In a One-on-One Interview with the Grambling Connection, Master P goes into detail on why he thinks re-programming black youth on Financial Literacy will help alleviate poverty in the black community
What adjective has not been used to describe this visionary and forward-thinking man. Iconic, legendary, trailblazer, mogul, business leader, philanthropist and the list goes on. First, he conquered the music industry with groundbreaking deals and millions of records in sales, then he continued his massive success into fashion, film, sports and even the food industry via brands like, Rap Snacks and Hooty Hoos and, most recent, his healthy line of foods from his company, Miller Family Foods. But some of the work he’s most proud of and passionate about has been his work with black youth and education, especially when it comes to teaching them about financial empowerment.
After delivering his keynote speech at Grambling State University’s Fall Commencement on Friday, December 13, 2024, Dr. Percy “Master P” Miller sat down with The Grambling Connection to answer a few questions and dish further on some of the things he said during his speech about black youth and education.
GC: So, you gave a very inspiring speech today to the students, and I just wanted to find out from you, why do you think it’s important for black youth to go to college?
Master P: Well, I mean, you look at the percentage that we’re sending our black youth to prison, and they’re building prisons for us. Why not send us to college [instead]? And, I told that to the kids today, if you could give five to ten years of your life, and then have to start over after going to prison, why not give four years to education, and be able to make the right decisions and choices, because life is about choices. And if you don’t have the education, then how can you make the right choices?
GC: Because of your entrepreneurial accomplishments, do you think there needs to be more entrepreneurial education added to college curriculums?
Master P: Yeah, and that’s what I’ve been talking to the president over here at Grambling about. We want to build these types of facilities to be able to prepare African American kids the way other cultures prepare their kids. You look at some of these colleges… We were just talking about how Elon Musk created PayPal while in college. What are we doing?
Think about it… So, we need the resources in these HBCUs, to be able to be at that level to have corporations finance startup plans for these kids to build their own companies while they’re in college.
And so, I was talking to David [Aubrey] from AT&T saying, maybe we need to go at these people to be able to get some type of funding so we can have these entrepreneurs create these dreams and visions and bring them to life while they’re in college.
So, think about [how] the most successful people that we have, when you look at these Fortune 500 companies… when you look at African American CEOs of these Fortune 500 companies, make up a tenth of one percent. So, how can we help or give to our community and our people when we’re already outnumbered?
And when you talk about black billionaires [in this country], we could count them on one hand.
GC: Since you work with a lot of youth programs. are any of your programs doing that kind of work?
Master P: Yes, so I have TeamHopeFoundation.org, and we go into the middle schools and high schools and we teach financial literacy.And we started realizing that we need to start doing it at a young age. So, think about it, at seven years old, these other cultures are already building credit for their kids.
[Black people} just think about the money but when we talk about financial literacy, you got to have a plan and a purpose. So, it’s not about the money, it’s about the ideas.The ideas are going to bring the money, and that’s what we’re teaching. Well, that’s what we’re programming the next generation to do, because we have to reprogram the next generation.
GC: So, what would be the best advice you would give kids starting out who are interested in pursuing the entrepreneurial path?
Master P: So, I think now… actually going online, studying, trying to figure out what financial literacy is. Because a lot of our kids go on these computers and they grabbing the wrong stuff. But imagine if you really understand what money is. A lot of kids don’t even know what’s on the dollar bill. They don’t know who’s the president. All they know is they want some money but they need to know what banking is about, why it’s so important to have different tax shelters and stuff like that.
Nobody teaches us that. Think about most of us, the first time we get money, we lose it, because we don’t have the education to keep it. And, so, I think that we start programming our kids younger on understanding how the banking system works.
So that’s what we started doing. We started teaching kids. We also talk about real estate now.
GC: So, what would you say to the parents who are raising these young African-American kids:
Master P: So, I’m saying let’s invest into our kids’ financial literacy. Once we start talking and communicating to them about it, then our kids are able to say, `Oh, I understand that.’
GC: Ok so they are trying to wrap us up so we’ll end this here but this has been very enlightening and thank you for your time.
Master P: Thank you.
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Master P Interview
Caption: Co-Publisher/Editor Lena Claybon and Dr. Percy “Master P” Miller