WNBA: Angel Reese models what it means to close the racial wealth gap

Angel Reese gave her mother Angel Webb Reese the best birthday present

On Thursday, the Chicago Sky and Rose BC forward surprised her mother on her podcast, Unapologetically Angel, by announcing she paid off her mother’s mortgage, and added that she never has to work again.

“You said if your mortgage was paid off, you would retire…So, your mortgage today has been paid,” Reese said. “Your mortgage is paid, and you don’t have to work anymore.” The news brought tears to her mother’s eyes and reflects the tight bond the two share, which Angel has spoken about at length on numerous occasions.

Reese’s gift to her mother not only the is greatest thing a child could ever do for their parent, but it also constitutes a touchtone moment in helping to rectify the longstanding problem of the racial wealth gap in America.

The racial wealth gap is the wealth disparity between Black households and white households that persists due various factors, including discriminatory practices in housing such as redlining, lack of access to high-wage employment, inadequate educational opportunities, low educational attainment, racial bias in lending practices and home appraisals, mass incarceration and the historical legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

Research from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis found that Black families own $1 million less in wealth than white families, with the same being true for Hispanic families. In other words, Black families own 23 cents for every $1 of white family wealth, while Hispanic families own 19 cents for every $1. Another study from the Urban Institute found that Black women own 90 percent less wealth than white men.

Since coming into the WNBA, Reese has used her platform to shine a light on this issue. She has partnered with Goldman Sachs’ One Million Black Women (OMBW) campaign, including a cutting a commercial featuring her mother.

Her Angel C. Reese Foundation provides programs on financial literacy, including partnering with Cash App’s “That’s Money” campaign. Reese’s endorsements with Reebok and Reese’s Puffs, in addition to the recent announcement that she will be the first woman athlete with a McDonald’s signature meal, will allow her to gain more wealth.

In fully paying off her mother’s home, Reese is relieving her family of any further debt accumulation, which would have hampered their ability to build wealth. Now, Reese, on the cusp of her second WNBA season while flourishing in Unrivaled, is making the most of her marquee value. She is not waiting to cement her legacy and secure her family.

However, just because Reese was able to close the gap in her family, her individual success should not be an excuse to not examine and address the structural impediments that prevent other Black and non-white families from accumulating generational wealth. This deep-seated societal inequity must be solved with better legislation and policies.

The great civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hammer once said, “Nobody is free until everyone is free.” That mantra applies here. Angel Reese and her family are free financially, but many other families are not. Through her foundation and other initiatives, she is working to ensure that others can be freer, too.