Read – https://deadline.com/gallery/maxxed-out-premiere-date-trailer-photos-own/
Watching an episode it wasn’t clear if the show repairs finances of broke people or becomes a humiliation ritual of toxic expectations Black families experience when coping with the generational “Black Tax.”
The Black Tax, is the added expense Black individuals and community members endure to supplement the ongoing racial inequality, ignorance, and envy that results in limited wealth-building and sustainable mindsets for economic stability. For those who “make it” they’re often required to help cover essentials like rent, school fees, medical bills, or food for others in the family. But also guilt tripped into financial servitude based on attitudes of others.
Maybe the “Black Tax” might have been too charged of a show name but Maxxed out doesn’t seem to highlight the root cause in Black financial security. IYKYK, sometimes financial struggles aren’t simply bad financially management. It can sometimes blend into religious, gender conditioning, mental exhaustion, and even spiritual binds that can mess up a bag. And Amazon boxes trigger a war.
While the season is only a few episodes in, watching episode 2 for example, it wasn’t a young woman struggling with finances and her mother covering her expenses, it showed that there might be a spiritual bind with far too much bad luck happening to one person at such a young age, and the daughter just throwing her hands in the air to cope. Everyone was struggling except the mother. There also appeared to be something deeper going on with daughter and husband visibly scared of the mother in the family.
Black generational struggles with money is sometimes deeper than budgeting. There are variables most cultures don’t have to deal with such as physical, mental, ego, and spiritual levels that the Black community has to endure more than simply fixing a line item veto.
So if you want to learn how f’up people can mess up a bag, an unusual amount of bad incidents occuring, or learn how ego burdens a family, watch. There might even be some good planning nuggets but, don’t expect lessons on how to protect yourself holistically when bad habits or events dictate mindsets.
It’s always good to improve financial literacy but the fact is, uncontrollable factors are systemically at play. Overall Black income is a lot deeper than “bad decisions” to adjust for Black economic stability.