against the backdrop of a deadly pandemic — Singletary said she has hope that America is ready to have the tough conversations that are necessary for change.

Singletary said the comments section on her columns were turned off, because of racist messages, but she left her email for people to reach out.

“Some of the things I received were so vile, and so horrible that I cannot imagine that it’s 2020 and people still think this way,” she said. “There were days, I just sat at my desk, slumped, and cried, like ‘I cannot believe you think I’m so different because of the color of my skin.’”

But, Singletary said she also received comments from white Americans thanking her for making their own micro-aggressions and racism clear to them, and helping to start conversations about race.

“So, I actually do have some hope.”

Michelle Singletary is personal finance columnist for the Washington Post. Author of "The 21 Day Financial Fast." Her column "The Color of Money" is syndicated in newspapers across the country.