I am tired of hearing people talk about Black folks like we are collectively standing outside Gucci every payday waiting to blow the rent money.

According to some people, we don’t pay bills. We don’t buy groceries. We don’t pay rent, mortgages, utilities, car insurance, phone bills, medical expenses, transportation costs, or take care of children.

Apparently, we just buy Jordans and designer bags.

Please.

Most Black people spend their money the same way most working people spend their money: trying to live.

Housing eats up a huge chunk of the average household budget. Then there’s food. Transportation. Utilities. Healthcare. Childcare. Insurance. Debt. Household supplies. Clothes. And all the other little expenses that quietly nickel-and-dime your ass to death every month.

But nobody sees those things.

Nobody sees your ComEd bill.

Nobody sees the grocery receipt.

Nobody sees the $187 car insurance payment or the prescription you had to pick up.

Nobody sees the school supplies you bought for your children or the money you slipped your grown child because they were short this week.

But everybody can see your shoes.

And therein lies the problem.

Visible consumption gets mistaken for financial irresponsibility.

Somebody sees a Black woman carrying a Coach purse and suddenly they know her entire financial history. Somebody sees a Black man wearing Jordans and suddenly he’s the reason Black America doesn’t have generational wealth.

Meanwhile, nobody knows whether that purse came from an outlet, whether those shoes were bought on sale, whether they were a birthday gift, or whether that person saved for six months to buy them.

And frankly, even if somebody occasionally buys themselves something nice, what the hell is wrong with that?

Poor and working-class people are allowed to experience pleasure.

Black people are allowed to own something beautiful without submitting a financial statement to the public.

The larger issue is that Black Americans generally have less household wealth to begin with. So when housing, food, transportation, healthcare, and other necessities take their cut, there’s often less money left over to save and invest.

That is a very different problem from simply saying, “Black people don’t know how to manage money.”

That’s lazy.

And it ignores history, wages, employment discrimination, housing discrimination, inherited wealth, neighborhood investment, and the enormous advantage of having parents or grandparents who can hand you money for college, a down payment, or an emergency.

But somehow all of that gets reduced to:

“Y’all buy too many shoes.”

Lord have mercy.

I’m not saying Black folks don’t waste money. Of course we do.

We’re human.

Some of us make terrible financial decisions. Some of us spend too much. Some of us have credit-card debt. Some of us buy shit we absolutely do not need.

Welcome to America.

But the idea that reckless consumerism is some uniquely Black character flaw has always rubbed me the wrong way.

Most Black people aren’t walking around living some extravagant lifestyle.

They’re going to work.

They’re paying rent.

They’re feeding families.

They’re keeping the lights on.

They’re buying gas.

They’re paying bills.

They’re trying to save a little something if there’s anything left.

And maybe—just maybe—they bought a nice pair of shoes along the way.

The shoes are simply the part you can see.