What is black Tax and where does it come from?
Firstly, we need to know what black tax is to understand the situation individuals find themselves in, in the black tax community. According to R. Carpenter (2021) black tax is associated with the financial burden that black professional South Africans must pay to take care of their less fortunate families and extended families every single month despite their own living expenses, this black tax is often a result of economic imbalance that was caused by apartheid.
There is an expectation that this young individual must support their families and mainly because they are even taken to universities so that they can work and then payback by supporting the family financially. There is a huge debate concerning this community and there’s also divided opinions of whether supporting families is a burden or an act of “Ubuntu.”
How did this community come into existence?
Black Tax came into existence because of the apartheid system, the way blacks were treated during the apartheid era deprived them the opportunity to build a legacy or create generational wealth. Apartheid caused poor family structures and our parents were not really given the opportunity to go to school or learn how to create wealth for themselves as well as their families. they were only seen as laborers.
Personally I think black tax can either be a burden or an act of “UBUNTU” depending on the situation, it is a burden if you are forced to provide financially to in order to help siblings maintain a certain lifestyle, “a lavish lifestyle so that they can impress their friends or having to pay for everything the parents want and not need so that they can appear in a certain way around their area.
The parents most often they do things to impress their neighbours, so they expect you to buy them whatever they want or build them a big house that appears better than their neighbours house, not taking into consideration of whether you can afford to do that or not. When you can’t provide what they want they blackmail you emotionally, they tell you how they had to break their backs for you to further your studies and in return take care of them.it feels as if like you are indebted to them because they took, you to school and they took care of you.
Black tax an also be an act of UBUNTU if you are taking care of your family because you know that they need financial help but, yet they never demand what is beyond your control, it becomes a responsibility when you know that your sibling needs money for tuition fees or your parents need money for medications, groceries and emergencies. You end up doing it because you love them, and you want what is best for them knowing very well that at the end of the day you allowed your siblings to a better education so that they can also have a better future. Giving your family an opportunity to a better future is not a burden especially if they not demanding anything from you.
There are a lot of opinions on this topic, sometimes it also causes divisions amongst people because they view it differently. Below are opinions i found from different people regarding black tax.
“Taking care of a parent and siblings makes me proud of myself. Those who feel like its black tax…Being able to provide for them is a rare privilege, I can never trade it for anything. #Blacktax” @Alice Tsungu (Twitter,14 Dec 2020)
“Black Tax, the tax beneficiaries keep expanding by the day and each one of them in their little corner think they are the only one asking for help. When you add up the contribution you make to different people, its billions, Sigh. #Blacktax” @Django (twitter, 18 May 2022)
Who makes up this community?
This community consists of every individual who is forced to provide for their families and extended families, people believe that black tax only affects African people only, but truth is it affects people of all races, those who give financial assistance to their families.
in an article by Gugu on News24 she stated that” there is no such thing as black tax reason being that a person does not get taxed for being black and that it is generally for everyone because taking care of families financially is not unique to black people only and also not unique to the working and middle class individuals and those who are not in the top 1%.(Gugu 2015).
This individuals are usually referred to as the “sandwich generation” reason being that they are referenced as the wedge between their parents (which are a the generation before them) as well as their children(which are a generation after them)
The state shows that 28% of South Africans provide for their families and every year the percentage goes up by 2%
How others view this community
People view this community with sadness and pity reason being that the individuals who are paying black tax don’t get to build their own generational wealth and by the time they retire they haven’t done anything for themselves which now means their children must now take care of them so instead of creating generational wealth they are creating generational poverty. The friends of those who are in this community always stressed about them because they can’t even live their lives they get stuck in one ace while them on the other side are busy progressing and it ends up looking like they are leaving them behind.
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