'Black And Brown Investing': A Wash Heights Resident Creation

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — Upper Manhattan native and Washington Heights resident Francisco had a group chat with his friends to discuss finance and stock options.

It's an experience not uncommon for people across the United States, but it's what the conversation among friends inspired Francisco to create that's unique.

Francisco is the founder of the "Black and Brown Investing" Facebook group, a page he created in September 2020 that has grown to over 1,700 members.

The page's description reads, "This group is about financial and investing literacy. We are here to share tips, post articles relating to investing and other financial opportunities. We are here because we want to grow generational wealth within the Black and Hispanic community."

The page has nearly 20 posts a day, helps organize Black and Hispanic guest speakers with expertise in finance, and shares a wealth of different stock and portfolio tips.

"For years we have been trying to infiltrate Wall Street just to get access, unsuccessfully for the most part," Francisco told Patch about the relationship between communities of color and the financial world. "I wanted to create a community where we had access to this information and we share info with each other from all parts of the country."

While the group's membership is not bound by any neighborhood or location, the lifelong Washington Heights resident made it clear that the Upper Manhattan community played a huge part in the group's origin and success.

"I went into the Washington Heights and Inwood groups we have on Facebook to promote this new group, so we have a lot of residents, a lot of Latinos, Black folks, who live in Washington Heights," Francisco said. "And a lot of them are experts, and really have helped navigate the new group."

Francisco didn't exactly expect such a positive and engaged reaction towards the Black and Brown Investing group.

"The enthusiasm I was taken aback by it. I thought we might top off at a couple of hundred people, but when we got to 1,500, then 1,600, it was a wow moment," he told Patch.

More than anything, Francisco emphasized that the group shows that different types of people need to be let into the "Wall Street boys club."

"It is people of color coming together in finance, which starts the whole financial literacy conversation as well," Francisco told Patch. "I think this group shows that more Black and Brown folks need to be let into this huge Wall Street boys club, especially the women – I'm noticing a lot of the women are really enthusiastic and make really good observations when it comes to the market."

You can find the Black and Brown Investment group here.