What is Generational Stability?
To lack generational stability means that a group of people has been consistently targeted or manipulated over time, preventing them from accumulating the assets and resources necessary to build lasting wealth across generations.
When you look at communities such as European descendants, many have the privilege of making decisions—like walking away from relationships or responsibilities—because they have financial safety nets. These choices, while disruptive, don’t destabilize their lives or family structures in the same way they might in communities without that foundation. Generational wealth allows for emotional decisions without economic collapse.
This kind of stability is often missing in Black communities—not due to a lack of intelligence or effort, but because of deeply embedded systems of oppression. Practices like redlining, discriminatory lending, and employment discrimination have historically blocked Black families from accessing home ownership, fair wages, and inheritance opportunities. As of recent studies, the median wealth of White households in the U.S. is nearly eight times that of Black households.
For example, some Black women who align with feminist movements—though not all—may be unknowingly influenced by ideologies that don’t reflect the realities of their lives. Feminism, as largely shaped by White women, operates within a different set of social conditions. When White women separate from their partners, they are often supported by familial networks, institutional safety nets, or inherited wealth. Black women are more likely to be left without the same cushion, tasked with rebuilding from scratch while carrying community obligations.
This is not just about economics—it’s cultural. In many Black communities, there are multigenerational households, aunties raising nieces, grandmothers raising grandchildren. There is a deep ethic of care, but without matching financial infrastructure, the emotional labor becomes a silent cost. Meanwhile, dominant systems reward individualism, making collective caregiving appear burdensome or backward.
If we continue to follow leadership rooted in White frameworks, we may misunderstand our own path. The hardships we face are not primarily due to conflict between Black men and women—or even between Black and White women. They are rooted in systemic racial oppression upheld by legal, financial, and social structures controlled historically by White men.
That’s why womanism, as coined by Alice Walker, matters. It emerged as a framework to reflect the experiences of Black women who exist at the intersections of race, gender, and class. Womanism honors our cultural realities—our spirituality, our community care, our resistance, and our joy.
To move forward, we must advocate for sustainable, culturally grounded solutions that empower Black communities to build and sustain our own systems of success. That includes reclaiming our narratives, reinvesting in cooperative economics, creating land trusts, expanding access to culturally competent education, and reviving ancestral practices of healing and decision-making.
We don’t need permission. We need aligned vision, sacred intention, and communal support.
With love,
Sunumi
