🕒 3 min read

By Myrin New | TechMorsels

If you’ve ever felt like the road to wealth has more potholes than progress, you’re not alone — and you’re not imagining it. As someone who’s worked at the intersection of technology, entrepreneurship, and development for years, I’ve come to understand that income potential isn’t just about skill — it’s also about structural access.

How much you earn is deeply influenced by who the system is designed to benefit.

Let me break it down with something I call the “Income Opportunity Index.” It’s a simple but telling way to look at earning potential on a 0–100 scale, where 100 reflects the highest systemic access to economic success — think generational wealth, financial services, hiring networks, and promotion pipelines. Here’s how that looks for different relationship groups in the U.S.:

Relative Income Potential Index

Relationship Type Income Score (0–100) Context

• White Couple 100
  The benchmark — greatest access to capital, credit, legacy networks, and corporate trust.
• Interracial Couple 75–85
  Access varies depending on the racial makeup. Often treated with curiosity or coded scrutiny in professional and social settings.
• Black Couple 55–65
  Still pushing against historic barriers: redlining, wage suppression, underfunded education, and institutional exclusion.

And Where Do I Fit?

As a single Black male in business, I exist in that third category — and I feel it. Even with a proven track record, high-level credentials, and a network I’ve built brick by brick, I’ve been in rooms where I needed to prove my expertise three times before being heard once.

But here’s the twist: I also know the power of potential partnership. I’ve seen how couples — especially those who bring complementary skills and shared economic goals — can transcend individual limitations. Whether it’s dual incomes, emotional support, or just having someone else to challenge the system with you, partnership becomes a multiplier.

I’m not defined by these stats, but I respect them. Because until we name these patterns, we can’t design against them. And as a technologist, that’s what I live for — reverse-engineering broken systems and building better ones.

So What Can We Do?

• Acknowledge the gap: The numbers aren’t personal, they’re patterns. Recognizing systemic disparity is the first step to changing it.
• Push for equitable tech funding: Support Black founders, creators, and platforms with real capital, not just talk.
• Design inclusive AI and systems: Build tools that level the field, not replicate bias.
  Normalize success in all shades: Representation matters — in the boardroom, classroom, and on every screen.
• Let’s use data, experience, and a bit of truth-telling to transform opportunity for everyone. Because when one group is held back, we all pay the cost in innovation, creativity, and community strength.

Whether I walk this path solo or with a future partner, I know the road forward isn’t just about income. It’s about impact.